Waiting for Superman

On Saturday I participated in an event hosted by my local school district. There was a special viewing of the Davis Guggenheim documentary, "Waiting for Superman" hosted by the district. After the film, a group of panelists congregated to discuss issues related to education in our school district. I was asked to be the parent representative on the panel. I was joined by our Superintendent, Dr. David Doty, Jim Wall who is currently with the Deseret News but will take the reigns at the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce in November, Tony Romanello who is a teacher and the president of the Canyons Education Association, and Paul Edwards who is the Deseret News Editorial Page Editor (and prior to that was the Provost at Southern Virginia University).

Picture of the Panel: Dr. Doty, Jim Wall, Tony Romanello, Me, Paul Edwards

I asked Dean to use the tripod to get a clear pic in bad light, but this is the best shot he took.

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I became acquainted with Dr. Doty and members of his staff during a PTA training day last year. Since that time, we've kept up on Twitter, Facebook and the occasional in person meeting for activities related to our schools. I was quite honored to be asked to contribute to the discussion; local education is a topic that is quite close to my heart.

If you haven't seen the film, take the chance to do so. While it is a documentary, everyone has an angle. I'm a big connoisseur of documentaries, but even I recognize that often times they are created to promote personal or political agendas. So, be aware of that fact.

The film follows five children in their quest to better their education through a charter school lottery process. Intertwined are features on Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone Project and Michelle Rhee, now the former Chancellor of the DC Schools. The problems are complex, and this film focuses on some of the most needy school systems in our country. While there is not necessarily a direct correlation to the problems that in Utah, some thematic topics apply and provide a platform to further the discussion.

Here is a list of questions we were provided in advance:

• What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the schools in our community?
• How have these challenges impacted our schools?
• What do you think are our greatest strengths, both inside and outside our schools, for dealing with these problems?
• What is an “excellent school?” How can we (teachers, parents, administrators, business leaders, community members) work together to ensure all schools are excellent?
• What are we doing now to support student success? Collectively, how can we improve and expand these efforts?
• What keeps some parents from becoming more involved in our schools? What can we do to change that?

There are some themes that naturally developed from the Q&A. In no particular order of importance, the following were identified as issues for our local schools.
Funding. Raw numbers, percentages and statistics can all be deceiving. Utah is known for having one of the lowest funded per-pupil rate in the country, but what impact does our rate of funding have on teaching and learning?
I actually led with funding as the biggest challenge facing our schools. Let me tell you why. When we lived downtown and I went to my first ever back to school night with Bradley and Mariah, I was stunned when we were asked throughout the night to fund everything from Kleenex and paper to field trips to periodicals. I sat with my mouth agape that teachers would request such fundamental items. I asked Mariah's 4th Grade teacher, "Have you ever lived anywhere else? This is not normal to ask parents for money like this. Why don't you have budget to cover these things?" Welcome to my introduction the the Utah public school system.
I was so fired up...I mean really fired up. Since the Governor lived in my neighborhood, I told Dean that he needed to drop me off at the Mansion where I planned on knocking on the door until someone answered.....and demanding to know what he planned on doing about public education funding. The Governor at the time was Mike Leavitt. I refrained from an activity which would have surely landed me in the Salt Lake County Jail, but my anger and frustration did not subside, nor has it to this day.
In addition to funding basic classroom supplies, our teachers can have classroom sizes that approach 35-40 learners. Research tells us that teaching and learning can be most effective with smaller classroom sizes. The systemic problem of increasing classroom sizes is directly related to our ability to fund teachers and the facilities to support those smaller classes.
During our Q&A two teachers spoke up about funding (although they didn't call it that). One woman mentioned that she carried excessive student loan debt from the pursuit of an advanced education aimed at helping her advance in her profession. Another young teacher proclaimed that he was going to move out of the country to teach for a few years to accumulate money. (He didn't specify exactly why he needed to accumulate money, but he did mention that his current salary was insufficient.) The same woman who discussed student loan debt spoke about unpaid time spent after school assisting students.
I believe that good teachers should be compensated for excellence in teaching. That requires funding.
Funding is a big issue. I don't suggest that I have all of the answers, and I definitely don't recommend throwing money at a problem to presume that this alone will make a problem better. However, more discretionary funds at the local level could help empower schools to make decisions that will be in the best interest of educators and students.
Accountability. In the documentary, there is much emphasis placed on incompetent teachers. Tony mentioned that it was unfair to place the onus on teachers and that parents and students also need to be held accountable for student success. I couldn't agree more!


