The education documentary Waiting for Superman has been making waves the past few months as bloggers and movie critics post their reviews from film festival screenings around the country. One such blogger, Latoya Peterson, was deeply moved by what she saw.

“Watching this film is kind of like bleeding from thousands of paper cuts.  Guggenheim introduces each child and their back story, and uses their experiences to illuminate different aspects of our failing educational system.  The stories cross race, region, class, and ethnicity to produce a heartbreaking tapestry.  Each of these children are so bright, full of life…and dangling on the precipice of educational reform.”

Latoya raised another important issue that is only tangentially addressed by the film: parent involvement’s effect on student outcomes. Increasingly, research shows students whose parents are actively involved in their child’s education will do significantly better.

This same research shows that an achievement gap exists not just between low-income minority students and middle-to-upper class students. Even middle class students whose parents are uninvolved in their schooling can do poorly and even drop out.

In one case, after seeing her district’s low test scores, a mom gathered other parents to create a tutoring group for their students. She saw her daughter’s test scores rise shortly thereafter.

Waiting for Superman asks us to confront why our schools are failing. What are ways we can take the next step and ensure parents support their children’s education from home?

Here’s the latest from the Let’s Read. Let’s Move. initiative. Last Thursday, U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan joined Marian Robinson, mother of First Lady Michelle Obama, to read with local students from the Columbia Heights Youth Club’s Reading is Fundamental program, the Alexandria Happy Home Child Learning Center and the D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School.

Let’s Read. Let’s Move. is a summer enrichment series to help guide America’s youth to build fit bodies and strong minds. Learn more here.

Awesome Book Tour from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

Dallas Clayton had a small idea: he wanted to write a book for his son to encourage him to dream and dream often. He decided to print a few copies to share, and An Awesome Book took off, selling out after each pressing. Check out the video above to learn Dallas’s story.

After receiving letters from around the globe, Dallas decided to give back to the children and communities who love his book and love to read. He embarked on a tour across the country and has set a goal of selling 100,000 books and donating another 100,000 – one book donated for each book sold. So far, he is halfway towards reaching this incredible goal.

We e-mailed Dallas to ask him about his work with the Awesome World Foundation and his popular book. Here are his responses:

Where are you currently at on your tour?

Just got back from a 10 day stint: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Nevada, Eugene, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Idaho, Montana, Salt Lake City, Nevada, Southern California. Such an amazing tour! I’m going to rest a bit and do some Cali readings throughout the summer, then plan on hitting the road again probably in September.

What would you like to see happen in the schools to which you donate your book?

I would like to see the kids all grow up to eradicate diseases, poverty, famine, win major sporting events, make me laugh and cry in amazing ways, and generally change the world for the better. But more to the point, I would be happy if I just made a lot of kids excited about reading and thinking outside the box.

Personally, how have you seen this benefit children and education as a whole?

Well it’s tough to say because the foundation isn’t even a year old yet but I would say my goal is twofold: one to give away books, more specifically An Awesome Book which I love very much and think is important; two, to stop in and read with kids, put books in their hands, talk to them and let them know the human side of creating something and show them how attainable your goals can be if you really put your mind to it. As far as those goals go, I’ve seen the benefit 1000 times over. So many kids so excited, parents, teachers, strangers on the street, just people all over the world made happier (if even for an instant) by what I’ve created. Victory!

Have you read An Awesome Book yet? Check out the website for the Awesome World Foundation and see it for yourself.  You can even read the book online, but don’t let that stop you from buying one, considering Dallas gives a book away for everyone one he sells.

From the official TED website:

Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education — and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world’s poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become.

(TED is an annual conference on innovative thinking, focusing on Technology, Entertainment, and Design.)

Here’s a new infographic video from TakePart and Buck that does a good job of showing how the root of all of America’s problems is the problem of public education.

This two-minute video was made in support of the upcoming documentary Waiting For Superman, which brings us up close and personal with the education crisis. We at GetSchooled had the privilege of attending an advance screening, and trust us, Waiting For Superman is a must-see! By the end of the film, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Click here to view the trailer for Waiting For Superman, and take a pledge to watch the film once it’s released this fall.

NASA’s new Summer of Innovation Initiative kicked off earlier this month and serves as a cornerstone of the Educate to Innovate campaign announced by President Obama last November.

Instead of forgetting everything you’ve learned over the past nine months, why not use the summer to broaden your knowledge in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)? Maybe you’ll find yourself in space someday!

Above, watch astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson send greetings from the International Space Station, and check out the Summer of Innovation’s official website to discover online interactive features, videos, printouts, research resources, and more.

