Eclectablog has run a series of articles about the Education Achievement Authority, the special district created by Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder to contain the state’s lowest performing schools.
The district is run by Broad-trained superintendent John Covington, who left Kansas City right before the district lost its accreditation.
The communications director for EAA complained about the Eclectablog series, for obvious reasons.
Here, another teacher speaks out. This teacher is a veteran, with 43 students in his or her class.
This is part of the interview:
Can you give me some specific examples.?
Yes, I can. For example, the BUZZ program. The BUZZ program does not work. I had 43 students in my classroom the first year…
All by yourself?
By myself. And, with the 43 students, I didn’t have enough computers. Just like other teachers have stated. There were not enough computers. And half the time the computers would freeze up or the internet would crash.
I really feel sorry for the Teach for America teachers because they had been put into an environment that they really were not prepared for. It was like throwing an inexperienced lion trainer into a cage full of lions. But, at the same time, if the EAA really wanted to help students, these so-called disadvantaged students or at-risk students, if they really cared about them, they would have brought in professional veterans like me; teachers who had been proven and in their career for quite a while, who knew what they were doing. That would have made sense.
It’s true that everything is based on the performance series testing, but at the same time how can you give students higher learning, critical thinking skills — they want them to do that — but not teach them the basics? But they wanted us to keep pushing and keep testing them. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work.
I got very frustrated because they kept asking me to use this Student Centered Learning (SCL) model and I knew it wasn’t working. I knew it wasn’t helping the children. So, I did what one of the other teachers in your articles did. I just ignored what the EAA administrators said and started doing the traditional things that I knew from years of experience work for children.
It’s true that they didn’t have any curriculum. No textbooks. A lot of times we didn’t have just basic supplies. So, I would go out of my own pocket and do what knew what I had to do. I had a lot of materials of my own from over the years and I would bring them in and supplement when the EAA was not giving me the materials that I needed. What they wanted me to do was put the kids on the computer and let them teach themselves. And half the time the computer program didn’t even work!
That’s the thing that blows my mind the most, that they designed the whole thing around computers and then didn’t give you guys enough to teach the kids with!
I’m speaking out because I feel for the children. And, you can quote me on this: This reminds me of the Tuskegee Experiment.
In other words, this is what states do to Other People’s Children, especially children of color.
You can be sure that you won’t find these methods in the upscale, well-funded schools of Grosse Pointe.
Every day the story on EAA keeps getting worse.
I’ve been hoping someone would come up with that analogy; I’ve been thinking of it for several weeks. The Rhode Island students went to their state house as “guinea pigs”… This reform movement is creating havoc and has devastating consequences for students. In Albany I told my family to ignore the test scores and support their high school students in every way…. At our library we have Malden Reads and I volunteer; I will see if there are ways to work in the Tuskeegee experiments with the Henrietta Lacks book this year. Any ideas or suggestions? It is parents and children in the community and we have more than 20 languages and I want to do it softly or gently based upon the Henrietta Lacks story…. if you have some thoughts on how to approach this let me know at jeanhaverhill@aol.com
I got push back on my Facebook page about the Tuskegee Experiment analogy from someone who basically said, “Yeah, the EAA is bad but not THAT bad. What’s next? Holocaust references?”
I don’t agree with that assessment because I would argue that this IS, in fact, “that bad”. These are children’s lives we’re talking about and, as bad as Detroit Public Schools were, most teachers believe this is actually making things WORSE for EAA students.
I bring this up so that you’re aware of potential push back you may receive so that you’re prepared to answer it.
– Chris (“Eclectablog”)
It’s what I call “Edufracking”.
Institutional Fracking is the process of forcing toxic waste materials into a bedrock of common resources for the purpose of breaking down the accumulated infrastructure and reaping private profits from the liquidated fraction that results.
