Learning from the Experts

Students here at Dartmouth have a few exciting opportunities to learn about education reform over the next few days, and I wanted to give all of you a chance to do the same. Tomorrow night, there will be a film screening of the award-winning documentary, Waiting for Superman, and Monday afternoon, students will have a chance to speak with Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Fund. We will bring you coverage of both events here on the blog, but both sources provide a wealth of information about education reform generally, as well as merit pay for public school teachers in the United States.

I would encourage all of you to take the time to watch Waiting for Superman. Not only is the film extremely entertaining, but it is also one of the more informative education documentaries produced. It is also clear that the filmmakers didn’t write their thesis first and do the research second. The film is not politically biased, and the amount of research that went into the production was immense. Improving public education in the United States was the primary goal in the film, not ending teacher tenure, or promoting a Democratic or Republican education platform. You can learn more about the film here:

http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/

Finally, for those serious about education reform, it is impossible to ignore Geoffrey Canada’s work or the Harlem Children Zone. Canada’s began his vision to give all American children a quality education in 1997. Today, the project has a budget of $75 million and serves tens of thousands of children in one of this country’s most difficult neighborhoods. Canada even guarantees that any child who attends an HCZ school will have the opportunity to go to college. For those of you who are suspicious of the charter school approach, or for people who distrust many of the proposed education reforms (including increased merit pay), please review Mr. Canada’s success with HCZ and other American charter school programs.

http://www.hcz.org/home

Stay tuned for more coverage.