In a comment sent to the blog, Terry Abbott, the communications director for Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority, vigorously denies the charges leveled against the EAA by the blogger Eclectablog. In another comment, he said that since I had not visited the EAA, I was in no position to judge the truth or falsity of the claims. This is true. I have never visited the EAA schools. Since I write about schools nationwide, it is true that I often write about cities, districts, and schools that I have not personally visited. In this instance, the reader will have to sit in judgment: Do you believe the teachers who spoke off-the-record to Eclectablog for fear of losing their jobs, or do you believe the official communications director for Governor Rick Snyder’s Education Achievement Authority? Or, then again, you might want to make no judgment until there is more evidence available about the progress of the EAA. I note that Eclectablog previously wrote that Terry Abbott’s response to earlier criticism was to “attack the messenger” rather than respond to the substance of the criticism. Here he does respond to the substance. I welcome Eclectablog’s comments.
Let’s be fair-minded and give Terry Abbott and the EAA a hearing:
Dr. Ravitch, because you used the false claims in the Eclectablog as the basis for your own blog, I am posting here, and requesting that you publish, this response:
Response from the Education Achievement Authority to largely false allegations published in the Eclectablog on January 22, 2014
On January 22, 2014 a political blog with a history of vehement opposition to education reform and the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan published a more than 4,500-word attack on the educators who make up the historic school turnaround effort in Michigan that is the Education Achievement Authority.
This political attack on Michigan’s effort to save failing schools was comprised entirely of anonymous statements allegedly made to a blogger by educators. No names, dates or locations were provided to readers of the blog to support the allegations.
Educators throughout the Education Achievement Authority’s 15 schools in Detroit have thoroughly reviewed the anonymous allegations allegedly reported to this political blog and have determined almost all of them are false.
Here is the truth from real educators in Detroit about the anonymous allegations contained in the political blog posting:
Special needs education:
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used anonymous alleged sources to claim that special needs students are neglected and that teachers are not provided with Individualized Education Plans for students.
The truth: Educators in EAA schools report these anonymous allegations are false. All teachers have access to the Individualized Education Plans every day. Every EAA school provides quality support and services for special needs students. The blog’s anonymous allegations to the contrary are patently false.
In fact, Education Achievement Authority schools are serving a higher percentage of special needs students than are other state schools:
Special needs students
State Reporting Data for 2012-2013 School Year:
EAA: 17.6%
State: 13.0%
Students identified as cognitively Impaired
EAA: 17.4%
State: 9.8%
Special education students are served and the enrollment is increasing as shown below for an additional 126 students since the start of the school year. Here are the numbers and percentages of EAA students with special needs being served each month during the 2013-14 school year
September – 343 Elementary, 728 Secondary 1071 total
Elem 32.0% Secondary 68.0%
October – 367 Elementary, 762 Secondary 1129 total
Elem 32.5% Secondary 67.5%
November – 376 Elementary, 788 Secondary 1164 total
Elem 32.3% Secondary 67.7%
December – 382 Elementary, 784 Secondary 1176 total
Elem 32.5% Secondary 67.5%
Discipline of school employees or students who are physically abusive:
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used anonymous alleged sources to claim that school employees who “have been seen physically abusing” students and “violent students” who endanger teachers are not punished or suspended.
The truth: Educators in EAA schools report these anonymous allegations are false. On the rare occasions when students have made physical contact with educators, they have been punished appropriately. And on the even rarer occasions when an employee has made inappropriate physical contact with a student, the employee has dealt with appropriately. The anonymous allegations that no action was taken are false.
Unlike the political blog, which provided no school names nor any other information to back up its anonymous allegations, real EAA educators did provide school names and detailed facts in their review of the false anonymous allegations in the blog:
• Brenda Scott Elementary/Middle School: A security officer who allegedly pushed a student was terminated from employment at EAA. A five-year-old student bit a teacher and was suspended.
