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

Growth scores give schools No Child Left Behind alternative

Orr Middle School Principal George Leavens isn’t surprised that only half his students tested at grade level in math and reading last school year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. That’s not unusual for an urban school. He cares about the test results. But he places a higher value on a different measure of academic success. His goal for Orr: “I’d like our growth scores to be above every other school in Las Vegas.” When Leavens talks about growth scores, he means the rate at which the school’s students progress compared to other Nevada students…

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