West Vancouver is hosting a screening of the new movie Beyond Measure. Along with the new book of the same name by Vicki Abeles, they make the case of the collective power of communities to work together for a better school system. The trailer for the movie nicely sets the tone:
As I was with the previous effort by this film’s director, Race to Nowhere – I am left with mixed feelings. I am reassured that our work in Canada, and particularly British Columbia is on the right track. From our shifts in teaching and learning in part fueled by the rethinking of our curriculum, to our move, albeit slower than some would like, to a post-standardized world of assessment where letter grades and system-wide tests are less important and ongoing feedback is more important – there is a lot happening around me that would be success stories in Beyond Measure. And while I see elements of familiarity between the common Canadian student experience and the common American student experience – while broadly over-generalizing, there are tremendous differences, and we seem to be moving further apart – with the Canadian system, far more in-tune with the themes of Race to Nowhere and Beyond Measure.
Of course there is always more to do. Beyond Measure reminds us that as we make up ground in one place, to truly move forward there are many pieces that have to move together. We are moving on testing, and images of a “zombie apocalypse” that Abeles shares in her book are not our reality, but we are not there yet – a work in progress. Other topics that Abeles raises from the volume of homework to college admissions are ones we continue to wrestle with. I was speaking with new teachers last week and was asked about homework “policy” in our district. We don’t have a central policy, but schools have guidelines, and I can say with certainty there is less homework now being given than a decade ago, the work is far more purposeful – but external pressure, often from parents remembering their school experience fights efforts to move beyond homework. The guidelines shared in Beyond Measure are strong aspirational goals – homework should advance a spirit of learning, homework should be student directed, homework should honour a balanced schedule.
Particularly heartening is that rather than just list problems, the book is really a call to action – what parents, educators and communities can do together. I feel some of this “action” right now in BC as we work together to move our system forward. If others are interested, the book is available here.
The screening of the film is Tuesday, October 27, 2015. Here is ticket information. If you can’t attend, encourage your community to bring the film to your local school or theatre and let’s keep this conversation going!
cultureofyes.ca 
Thanks for this post, Chris! I would certainly agree that the reality, as well as the some of the defining narratives are different south of the border. I remember writing about this during the last onslaught of documentaries came out about public education (http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/reel-reform-documentaries-spur-debate-about-educational-reform).
At that time, Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere topped the list of several films produced to sound the alarm about the need for education reform, if not transformation.
My personal conclusion then, I believe, still holds validity: The public conversation about the beliefs, values and assumptions that we hold when it comes to public education are important to forming a new narrative about the role of schools in the learning journey of people of all ages.
“Beyond Measure”, “More Likely To Succeed” and the other films that are still in process are an important way to engage our communities in these important issues and ideas. Lacking a strong cimematic contribution of our own to this conversation, anything that gets the conversation going and causes us to think out loud about how our systems “measure up” is, I believe, a good thing.
Looking forward to hearing how the conversations go there!
Hi Stephen – what was great about this film was that rather than just raising the alarm, like Waiting for Superman, it told the stories of real schools who were coming together as communities to do things differently – it was not just a story of a high end charter or private school – it was the story of real schools in real communities. What was also refreshing was that the transformation was far from linear, with a lot of challenges, frustrations and questions along the way. And as often happens, the movie was both reassuring and challenging . . . it is OK to be where we are – just not OK to stay there.
Reblogged this on adventuresinleadingandlearning and commented:
Thank you to Chris Kennedy for sharing