Also be sure to take a look at the wide variety of offline activities that are suggested on the site. The initiative is taking place across the entire country–consult this handy map to see what events are going on near you!

Today, StageofLife.com announced the winner of its monthly National Writing Contest for Teens and High School Students. Michael, from San Diego, wrote a 500 word essay in response to the question, “What is one behavior you can either change or incorporate into your daily life that will reduce our negative impact on the environment?” For his winning essay, Michael will receive permanent status as a Featured Blogger on StageofLife.com.

StageofLife.com is a free website for users to share stories and wisdom for every stage of life between high school and retirement. Geared towards teens and high school students, the High School Writing Contest gives teens an opportunity to share their ideas and opinions in the form of a journal, blog or essay and connect with others about relevant topics. For May’s contest, submissions addressed a number of environmental topics, such as waste management, carpooling, and oil dependence. The contest has grown from only a dozen submissions to scores each month. Student writers feel empowered by the recognition StageofLife.com provides for their thoughts on important issues.

This month’s topic is “What is the most difficult thing (for you) about college?” Inspired by the USAToday/Take America to College video series “Degrees of Difficulty,” StageofLife.com asks students to share their thoughts and personal stories about the challenges they face in college or the application process. The video series points out that most students who start college don’t finish, and that only 56% of students attending a four-year college graduate in six years or less.

Are you applying to colleges? Are you a college student? What are difficulties you face? Essays are due by midnight PDT on June 30. Check out the contest at their website:

StageofLife.com Student Writing Contest

Contest essays are open for readers to view and comment. Get involved and start a conversation about challenges facing high school and college students in completing their degrees.

Last week, the Department of Education pledged $436 million in Teacher Incentive Fund grants for local projects that reward teachers and administration who improve student achievement. Currently, applications are open to states, districts, and non-profits, for grants awarded in the fall.

Prince George’s County school district in Maryland received a five-year, $17 million Teacher Incentive Fund grant back in 2007, and it has used the award to implement the FIRST (Financial Incentive Rewards for Supervisors and Teachers) program in schools such as Bladensburg Elementary School. Above, watch Education Secretary Arne Duncan check in on Bladensburg Elementary for a roundtable discussion with some of its teachers and administrators on how the program has changed the school for the better.

The teachers all seem to agree that although the financial incentives were attractive at the outset, student achievement ended up becoming the biggest motivator. The program was also credited with helping promote dialogue between teachers and administrators, work reflection, and more student-centered planning and preparation.

Can we replicate this kind of success on a national scale? Do you think the Department of Education’s Teacher Incentives grants will turn out to be a good investment?

Above, watch the newly-released official trailer for the film Waiting For Supermanfrom Paramount Vantage.

The education documentary was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who also directed the 2006 global warming hit An Inconvenient Truth, and it’s been making waves ever since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Audience Award in the Documentaries category.

Waiting For Superman examines the crisis of an unbalanced American public school system through five interlocking stories set in different cities across the country. The topic is a familiar one, and it’s no secret that the public education system in America is deeply flawed and desperately in need of improvement. The film aims to inspire action by illuminating the complexities at hand: the role of teachers’ unions, political roadblocks, the public school lottery process, and the extension of the crisis to every social class.

For Guggenheim, making the film was an intensely personal experience, as he struggles to reconcile his convictions about public schooling with its harsh realities. In the video above, watch the director explain the motivating force behind making his film. “I betray my own ideals every morning as I drive my kids past three public schools on the way to private school,” he says. “as a country we’ve betrayed these ideals, letting mediocrity and dysfunction prevail in this very important thing that is public schooling.”

Waiting For Superman comes to theaters this fall. We at Get Schooled have seen it, and we were blown away! The film is moving, powerful, and truly exposes the American education systems faults and dire need of reform.

Head to the official website and make a pledge to go see this film.

Although 2010’s “National Lab Day” officially falls on May 12, the goal is to have every day be a national lab day! Part of the Obama administration’s Educate to Innovate initiatives, National Lab Day activities are already underway and ongoing nationwide.

The purpose of the Educate to Innovate campaign is to promote participation and promotion in the STEM subjects–science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. American students are rapidly falling behind students from other developed countries in these fields, which doesn’t bode well for our future. In the words of President Obama, this campaign is about “encouraging young people to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.”

National Lab Day aims to foster long-term collaborations among students, teachers, and volunteer scientists and techies. Hopefully, these collaborations will serve to engage and inspire a new generation of innovators. Head to the official website of National Lab Day to learn more about how this movement is connecting students, teachers, and volunteers and helping fund projects across the country.