Director Madeleine Sackler explores some of the major issues surrounding education in this documentary with an emphasis on the popularity of charter schools. As the U.S. public school system is under a lot of scrutiny, parents in Harlem and the Bronx enter their children in a charter school lottery in hopes that their children will be one of the select few to receive a quality education. She touches on the gap between afro- American and Latino students v.s white students how it is a large achievement gap between the two and examines a few reasons why that is. The movie shows four different families going for the same goal of getting picked from a lottery of thousands for the chance to enroll in one of Harlem's top schools, Harlem success academy. The documentary tries to show both sides of the argument over education system in Harlem. With the recent boom in charter schools, Schools that are state funded but not run under teachers union contract, a lot of people do not agree with the practices of charter schools. One of the major arguments discussed in the documentary is charter schools and how they non- union. Be it they are non-union it gives them the freedom hire teachers outside of the typical union stipulations and also get to create their own curriculum which they feel is best for the learning experience of children. The Harlem success academy creator feels that other schools don't perform as well as the charters schools because they are more focused on the teachers union issues than actually teaching the students. Another issue with education system discussed in the documentary is the lack of accountability for poor performing teachers. Under performing teachers, what's is the best way to handle them? Do you give them chance after chance to improve or do you let them go right away? According to the documentary through the union contract they make it very hard to fire under performing teachers or even push the teachers to really perform. Were as with any other job if an employee is not performing to the best of their ability they get let go. This particular issues makes it hard to correct and fix under performing schools. Eva Moskowitz the creator of Harlem success academy feels the teacher's union contract is one of the biggest down falls of the education system. "It is hard to run a school where everything is pre-determined because what you need to do in order to meet the needs of children is you need to constantly redefine and redesign the school schedule" according to Eva Moskowitz The next point in the documentary is the non supporters of charter schools. The unions are against charters because they don't want to be the "the face of the opposition against charters" in the words of Eva Moskowitz. Unions are against charters because they feel the only reason they succeed is because they have small classrooms or they don't educate special ed student. The teachers unions is threaten by charters schools because they feel by letting charters into the neighborhood and letting them take over under performing schools it will increase the class room size of other schools. On the other hand Harlem success feels all though they are do the community a service by taking over the under-performing school because for one the school is not producing and two the enrollment in the school is low to begin with.
I personally take the stance of the Harlem success academy. I feel as though obviously charters schools have shown evidence that the methods they are using are working. So I feel instead of trying to run off charter schools out of the neighborhoods they need to see what is really making them successful and try to implement that into more school. One of the ways charter schools are deemed "better" is they have smaller class sizes. Well, I understand in most cases that just isn't possible there are more student than there are educators. But on the other I agree with a lot of Eva Moskowits practices as far as the open door policy, administration should being able to go into a teachers classroom and observe at anytime. If a teacher is not performing that gives administration a way to observe and possibly figure out solutions to the problem. One of the main problems with public education is no accountable for un performing school. They keep claiming to be "fixing" the problem but how exactly are they fixing the problem? By closing schools down and moving different teachers in? Through the teachers union contract they make t very hard to fire a teacher. I do believe that every teachers is allowed due process but if nothing is being done on the administrative side than no one wins. According to the documentary it would cost the New York tax payers $250.000 to fire a teacher. So basically in this case no one wins. The students are left with a lousy teacher because A) the union has not only made it impossible to get rid of them but also made it hard to help them by places so many stipulation on what administration can and cant do and B) the city cant afford to get rid of them. I feel that when the school community works together as a team with one goal and that is to educate the child, I believe schools operate better. But the way it is now it seems to be two separate entities you have administration and than you have the teachers.
I personally take the stance of the Harlem success academy. I feel as though obviously charters schools have shown evidence that the methods they are using are working. So I feel instead of trying to run off charter schools out of the neighborhoods they need to see what is really making them successful and try to implement that into more school. One of the ways charter schools are deemed "better" is they have smaller class sizes. Well, I understand in most cases that just isn't possible there are more student than there are educators. But on the other I agree with a lot of Eva Moskowits practices as far as the open door policy, administration should being able to go into a teachers classroom and observe at anytime. If a teacher is not performing that gives administration a way to observe and possibly figure out solutions to the problem. One of the main problems with public education is no accountable for un performing school. They keep claiming to be "fixing" the problem but how exactly are they fixing the problem? By closing schools down and moving different teachers in? Through the teachers union contract they make t very hard to fire a teacher. I do believe that every teachers is allowed due process but if nothing is being done on the administrative side than no one wins. According to the documentary it would cost the New York tax payers $250.000 to fire a teacher. So basically in this case no one wins. The students are left with a lousy teacher because A) the union has not only made it impossible to get rid of them but also made it hard to help them by places so many stipulation on what administration can and cant do and B) the city cant afford to get rid of them. I feel that when the school community works together as a team with one goal and that is to educate the child, I believe schools operate better. But the way it is now it seems to be two separate entities you have administration and than you have the teachers.