teach - TakePart

TEACH“This is more about what’s working in education,” Guggenheim says. “Most moms anddads believe every kid in America deserves great public schools, but the issue is socomplex and sometimes feels impossible. With TEACH, I wanted to show that there aregreat teachers in these schools fighting the good fight and doing great. They are at theheart of what’s working. If we could find and support more teachers like this, we wouldhave great schools.”As the film demonstrates, at the heart of academic success are teachers whose deepdevotion to their jobs makes the difference. We see them digging deep to help studentslike Yeira, a bright-eyed fourth-grader struggling to make up a three-year shortfall in herreading skills; or Samy, a ninth-grader who wants to be a pilot but has all but given up ongrasping the math that is a prerequisite to realizing that dream.“The idea is to recruit the next generation of passionate teachers,” he says. “I hope the filminspires people to realize this is a tough, demanding, deeply meaningful job where thestakes are extremely high and the rewards are infinitely rich.”KEY STATISTICS / ABOUT THE ISSUES• There are over 4 million teachers in the United States. Almost half of them areunder 40 years of age. Almost 80% of them are white, and 75% are women.• The average American classroom has one teacher and 25 students.• The average teacher’s salary increased only 3% between 1990 and 2010.• Almost 50% of all new teachers will quit teaching within their first five years in theclassroom.• Close to 60% of the teaching work force will be retiring within the next 10 years.SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). Digestof Education Statistics, 2011 (NCES 2012-001), Introduction and Chapter 2 ; U.S. Department ofEducation, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey, Teacher Data Files,2007–08.PAGE 4