TEACHED: The Blame Game

TEACHED: The Blame Game Synopsis

TEACHED is a new short film series examining the causes and consequences of education inequality in America. THE BLAME GAME explores the connection between teacher quality and the "achievement gap." The discourse around education reform—especially on issues involving teachers—lacks nuance, thoughtfulness and, often, commonsense. Simplistic ‘pro-‘ and ‘anti-‘ teacher rhetoric is distracting from efforts to improve teacher quality, especially in schools serving urban, minority children. The first in a new series of short films about education reform, THE BLAME GAME questions whether our society unfairly blames urban students and parents for the low academic achievement instead of making the changes needed to ensure that high-quality teachers lead every classroom.

Research proves that teachers are the single most important factor in the success of any school, but, as THE BLAME GAME reveals, it has become virtually impossible to fire an incompetent teacher due to tenure and other contractual rules. And when incompetent teachers can’t be fired, they are instead shuffled to the schools where parents have the least political power and voice to protest, for one because they are trapped: they cannot afford to move or pay for their children to attend other schools.

At the same time, THE BLAME GAME shows that many qualified candidates go into teaching only to be knocked around by the same rules that keep inept teachers on the payroll. In this short film, teachers themselves discuss the issues, and ask whether the system is serving students’ needs…not to mention their own.