John Thompson: Documentarians Uncover the Trauma in Urban Schools
Guest post by John Thompson.
Brilliant documentaries, such as PBS Frontline's "Dropout Nation" and This American Life's "Harper High School" do what "reformers," who mostly lack knowledge of teaching and learning, should have done. They go into troubled schools without preconceived notions, and document what they find.
"Dropout Nation" covers the School Improvement Grant (SIG) "turnaround" of Sharpston High School in Houston. It centers on a Campus Improvement Coordinator's, two deans' and a principal's efforts. Even though the cornerstone of SIG turnaround was the replacing of half of its teachers with young idealists with "High Expectations!" So when these new teachers are largely invisible in this powerful documentary, education wonks should take notice. It is a reminder that schooling is a team sport.
Superintendent Terry Grier conceived of the Houston experiment without taking the time to study the social science on urban education. Confident that we know how to fix failing schools using instruction-driven methods, Grier deputized teachers to reverse the effects of extreme poverty. But, in "Dropout Nation," the heroic non-teachers featured in the documentary went on record repudiating his fundamental assumption. One dean pushes
Brilliant documentaries, such as PBS Frontline's "Dropout Nation" and This American Life's "Harper High School" do what "reformers," who mostly lack knowledge of teaching and learning, should have done. They go into troubled schools without preconceived notions, and document what they find.
"Dropout Nation" covers the School Improvement Grant (SIG) "turnaround" of Sharpston High School in Houston. It centers on a Campus Improvement Coordinator's, two deans' and a principal's efforts. Even though the cornerstone of SIG turnaround was the replacing of half of its teachers with young idealists with "High Expectations!" So when these new teachers are largely invisible in this powerful documentary, education wonks should take notice. It is a reminder that schooling is a team sport.
Superintendent Terry Grier conceived of the Houston experiment without taking the time to study the social science on urban education. Confident that we know how to fix failing schools using instruction-driven methods, Grier deputized teachers to reverse the effects of extreme poverty. But, in "Dropout Nation," the heroic non-teachers featured in the documentary went on record repudiating his fundamental assumption. One dean pushes