Zimbio Review - 'Won't Back Down' Has an Agenda, and It's Not to Make a Quality Film - Maggie Gyllenhaal - Zimbio

Zimbio Review - 'Won't Back Down' Has an Agenda, and It's Not to Make a Quality Film - Maggie Gyllenhaal - Zimbio:

Zimbio Review - 'Won't Back Down' Has an Agenda, and It's Not to Make a Quality Film

By Joe Robberson on September 26, 2012

(20th Century Fox | Getty Images)

The Bottom Line

Should you see it?

No.

Why?

Naive and predictable, the film takes a simplistic view of a hugely convoluted issue and makes mince meat of it for its own agenda.

If the point of Won't Back Down was to take a polarizing, immensely complicated issue and make it black and white, bravo! Success! Billed as a prospective Oscar contender (whatViola Davis film isn't?) Won't Back Down is barely suited for movie of the week status. Which by the way, used to be the platform for naive, topical issue films starring someone off the B-list. This film will be released nationwide due to an impressive cast, but don't be fooled, it's a TV movie at best.

Maggie Gyllenhaal keeps getting these roles as a hard luck mother because she's so good at it. She is again here, the film is fueled by her wide-eyed intensity in the face of injustice and 

NAACP claims discriminatory admission practices at city's elite high schools - NY Daily News

NAACP claims discriminatory admission practices at city's elite high schools - NY Daily News:

NAACP claims discriminatory admission practices at city's elite high schools

Group accuses city of barring black and Latino students from 'best public schools'

Comments (37)

BY BEN CHAPMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012, 11:45 PM

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MICHAEL SCHWARTZ FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

The NAACP alleges schools like Stuyvesant High School have discriminatory admission practices. Only 1 percent of students at Stuy High are African American.

The NAACP has filed a bombshell complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, alleging discriminatory admission practices at the city’s elite high schools.

In a blistering document delivered to the feds Thursday morning, the NAACP accused the city of barring black and Latino students from eight of its “best public schools,” including Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where only 1% of students are black. “Black and Latino students don’t see opportunity at places like Stuyvesant because of the admissions process,” said NAACP attorney Rachel Kleinman. “It’s not fair and it’s bad policy.”

The city’s Specialized High Schools Admissions Test is the only method that is used to judge

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/naacp-claims-discriminatory-admission-practices-city-elite-high-schools-article-1.1169240#ixzz27hUbH7cO

My View: The curious paradox of 'Won't Back Down' – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs

My View: The curious paradox of 'Won't Back Down' – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs:

My View: The curious paradox of 'Won't Back Down'

By Sam Chaltain, Special to CNN

Editor's Note: Sam Chaltain is a Washington-based writer and education advocate. He can be found on Twitter at@samchaltain.

(CNN) - "Won’t Back Down," the new Hollywood film about two mothers determined to take over their children's failing inner city school, represents everything that’s wrong with the present way we talk about school reform – and everything we need to talk about more in the future.

The film itself feels like Soviet-era propaganda. No characters are well-developed; they’re all two-dimensional mouthpieces for different constituency groups’ pet programs and policy proposals. Even when the filmmakers try to instill a bit of complexity – such as the Teach for America alum who works in a neighborhood school and was raised in a family with deep union ties – the 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: PTA SUES FOR-PROFIT RIVAL PTO TODAY

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: PTA SUES FOR-PROFIT RIVAL PTO TODAY:

PTA SUES FOR-PROFIT RIVAL PTO TODAY

BY MICHAEL TARM – ASSOCIATED PRESS FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST | HTTP://HUFF.TO/OS0J4B

09/26/12 07:21 PM ET EDT CHICAGO — The nonprofit PTA sued a for-profit rival on Wednesday, accusing it of denigrating the established group in a bid to siphon off members – a dispute that highlights underlying tensions as parents consider changes in how they interact with their children's schools.
The National Parent Teacher Association, an iconic group that's been part of America's cultural backdrop for more than a century, has seen its membership fall by more than half of the 12 million members it had in its heyday in the 1960s. That decline, at least in part, motivated the PTA to file the lawsuit against PTO Today.
The upstart group put itself on a collision course with the PTA by setting itself up as an alternative.
The 15-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago accuses PTO Today of engaging in false advertising, trademark infringement and other deceptive practices to "further continue to encourage members to leave" the PTA.

Morning UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 9-27-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

TFA and New Teacher Project Defend Irreplaceable New Referees!

by dianerav

Satire alert: Norman Scott, a retired teacher turned film-maker (producer of “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman) has decided that the NFL referee fiasco presented a golden opportunity.
The golden opportunity was a chance to rib the New Teacher Project, which is quick to demand the ouster of experienced teachers and to replace them with inexperienced teachers.

A Clueless Review of Anti-Union, Anti-Public Education Film

by dianerav

The Los Angeles Times published a review–maybe it is an article, not a review, it is hard to tell–of the anti-union, anti-public education film “Won’t Back Down.” The article reaches no judgments about anything, other than the opening box office, which does not look good.
It says that critics claim the film is anti-union, but its director and writer don’t agree. Critics say that the producer is a rightwing zealot, but the director and writer say it doesn’t matter. Presumably the conservative billionaire 

News You Can Use

by dianerav

Bill Moyers is releasing a documentary this weekend about ALEC, the far-right group that writes model legislation to promote the parent trigger, charters, vouchers, alternate certification, virtual schools, and anything else you can think of that will privatize public education.
Here is a newsletter about his show with useful links:
Subject: The Origami: Parent Triggers, NFIB Exposed, the Fiscal Cliff and the NFL
This is the Progressive States Action Origami newsletter. (Remember, we take all of the state policy and 

California Passes Law to Reduce Emphasis on Test Scores

by dianerav

The California Legislature passed a bill to reduce the importance of test scores in calculating school quality, and Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law. Until now, the Academic Performance Index was based 100% on test scores. Now it will count for 60%.
Hope, hope, hope that future legislation will reduce it to 25%.