• Mumford High School: A teacher who made physical contact with a student left the district. The matter had been resolved in a meeting with a parent and administrators. Another student allegedly made physical contact with a security officer and was suspended. Another student was arrested for physical contact with an employee and making a threat. The student also was suspended.
• Denby High School: A food service worker who allegedly made physical contact with a student was terminated from employment at EAA. A student who made inappropriate contact with a teacher was suspended.
• Bethune Elementary/Middle School: Two teachers allegedly pushed a student. Both were placed on administrative leave during a formal investigation. One of the teachers was allowed to return to work with no conclusive evidence found of the action, but the teacher chose to resign. The other teacher was suspended and then left the school.
• Southeastern High School: Two students alleged two different incidents by two different employees of physical contact by the employees. A thorough investigation by EAA district officials and the school did not conclude inappropriate physical contact. Both employees remained on administrative leave during the investigation and both returned to their jobs following the investigation. During the 2012-13 school year, there were two incidents in which students pushed or grabbed a teacher. These students were suspended and then expelled. During the current school year, one teacher was hit in the nose while interceding in an altercation between two students. Both students were suspended and recommended for expulsion. A disciplinary hearing judge reviewed the case and allowed one student to return to school after serving a suspension. The judge ruled the other student would be suspended for 90 days and then removed to an alternative program.
• Pershing High School: During the 2012-13 school year staff members were disciplined for incidents. A student allegedly verbally abused a staff member and made inappropriate contact with the staff member. The investigation is ongoing. In another matter, a teacher allegedly grabbed a student. The teacher was placed on leave but an investigation cleared him to return to work. In another matter, a teacher had a verbal confrontation with a student. An investigation was conducted and the teacher no longer works at the school.
• Nolan Elementary School: This school year, one staff member was pulled on the arm by a 7-year-old student and was suspended. A second staff member was accidentally hit in the nose during an elementary student altercation on a school bus. Both students involved in the altercation were suspended.
• Phoenix Academy: A student bit a teacher and was suspended.
• Ford High School: Two students were alleged to have made inappropriate contact with a staff member. Both students were suspended. A third student is under investigation after a similar claim.
• Burns Elementary/Middle: A student allegedly made physical contact with a teacher and paraprofessional. The student was suspended.
Teaching model:
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that a school has “changed our teaching model twice this year and we’re going to change again in February.”
The truth: Educators in EAA schools report this anonymous allegation is false. There is no change in teaching model during the course of the school year. However, with each administration of the district’s Performance Series tests, schools assess their students’ mastery and adjust instructional levels as needed. The teaching model does not change.
Metal detectors:
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that an elementary school has a metal detector that does not work and that no one checks it.
The truth: Educators in EAA schools report this anonymous allegation is false. All metal detectors at all elementary schools are in working order and are monitored. One metal detector at Henry Ford High School is out of order, two at Mumford High are out of order, and one at Pershing High is out of order. Repairs have been ordered.
Class sizes:
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that the number of students in school classrooms is too large, sometimes reaching almost 50 students.
The truth: Educators in EAA schools report this anonymous allegation is largely false. EAA schools have no regular classes that are larger than 49 students, as is alleged in the political blog.
• Nolan Elementary School uses a unique “Hub” design that involves pulling students into small groups throughout the day for English Language Arts instruction, social studies, math and science. One of these special Hub units at Nolan has 51 students and the other has 52. Paraprofessionals work in both Hubs to support the classroom teachers throughout the day. When the students are pulled back out of the Hubs, the classroom teacher is left with 37 students and a paraprofessional for assistance.
• Central High School has no core instructional classrooms that exceed 49 students. The only class that exceeds 49 is a physical education class which has a total of 64 students, which is below the state limit of 70.
Training of Teacher for America teachers:
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that Teach For America program graduates at EAA schools “had a scant five weeks of training before they were assigned to a classroom full of kids.”
