Waiting For Superman

The Sundance award-winning documentary "Waiting for Superman" chronicles the efforts to improve America's education system. In this Participant Media Guide, leading educational reformers explore how to fix our broken public school system.

For the past six years, Whitney Dafoe has been confined to a bedroom in the back of his parents' home, unable to walk, eat or speak. His diagnosis? The mysterious disease myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) which affects 20 million people around the world who largely suffer in silence because the condition is little known and much misunderstood. Waiting for Superman follows Whitney's father, groundbreaking geneticist Ron Davis, as he uncovers new possibilities for treatments and potentially a cure. At its heart, this book is about more than just cutting-edge research or a race to find an answer - it's about the lengths to which a parent will go to save their child's life.

In Finding Superman, some of the most prominent educational thinkers of our time examine the pressing issues of educational equity and excellence brought to light in Davis Guggenheim's popular documentary, Waiting for Superman. The film's portrayal of urban public schools as uniform failures and charter schools as the only viable alternative for our nation's youth demands a closer look. Across the chapters of this important book, the contributors reveal the film's untold stories. These include the many public schools that are doing an excellent job of educating students, as well as the many charter schools that are doing no better than most public schools, despite their monetary advantages.

The American public education system is in crisis. Millions of students attend """"failure factories"""" that produce more drop-outs than graduates; millions more attend """"nice"""" schools that mask mediocre achievement. The U.S.'s reading and math scores stagnate and even fall behind, while other countries continue to advance. But many are working to reinvent this system. The film Waiting for Superman, directed by An Inconvenient Truth's Davis Guggenheim, chronicles these efforts through the interlocking stories of a handful of students and families searching for alternatives, and of reformers proving that all kids can learn. Expanding on the film's arguments, the book Waiting for Superman explores politically charged topics through a series of essays by thinkers at the leading edge of educational innovation. It shows how failing schools destroy neighborhoods - not the reverse - and how research reveals that dedicated, attentive teachers are what help at-risk kids succeed. With candor, poignancy, and hope, this book encourages those inspired by the film to join the battle to save American education and our children's future.

In 'Making Kids Cleverer: A manifesto for closing the advantage gap', David Didau reignites the nature vs. nurture debate around intelligence and offers research-informed guidance on how teachers can help their students acquire a robust store of knowledge and skills that is both powerful and useful. Foreword by Paul A. Kirschner. Given the choice, who wouldn't want to be cleverer? What teacher wouldn't want this for their students, and what parent wouldn't wish it for their children? When David started researching this book, he thought the answers to the above were obvious. But it turns out that the very idea of measuring and increasing children's intelligence makes many people extremely uncomfortable: If some people were more intelligent, where would that leave those of us who weren't? The question of whether or not we can get cleverer is a crucial one. If you believe that intelligence is hereditary and environmental effects are trivial, you may be sceptical. But environment does matter, and it matters most for children from the most socially disadvantaged backgrounds those who not only have the most to gain, but who are also the ones most likely to gain from our efforts to make all kids cleverer. And one thing we can be fairly sure will raise children's intelligence is sending them to school. In this wide-ranging enquiry into psychology, sociology, philosophy and cognitive science, David argues that with greater access to culturally accumulated information taught explicitly within a knowledge-rich curriculum children are more likely to become cleverer, to think more critically and, subsequently, to live happier, healthier and more secure lives.;Furthermore, by sharing valuable insights into what children truly need to learn during their formative school years, he sets out the numerous practical ways in which policy makers and school leaders can make better choices about organising schools, and how teachers can communicate the knowledge that will make the most difference to young people as effectively and efficiently as possible. David underpins his discussion with an exploration of the evolutionary basis for learning and also untangles the forms of practice teachers should be engaging their students in to ensure that they are acquiring expertise, not just consolidating mistakes and misconceptions.There are so many competing suggestions as to how we should improve education that knowing how to act can seem an impossible challenge. Once you have absorbed the arguments in this book, however, David hopes you will find the simple question that he asks himself whenever he encounters new ideas and initiatives Will this make children cleverer? as useful as he does.;Suitable for teachers, school leaders, policy makers and anyone involved in educations

Each book includes a 15 gift card from DonorsChoose.org to give to a classroom in need. The American public school system is in crisis, failing millions of students, producing as many drop-outs as graduates, and threatening our economic future. By 2020, the United States will have 123 million high-skill jobs to fill—and fewer than 50 million Americans qualified to fill them. Educators, parents, political leaders, business people, and concerned citizens are determined to save our educational system. Waiting for "Superman" offers powerful insights from some of those at the leading edge of educational innovation, including Bill and Melinda Gates, Michelle Rhee, Geoffrey Canada, and more. Waiting for "Superman" is an inspiring call for reform and includes special chapters that provide resources, ideas, and hands-on suggestions for improving the schools in your own community as well as throughout the nation. For parents, teachers, and concerned citizens alike, Waiting for "Superman" is an essential guide to the issues, challenges, and opportunities facing America’s schools.

Teachers are the most important determinant of the quality of schools. We should be doing everything we can to help them get better. In recent years, however, a cocktail of box-ticking demands, ceaseless curriculum reform, disruptive reorganisations and an audit culture that requires teachers to document their every move, have left the profession deskilled and demoralised. Instead of rolling out the red carpet for teachers, we have been pulling it from under their feet. The result is predictable: there is now a cavernous gap between the quantity and quality of teachers we need, and the reality in our schools. In this book, Rebecca Allen and Sam Sims draw on the latest research from economics, psychology and education to explain where the gap came from and how we can close it again. Including interviews with current and former teachers, as well as end-of-chapter practical guidance for schools, The Teacher Gap sets out how we can better recruit, train and retain the next generation of teachers. At the heart of the book is a simple message: we need to give teachers a career worth having.

A Father, His Son, and an Unrelenting Quest for a Cure At the age of twenty-seven, Whitney Dafoe was forced to give up his life as a photographer who traveled the world. Bit by bit a mysterious illness stole away the pieces of his life: First, it took the strength of his legs, then his voice, and his ability to eat. Finally, even the sound of a footstep in his room became unbearable. The Puzzle Solver follows several years in which he desperately sought answers from specialist after specialist, where at one point his 6'3" frame dropped to 115 lbs. For years, he underwent endless medical tests, but doctors told him there was nothing wrong. Then, finally, a diagnosis: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis. In the 80s, when an outbreak of people immobilized by an indescribable fatigue were reported near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, doctors were at a loss to explain the symptoms. The condition would alternatively be nicknamed Raggedy Ann Syndrome or the Yuppie Disease, and there was no cure or answers about treatment. They were to remain sick. But there was one answer: Whitney's father, Ron Davis, PhD, a world-class geneticist at Stanford University whose legendary research helped crack the code of DNA, suddenly changed the course of his career in a race against time to cure his son's debilitating condition. In The Puzzle Solver, journalist Tracie White, who first wrote a viral and award-winning piece on Davis and his family in Stanford Medicine, tells his story. In gripping prose, she masterfully takes readers along on this journey with Davis to solve one of the greatest mysteries in medicine. In a piercing investigative narrative, closed doors are opened, and masked truths are exposed as Davis uncovers new proof confirming that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a biological disease. At the heart of this book is a moving story that goes far beyond medicine, this is a story about how the power of love -- and science -- can shine light in even the darkest, most hidden, corners of the world.