Rise
Above the Mark
About teachers,
public schools, and how they are being affected by current educational policy trends:
It shows how today’s policies are crushing teachers and driving them out of
teaching.
Public Education for
all children!
Rise Above the Mark is a documentary
narrated by Peter Coyote that brings to light the heartbreaking realities of
public education. It’s the story of what happens when politics enters the
classroom.
Public schools are boxed in by current
corporate reforms. Rules and regulations restrict vision, depreciate funding,
demoralize teachers, and turn students into test-taking machines, robbing them
of time to foster creativity.
Rise Above the Mark focuses on
Indiana’s struggles with public school reforms—the same types of struggles
experienced in schools throughout the United States.
Experts Diane Ravtich, Linda
Darling-Hammond, Pasi Sahlberg and others discuss how America can make positive
changes to provide an exceptional public school system for all children.
Purpose
The purpose of Rise
Above the Mark, narrated by Peter Coyote, is to educate the general public
about the “corporate takeover” of Indiana public schools and what parents,
community members and educators can do to protect their local public schools.
Legislators are calling the shots and putting public schools in an
ever-shrinking box. WLCSC Board of School Trustees and Superintendent of
Schools, Rocky Killion, want to secure resources and legislative relief
necessary to achieve the school district’s mission of creating a world-class
educational system for all children. The school district’s strategic plan will
introduce a model of education that puts decision making back into the hands of
local communities and public school teachers, rather than leaving it in the
hands of legislators and ultimately lining the pockets of corporations.
Documentary
Themes
The major
participants whose interviews appear in the documentary address the following:
·
The corporate takeover of public
schools and diversion of public funds to private entities
·
The dismantling of public schools
disguised as “school choice” and “school vouchers”
·
The adverse impact standardized testing
and using test scores to evaluate teachers is having on the teaching profession
and public school students
·
The money grab of private companies
that benefit from the so-called reform, which are not required to play by the
same rules as public schools
·
The research on the best education
systems in the world and what we can learn from them
·
A blueprint for parent, community
member and educator involvement in the “reform”
·
A request for support and resources to
achieve our school district’s mission which is to engage our students in a
world-class educational experience that prepares them to be well- rounded,
innovative, creative, productive, and adaptive citizens who will shape our
global society
Major Participants
Rise Above The Mark
is proud to have the support of the following experts and supporters of public
education who appear in the documentary:
·
Dr. Pasi Sahlberg – Director General of
National Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation in the Ministry of
Education in Helsinki, Finland
·
Mr. Jamie Vollmer – Author, speaker and
supporter of public schools - former CEO of the Great Midwestern Ice Cream
Company and former critic of public schools.
·
Mr. Peter Coyote – Award winning actor
and narrator, appearing in more than 100 films and narrated over 165
documentaries
