Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for ‘Superman’” might as well be titled “An Inconvenient Truth: The Sequel.” Like Guggenheim’s previous, Oscar-winning documentary about the environment, this is yet another horror film in the guise of a documentary.

It is impossible not to acknowledge that America’s education system is broken. Just 30 years ago, American schools were the envy of the world, but this year alone, hundreds of thousands of students will drop out. Many will end up in prison. Those who don’t face a lifetime of dead-end jobs. The students who make it to the end will graduate with an elementary school reading level, and math and science proficiency among the worst in the world.

“Waiting for ‘Superman’” follows five charismatic kids of differing geography, age, gender, race and circumstance who all have big dreams but even bigger hurdles — schools so bad they’re referred to as “dropout factories.” Bombarding us with statistic after statistic, it doesn’t take Guggenheim long to point the finger at teachers’ unions as the primary obstacle to reform.

The film touts charter academies as paradigms of reform. But with so few of them, the fight to get accepted is fierce.

Guggenheim ends “Waiting for ‘Superman’” with a plea for audience involvement. To his credit, his pitch works. I strode from the theater fantasizing about tossing my career aside and hacking my way into the blackboard jungle.

WAITING FOR SUPERMAN

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Rated: PG (for some thematic material, mild language and incidental smoking)

Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

GRADE: A-

Photo by Paramount Pictures