Thanks, I understand your comment Eclectablog; on the Howard Zinn Education project is this quote today: “This crusade is much more important than the anti- lynching movement, because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom.” — Carter G. Woodson On Feb. 7, 1926, Woodson, initiated the first celebration of “Negro Hist…See More — with Rose Cannon.”
so we have an ethical and moral reason to extend our concepts of justice…. in our City library this year the community is reading biography of Henrietta Lacks ; social justice is an important understanding for the communities (and through our schools). It is a civil rights issue. When we have a child go through an IEP he gets “rights” — well every child is entitled to rights and that means resources. ALL Children…. the tests become a way of rationing resources and doling out “who deserves” the resources and that is an issue of justice.
I should also add that I was attacked pretty intensely on Twitter last night for agreeing with the Tuskegee Experiment comparison made by the teacher I interviewed. Apparently that makes me an obtuse racist (though I’ll confess that I’m still not sure how that works.)
Eclectablog, I watched the Twitter attacks about the comparison the EAA teacher made to the Tuskegee experiment and wondered why those attacking were more offended by the teacher’s remark than they were by the treatment of vulnerable children in the EAA.
Maybe this explains it? http://funnymonkey.com/comment/56411#comment-56411
“I will never stop advocating for schools that are in the best interests of kids and teachers. I care about ensuring that public education remains public, and that people get the resources they need – inside and outside schools….
But I will not stand with you if, in the name of social justice via education, you trample on issues of social justice. I will not stand with you if you use the facile reasoning that “we need to be provocative” in order to get attention. I will not stand with you if you justify intellectual laziness, hyperbole, and factual inaccuracy as okay because “the other side” is working to hurt kids. . . . [E]ven if I agree with your general positions on what teaching and learning should be – I will not blindly follow if you attempt to bring up Tuskegee, the Holocaust, slavery, or gender-based insults as rhetorical devices.”
this is very thoughtful and important for discussion; on one list I used the example of the women’s movement (in the civil rights era of the 60s) and I said we needed the younger women who were willing to burn bras; I got a lot of reaction for that , in particular, an upheaval from some who said “the women’s movement failed” So then I pointed to Act Up and said they needed some of these viewpoints from their group. I think it took a few of the students who were willing to pour blood on the draft records (in the war effort)…. I regret that it erupted to the point of Kent State and I don’t think we had fully prepared the young people on the campus for what they were facing….
I will not stand with you if you use the facile reasoning that “we need to be provocative” in order to get attention.
On another topic, during the women’s movement we were often defined as “backlash”. This is the wrong interpretation…. we need better and more substantial ways to describe what we are doing and not to be called “backlash” I don’t know if this helps or obfuscates the issues.
j
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
It had been a while, so I guess we were overdue for one of these. Good grief.
Michelle Rhee also endorsed the EAA, along with Arne Duncan, Eli Broad and Michael Bloomberg:
“LANSING, MI — StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee, whose aggressive approach to education reform has made her a lightning rod across the country, believes that Michigan is leading the nation with innovative education initiatives.
“The governor and the legislature are leading the way,” Rhee said Thursday during a keynote address at the Mackinac Policy Conference, an annual gathering of Michigan business and government leaders.
“Some of the things the state has done — in terms of things like the (Education Achievement Authority) taking over low-performing schools, some of the work around teacher quality — are innovations and initiatives that I think are going to lead the rest of the country for the next few years.”
So can we hold them to that? Will all of these great and courageous leaders be held accountable for rubber-stamping this experiment?
Because just about every ed reform notable in the country has enthusiastically embraced this, with ZERO evidence that it has any value at all.
It will be tough to end this. We have a lot of giant egos and national celebrities who will be loathe to admit they made a mistake.
I have been around for a long time now. I am still shocked and appalled when I read about what is actually going on. What is wrong with people?! Chris aforementioned that these are children’s lives we are talking about.
We fought for civil rights and women’s rights. We have to do the same for public education. Keep it going. People will “get it” eventually, and we hope for sooner rather than later.
It is frightening that big business is behind this. David slew Goliath.
