Chapter 4

By
Nada Almaawy and Wafa Alnaieem

THE POTENTIAL
IMPACT OF
WAITING FOR
SUPERMAN ON
SCHOOLING IN
USA

Introduction
An Era of Change
Demographically
Economically
Technologically and globally

Reforming the Nations School

Two directions:
1. The fixing of broken schools and school
system
2. Occurring at the periphery of the existing
schools

.Example: [Teach for America]

Replacing the Nations

School
From teaching to learning

From process to outcomes

The key elements of change have been a shift in

From
From
fixed to variable
timeone-size-fits-most to individualized education for e
emphasis
Giving the record of school reform initiatives
Growing with increased funding and expansion in the
number of replacement schools
Becoming stronger

The Impact of Waiting for

Superman
Change occurs in stages:
a. Recognizing a problem
b. Publicizing the problem and generating public concern
c. Formulating solutions to the problem and placing the
problem and solutions on the agenda of key
policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders
d. Obtaining approval for the solutions
e. Implementing the solutions.

Who is Abraham
Flexner?
The young educator who visited every
medical school in USA and Canada, wrote a
report that established standards for
medical education.
He recommended by Charles Eliot, the
president of Harvard.

Flexner Report
Is an example of comprehensive
education reform.
It had the effect of remarking medical
education , closing the countrys poorest
medical schools, strengthening weaker
schools, and investing in excellent
schools.
It resulted in raised AMA standards for
doctors and medical education.

The Reports Success

Factors
The timing was right.
The right organization was sponsoring that
effort.
The research was comprehensive, clear, and
undeniable.
The recommendations were straightforward,
ground in research, and targeted at specific
stakeholders.
There were wide dissemination of the

The Comparing between waiting for

superman and the Flexner report
Flexner report resulted in systemic change
and waiting for superman is likely to
produce piecemeal and serendipitous
changes.
The audience of superman is larger than the
Flexner reports audience.
Concern with school improvement is more
popular issue than medical education.
The internet has been foundation of the
Waiting of superman strategy but it did not
exist in the age of Flexner.
Waiting superman focuses on the
grassroots, launching a popular movement
for school reform.
Waiting superman is seeking to create the
movement at a critical moment.
Waiting for superman will not further the

Waiting supermans
promise
The promise of fueling and the expanding the
current school reform movement by using three
ways:

Putting a spotlight on the

problems it identified and the
solution it proposed.
Giving encouragement to
advocates proposing
comparable solutions.
Documenting the urgency of

Reference
Swail, W. (2012). The potential impact of waiting for
superman on schooling in America. Finding superman:
Debating the future of public education in America (p.4655). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.