We hold our kids' to a pretty high standard (they feel abused, but I assure them that it is out of love that we try so hard influence and encourage their success). Parent involvement matters. Parents need to be informed about what is going on with their student, and a parent must be willing to do whatever it takes. Trust me. I had so many struggles with my step-son. From the time he hit 7th grade all the way through his Senior year, it was a battle. We tracked his grades, emailed teachers, went in to speak to teachers, spoke to guidance counselors, sat with him in class, had rides arranged for him so that he went directly to and from school.....we as his parents were fighting SO hard to help him. He, however, didn't work nearly as hard as we did. As a result, he did not graduate from high school. I blog about it here.

During his last quarter, he failed nearly every class. He had been told that he didn't need his Spanish credit to graduate or his Law Enforcement credit; he had already met the number of credits needed to graduate, so he "checked out" early (metaphorically). He did, however, need Financial Literacy to graduate, and he failed it. I'm glad he failed it. He deserved to fail it. According to his teacher, he had cheated on an exam. Additionally, when he finally tried really hard at the end of the semester, it was too little too late.

At the end of the day, the child has to WANT to succeed and the child NEEDS to be held accountable. I cried for days because my son didn't graduate. I felt that after 7 years of struggling with him that I would be "rewarded" with a graduation day ceremony. However, I want to be very clear; I completely support the teacher who failed him. I would have done the same thing. My disappointment lies not with the teacher but with my son. The post script to this story is that he did remediate his insufficient credits and received his high school diploma in August; I wouldn't call it a "happy ending." It will, however, suffice.

At the core of all discussions regarding education should be "What is best for the child?" "How can I motivate this child?" "What do I do if I cannot motivate a child?" "What if this child is having a problem with Math, Reading, Writing, Science...fill in the blank?" In a perfect world, student-centric learning would be optimal. Our reality is that our public schools are not staffed to take care of the individual learning needs of a given child...to shepherd a child through a bump in the road whether that bump be educational, social or financial. That high-level of engagement is simply cost-prohibitive. Perhaps we can't solve every problem of every learner, but if we had some programs in place to try to meet the needs of the individual, we could move a bit closer to the finish line. I think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. To get to the point where a person can learn, basic needs must be taken into consideration.
Do I believe that the school is responsible for meeting all of the needs of the child? No. However, if we could be a bit more responsive to a particular learning style, economic need, social need of a child, it can assist with the facilitation of learning. There is more that can be done. Which leads to the next point.
Community Involvement. Jim had an interesting thought. It went something like this, "If it takes a village to raise a child, who is raising the village?" His point was that the community and its businesses need to take a vested interest in education. I couldn't agree more. We never really came to a resolution about what that means, but the fact that the conversation has begun is a most important first step.

I just wanted to mention that businesses have supported our local schools in a variety of ways, and as a parent, I'm appreciative of what has been done. Monetary contributions, gifts in kind and sponsorships of events are some of the ways that businesses have supported local school programs.

My company sponsors a program called SEED, Serving Education Every Day. This program not only allows me flexibility to serve in my local school, but the program ENCOURAGES me to do so. With my company's support, I am able to attend PTA meetings and Community Council meetings even though I have a full time job that requires extensive travel. I am proud to work for a company that understands how important education is and supports volunteerism at the local level.

Click here to read about my very first PTA experience in 2008. Click here to see how this working mom offended a bunch of entrenched PTA ladies to try and shake things up a bit in the spirit of making a difference. Click here to see how my recycling plan all turned out.

Can businesses do more? Absolutely. When I suggested that a career professional with academic acumen for a particular subject matter could assist a teacher...even allow a teacher time off to complete coursework for an advanced degree, the idea was not well received from the audience stating that a volunteer would not know how to teach to the core curriculum and prepare a learner for the requisite tests. Perhaps that is true. I respect teachers tremendously. I, personally, have gone through the teacher certification program at the University of Utah; I did not complete my student teaching nor do I hold certification credentials. There are many qualified and capable individuals who can make meaningful contributions inside and outside of the classroom. I still think my idea has merit and is worth further exploration. This leads to the next theme from the panel discussion, teaching and testing.