The truth: Educators at EAA report this anonymous allegation is completely false. The truth is that teachers from the Teach For America program participate in a five-week summer training institute with Teach for America prior to beginning their teaching assignment. As part of this assignment they teach in an urban classroom. They must also pass the state test in their area of certification prior to the start of the school year. Then, the Teach for America teachers receive two more weeks of professional development training from the EAA prior to the start of school and they receive coaching from both Teach for America and the Education Achievement Authority. These teachers also are assigned a mentor to help them, and they participate in regular professional development training through both the EAA and Teach for America.
Teacher turnover
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used anonymous alleged sources to claim that EAA’s teacher turnover rate this year is 20 percent, and that “last fall, they had to hire around 40 new teachers after the school year was already underway.”
The truth: Educators at EAA report these anonymous allegations are false.
The teacher turnover rate in EAA schools this year is 6.83 percent, not the 20 percent claimed in the uncredited, unsourced political blog. EAA schools replaced 29 teachers this year, which is 28 percent below the replacement rate claimed in the political blog.
Loss of special education teachers
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that a school “lost our entire special ed department.”
The truth: Educators at EAA schools report this anonymous allegation is false.
Educators report that no school in the Education Achievement Authority lost its entire special education department.
Training and support for teachers
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that the Education Achievement Authority provides no instructional coaches to help teachers and no support for new teachers.
The truth: Educators at EAA schools report this anonymous allegation is false.
All new teachers at Education Achievement Authority schools receive two weeks of professional development prior to the start of school. In addition, they are assigned a mentor and have access to on-demand professional development, virtual and face to face, and instructional coaches who are able to model best teaching practices and provide additional support. Schools have a full schedule of professional development to support the needs of teachers. Teachers also have the opportunity to participate in district level workshops and new teacher professional development twice a month after school.
Performance bonuses for teachers
The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that pay-for-performance bonuses should have been made to teachers in October but have been withheld until spring.
The truth: Educators at EAA report this anonymous allegation is false.
The pay-for-performance bonuses obviously cannot be awarded until the performance reports are released by the state of Michigan, when MEAP results are published. This fact was communicated to teachers during the 2012-13 school year and again through meetings at the schools in December of 2013.
Technology resources for students
The anonymous accusation: The political blog claimed that schools do not have enough technology for every student in every classroom.
The truth: This is the only allegation in the blog posting that is partially true. EAA schools have thousands of computers but needs new ones to replace older model computers that require continued maintenance. EAA sought and received bids in January for new mobile devices for students, and will be receiving about 3,000 new notebook computers to make sure the needs of students are met.
Included among the educators who provided this information to set the record straight are:
Marquis Stewart, Scott Elementary/Middle; Dwayne Richardson, Burns Elementary/Middle; Ronnie Belle, Law Academy; Antoinette Pearson, Bethune Elementary/Middle; Malon Harris, Murphy Elementary/Middle; Angela Underwood, Nolan Elementary/Middle; Alex Cintron, Phoenix Academy; Stephen McGhee, Central Collegiate Academy; Tracie McKissic, Denby High; Mark Mayberry, Ford High; Kenyetta Wilbourn, Mumford High; Gregory King, Pershing High; Jeffrey Maxwell, Southeastern High; Mary Esselman, EAA Central Office; MiUndrae Prince, EAA Central Office; Kevin Magin, EAA Central Office.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks for publishing this response. Without “on site” inspections, it is difficult to have a definitive opinion about which allegations are accurate, isn’t it?
Yeah teachers are generally liars, right Joe? As if this would occur when being officially “inspected”.
No, I’m not saying “teachers generally are liars.”
I’m saying there are very different facts being presented. I’ve found it useful to have neutral observers check things out when there are significantly different descriptions of a situation.
“Neutral”???
So we’re treading into “he said, she said” territory. Considering the student population loss from last year (somewhere between 15 and 25%), I’m inclined to believe Eclectablog. Remember, this is an election year and the governor desperately needs to promote this as a success story. Rick Snyder has generally signed what the legislature places on his desk especially after noting that it wasn’t on his agenda.
Only two large initiatives were pushed by Snyder: the slashing of business taxes (and the resulting loss of school funding that came with it) and the EAA. He has little else that can be attributed to him.
