Fifteen education documentaries that need to be made

“I'd love to see some in-depth movie on the effects of high-stakes testing on teaching and learning. What's the evidence that high-stakes testing is good or bad for actual learning?" said one reader.

Although last year’s feature-length documentary Waiting for ‘Superman’ called attention to the plight of students in struggling schools, critics of the film noted that it focused on a very narrow set of causes and solutions to the problem, framing it solely from the perspective of those whom education historian Diane Ravitch calls “corporate school reformers” rather than educators on the front lines of the issue.

Since the film’s release, many educators have called for a more balanced film that delves into the challenges of U.S. public education from other points of view as well.

We recently asked readers: “If you could choose a topic to be the focus of a movie/documentary about education, what would it be and why?”…Read More

‘Unschooling’ gaining popularity, allows children alternative learning tools

School’s never out for 14-year-old Zoe Bentley. Nor is it ever in, reports the Huffington Post. The perky teen from Tucson, Ariz., explores what she likes, when she likes as deeply as she chooses every day of the year. As an “unschooler,” Zoe is untethered from the demands of traditional, compulsory education. That means, at the moment, she’s checking out the redwoods of California with her family, tinkering with her website and looking forward to making her next video on her favorite subject, exogeology, the study of geology on other planets…

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