How to Destroy Public Education: Lessons from Pennsylvania

by dianerav

In a brilliant column, Bill White of the Lehigh Valley News compares Governor Tom Corbett’s education policies to carpet-bombing of Vietnam. The goal nearly half a century ago was to “bomb Vietnam back into the stone age.” White says that Corbett is doing the same with public education with his program of budget cuts, charter schools, and voucher proposals, which have thus far produced layoffs, program cuts, falling test scores, and soaring class sizes.
It seems that the Governor’s goal is to drive parents out of public education and into charters or to demand vouchers to escape the mess the Governor is creating.
Charter advocates always say that charters are truly accountable because if they fail, they are closed. That is 

Ohio Charters: About the Same as Public Schools

by dianerav

To no one’s surprise, the latest Ohio report card shows that charter schools perform about the same as public schools. They actually show less value-added growth than the state’s traditional public schools, but are about the same as the Big 8, the urban districts. Remember that charters are touted as a silver bullet. The evidence accumulates that they are not. They extract money from public schools, perform no better, and are leading to 

Why Camden School Board Rejected Charters

by dianerav

When the news broke that the Camden, New Jersey, had rejected four charters, their reasons for doing so were not clear. This article in the Philadelphia Inquirer provides some more detail and context.
The charters had powerful political support: Not only from Governor Christie but from George Norcross, whose foundation was in partnership with KIPP to create a five-campus school that would enroll as many as 3,000 students.
The largest application came from the partnership of the Norcross Foundation Inc., a charity created by the 

John Kuhn’s Brilliant Analysis of Where We Are Today

by dianerav

If you read only one article today, read this one. Save it. Read it again. This is a must-read.
John Kuhn is superintendent of the Perrin-Whitt school district in Texas. He was the first person named on this blog as a hero of American education. If you read this, you will understand why.
A reader suggested I add John Kuhn’s great speech to the SOS March in Washington in

Save Public Education in Indiana!

by dianerav

A reader in Indiana appeals for help to stop the ALEC-inspired takeover and privatization of public education in that state:

Tony Bennett is the lead character in Alec’s plan to privatize public education. Alec has always been populated by nearly every Indiana state senator and representative, but these past few years have seen Indiana overly represented with State Representative Dave Frizzell as president of the board of directors and a Senator Jim Buck as a member of the board. The recent education reform laws were word for word the laws that Alec wrote 

Referees for America?

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman takes note of the media hysteria about those NFL referees who replaced the experienced, unionized referees. Even Governor Scott Walker was upset when the inexperienced referees made a call that led to a loss by the Green Bay Packers.
Do we need “Referees for America” to step in when the unionized referees go on strike? Apparently the football lovers of America say no.
Maybe experience and qualifications matter.
And remember how the media piled on teachers in Chicago for their outrageous salaries? Was it $56,000, 

The Scoop on Camden’s Rejection of 4 Charters

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman, our reliable New Jersey blogger, has the story about the decision by Camden’s school board to turn down four charters that the Christie administration and the local Camden Democratic boss badly wanted.
The charter lobby may have overplayed its hand. Looks like popular pushback. Looks like local board doesn’t want to hand over the keys to charter operators. Showdown ahead.

Camden, NJ, Says No to Charters

by dianerav

I am interested in learning more about what happened yesterday in Camden, New Jersey. The school board there turned down four charters. Is this the beginning of public awareness, or local politics?
Here is the news from a reader:
Please check out what happened in Camden NJ yesterday. The Mayoral appointed BOE turned down all proposals for Renaissance schools that were being proposed under the Urban Hope Act, a bill aimed at 

Breaking News: Wake County, NC, Board Fires Superintendent

by dianerav

The Wake County board fired its superintendent, General Anthony Tata, who had been hired by the previous board majority. That previous majority was elected with a pledge to end the district’s nationally recognized desegregation plan.
The vote to dismiss Tata was 5-4.
General Tata previously worked in D.C. as chief operating officer for then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee. He is a 

A Political Analysis of a Propaganda Film

by dianerav

Liza Featherstone wrote a fascinating analysis of the anti-union film “Won’t Back Down.”
To whet your appetite, read this:
“Despite scapegoating teachers’ unions, ‘Won’t Back Down’ is not an anti-teacher movie. Most of the teacher characters—especially Nona, played by Viola Davis—are heroic. That’s because one of the film’s messages is that busting teachers’ unions is better for teachers. In one scene, a meeting to discuss the possible takeover, 

The Absolutely Best Review Ever of “Won’t Back Down”

by dianerav

Salon writer Andrew O’Hehir absolutely nails the anti-union, anti-teacher “Won’t Back Down.”
He opens by saying: “Someone needs to launch an investigation into what combination of crimes, dares, alcoholic binges and lapses in judgment got Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal into this movie. Neither of them seems likely to sympathize with its thinly veiled labor-bashing agenda and, way more to the point, I thought they had better taste.”
I won’t spoil your fun in reading the review. It is hilarious and spot-on.