It’s not often Superintendent Sherman Morton makes movie recommendations, but he gave an upcoming documentary on shortfalls in public education, Waiting for Superman, two thumbs up.
    
Produced by the minds behind Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the film follows the lives of students and their parents trying to escape the nation’s failing schools by lottery. 
    
Sherman said the film raises questions about how teachers are compensated, something board members are preparing to take a hard look at in October.
    
The documentary makers also do the nations public teachers justice even if unions and boards of education arent treated as well, he said.
    
First and foremost, this movie celebrates teachers and separates the bashing of teacher’s unions with teachers as being the way in which we succeed, whether it’s in public settings and charter settings, Sherman said. If we’re going to truly improve public education we need to elevate the profession from where we are so regulated that we’re treating them as something other than factory workers. 
    
Officials need to focus on finding schools where reform is working and follow along, he said.