We did fight for civil rights. Yet we continue to have de facto segregation, with the inner-city poor being predominantly people of color. The ed-deform movement targets the inner-city poor with ‘experiments’ such as EAA, parallel to the Tuskegee Experiment: “let’s see what happens when we remove education from those unable to pay for it, and tell them they’re getting ‘innovative education.'” The difference: today we have Civil Rights laws on the books. What will happen to those laws when the inevitable lawsuits reach today’s Supreme Court? I’m guessing they may go the same way as affirmative action laws; more recently, a SCOTUS decision has opened chinks in the voting rights laws. If we leave it up to SCOTUS, we may shortly find ourselves back in the ’50’s. Now that the sleeping beast– the inner-city voter– is finally awakening, pressure needs to be brought to bear, first on electing people who represent the voters’ will, then on state legislation to re-instate civil rights. I am hoping SCOTUS is sufficiently states-rights oriented that civil rights will be allowed to stand where it is affirmed by state legislation.
But then again, Detroit is bankrupt– under a city controller… the auto-industry, once the economic anchor for the entire state, is on the skids. It may well be that civil rights in Michigan are entirely dependent on the fed gov at the moment, & rights cannot return until the state can re-tool & bring in new industry. Civil Rights were ushered in on an extended economic boom. The EAA is a parable showing how delicate and economy-dependent civil rights in fact are.
Comparing students to lions. Nice. Definitely how I want my child described.
Well, if the descriptions of some of the students behaviors (and I fault the administration for allowing those behaviors to continue) are accurate then “comparing students to lions” is being nice.
Inaccurate. He compared the situation to that of putting an untrained/prepared lion trainer into a cage with lions. The comparison is of first-year teachers (mostly TFA) to unprepared lion trainers, not kids to lions.
Thank you eclectablog once again for telling the real story.I feel sorry for the staff and students. My question is this, “Why did Arne Duncan do a photo op with Snyder in the EAA?” Why would the head of the USDOE ever stand alongside someone doing this to children? Why wouldn’t this be on the Detroit nightly news night after night??? They had stories about DPS on the news night after night discrediting the system in the past. Also, why no stories about all of the con jobs going on in the city’s charters????? I find it hilarious every time Obama makes a speech about increasing the middle class and wages. He has aided in the destruction of decent pay and wages for teachers. What a shame.
reblogged from the Fordham Institute: This individual takes on the issues of social justice…
Renee Nal • 12 hours ago
Hi friends. I wrote the original article, and would like to respond to the “lies, damned lies” –
[Mr. Petrilli ] points out, “common core” does not mean “social justice,” and in fact, he agreed with me that “social justice” in math classes is outrageous. This was the crux of my article.
When I was contacted by Fox and Friends, I specifically told them to make sure they said that the courses were “aligned,” and the real story was about the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics- a reputable organization from what I have seen – touting these creepy math courses as common core aligned, which (for supporters of the standards) would give them an air of legitimacy. If a reputable organization is using “common core aligned” to tout their historically flawed political messaging, supporters should see this as a major potential problem. I get that there is flexibility in the requirements specifically so that they can be tailored for some semblance of autonomy for the course designers, I guess.
I believe that we have become quite polarized on this issue, as well as many others. We have a tendency to “knee-jerk” (I know I do). I think (I hope) that most people are ideologically much closer than we think we are. For the sake of coming together and working on solutions, perhaps we can all take a breath and stop calling each-other names. Perhaps we can try to work together first – perhaps I should have found a common core advocate before I wrote my piece.
Perhaps my astonishment that a math course for sixth graders included a discussion whether the 2000 election was “fair” clouded my judgement.
Personally (and perhaps not relevant to this conversation), I have many issues with common core standards. Who, specifically, wrote these standards and where is the documentation that backs up the claim that the common core standards have been empirically tested? Perhaps I have missed this along the way. The endless push to implement these standards, and the massive amount of taxpayer money given to the states to incorporate these standards gives me great pause.
Social Justice courses aside, there is a reason “common core” is so controversial. Nobody has sold it to the American people. And the more people learn about it, the less they seem to like it.