Teaching and Testing. I am not a fan of No Child Left Behind; neither was the state of Utah. In 2005, the Utah State Legislature passed a bill that rejected NCLB. For Utah, this was an issue of states' rights and the rejection of federal insertion into the tenets of Utah education policy. The legislation was primarily symbolic. Make no mistake about it, Utah still "participates" in NCLB. As a member of our Community Council, I recently reviewed our school's NCLB scores.
On the panel, I was the most outspoken about my disapproval with NCLB as a measure of success. I believe that NCLB was well intended in a theoretical context, but in it's practical application has done very little to improve the education system in America. I also believe that 100% proficiency by 2012 is not only unattainable, the goal is automatically setting us up for failure. I have seen an interesting dance occur when it comes to massaging the numbers to generate passing grades for a school when otherwise, they would not have passed. Are we doing this to make it appear like NCLB is succeeding? That is how it appears to me.

I am a realist. While I believe that we need to teach to a higher standard to achieve a higher result, I am still practical in my approach. We don't live in a society of members who are all high achievers. We must be realistic in our approach. Not all learners have the same capacity, same motivation, same skill level, same intellect. Can we take a randomized group of learners (as it suggests in the film) and help them be successful? YES...with the sufficient amount of resources and if we provide a learner-centric culture (not a curriculum-centric culture). If you meet the needs of the learner, I firmly believe that almost all learners can be successful. We don't have the luxury of unlimited resources to manage our education system in that way. Therefore, we are forced to manage to educational objectives with the resources in our power to influence and control.

Click here to see what I have written about NCLB on my blog.

Dr. Doty believes the NCLB testing standards are still too low (I agree). The sad commentary (which was emphasized in the film) is that the tests that we are using as measures (like NCLB) indicate that we are not preforming well in Math, Science, Reading and Writing. If we have a test which is perhaps substandard, and if we are performing poorly on that test, how ever would our learners perform on a test that measured what they need to know for college? I shudder when I think of what that test might look like and what the scores would report.

Let me tell you about standardized tests, I was discussing this topic the eve before the film screening, and I mentioned how disappointed I am that my children don't write. They don't ever have writing assignments that they do at home; they don't develop a thesis statement, create introductions, a body and a conclusion to a cohesive theme or topic. My 9th grader piped up and was a bit offended that I thought she couldn't write. She said, "I know how to do that; I had to learn it for the test that we take." Um....she JUST proved my point. Are we teaching to the test? Or are we teaching children to develop skills so that they can be thinkers and learn to apply that thinking in written format.

All through high school, I wrote and wrote and wrote. By my senior year, I was writing complex research papers. My kids can't do that. My daughter who is a junior in high school has never written a research paper. Ever.

One of the major initiatives of the Canyons District is to create a culture of academic excellence and ensure that our students are prepared for college. I couldn't agree more! How do we achieve that goal? What are the tactical steps to take? I don't know the answers, but I know that we can be doing better.

Paul mentioned that we have grade inflation issues in Utah. Is an A in English from a Utah public school the same as an A in English from a school in X state? Perhaps. I would hope that we teach to the highest standard and hold our kids accountable for earning grades. So much of what my kids do is what I call "fluff." Again, I'm not blaming teachers. The problem is systemic; there is not reason to place blame. I'm interested in identifying the issues and helping work a plan to make things better.

Paul also mentioned that teachers should be trained and qualified and kept up-to-date on pedagological methodologies. I agree; I will again state that this also requires resources to be allocated to this effort.
Parting Thoughts. Go see the film. Have a discussion about education with your local leaders in your school, your district and your state. Be part of the solution. I firmly believe that if community members, parents, teachers and administrators work together that we can target toward excellent education.
I am grateful for the opporunity that I had to view this film and participate on the panel with Dave, Jim, Paul and Tony. Thank you, gentlemen, and if I've misrepresented your views, please feel free to leave a comment to clarifiy!