I have friends that work in suburbs that border on Detroit. They both report that their middle schools got swarmed by kids who attended the EAA last year. The model has gotten off to a rocky start. And it’s based on creating a test-taking culture for the “good of the adults.” So the governor and his Broad-trained EAA chief John Covington look good. LAst year the conservative (and I mean conservative) Detroit News published a story about the EAA in which one staff member said “We have worked hard to create a test-preparation culture here.” So, they’re gaming the system.
I keep waiting for the Snyder administration to send some of their own kids to the wonderful EAA. But I guess Greenhills in Ann Arbor is more their speed with its $20,000+ tuition.
It’s been widely reported they had declining enrollment and money problems and were looking for a new university partner, hasn’t it?
I read it in a Detroit paper:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131230/SCHOOLS/312300023/Michigan-s-school-recovery-district-crossroads?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
The EAA is awful. I know a bunch of people who quit and others who want to quit. Teachers did not have enough materials at the start. I know someone who witnessed a fight with about 200 students. It’s bad. The drop in student population says it all. Also, the staff is not leaving for “personal reasons”. It is a rough environment to work in. People conclude it is just too stressful and not worth it.
Just so we’re clear, this isn’t about believing ME (unless people think I’m just making these interviews up.) It’s about believing the many teachers that I have spoken with.
Yes, and for once people are hearing the reality from the teachers point of view. We have only gotten to read or hear about puff pieces from local media and Rick Snyder.
I love all the “pretty” sounding reasons they give for teachers leaving untenable situations.
He’s not the only one who has made these claims. This is from last year:
The Education Achievement Authority — battling sliding enrollment and political controversy amid an uncertain future with its university partner — should rethink its strategy in educating students as it intervenes to reform failing schools, education experts say.
They also say Michigan lawmakers should cool their heels on plans to expand the 15-school district.
When lawmakers return in January, among their first order of business will be to discuss whether to expand the EAA by adding more schools from across the state. A bill to do that stalled in the state House this month.
State Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, said the EAA remains an experiment. He sees it as a temporary solution to turning around failing schools.
“We still aren’t sure it’s working. I’m open to discussions on what else we can do,” McMillin said.
Kenneth Wong, a professor of education at Brown University who has researched statewide recovery school districts across the nation, cites the EAA’s 24 percent drop in enrollment from fall 2012 to fall 2013 as a significant sign of trouble.
The district and its leaders should pause and consider whether they are matching the right educational partners and services with students in a city with high poverty and illiteracy, he said.
“This is a strong warning signal as to whether to keep this going. The leadership team would really have to make a strong argument ‘if you give us another two years,’ ” he said.
“Why is this justified to go forward?”
Michigan is not alone as it tries to turn around its worst-performing schools. Across the nation, at least 29 states, such as Louisiana and Tennessee, have adopted policies that allow the takeover of local school districts.Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder created the EAA in 2011 to take over the state’s failing schools, defined as those in the bottom 5 percent of student achievement. The EAA operates 15 schools — all former Detroit Public Schools buildings — although the state has 137 failing schools.
Snyder has said he wants lawmakers to authorize the district to take in additional schools. Dave Murray, a spokesman for the governor, said the EAA schools are helping students learn better.
“These schools have taken an innovative approach through highly individualized learning plans and no set grade levels,” Murray said. “We’ve already seen some dramatic academic gains, and expect that progress will continue.”
Unlike the Tennessee and Louisiana recovery districts that collaborate with a local school board, the EAA reports to its own board, one appointed by the governor. The elected school board for DPS has no say in EAA operations.
Plagued by questions about its curriculum, teacher turnover, declining enrollment and long-term financial viability, the EAA is at a crossroads.
The district, which has a $92.3 million budget this school year, needed millions of dollars in loans last school year.
Michael Brickman, national policy director at the Fordham Institute in Washington, D.C.,who is studying the EAA, said state-run recovery districts aren’t magic solutions to fix failing schools.
Brickman, who has studied the Louisiana and Tennessee systems, said key stakeholders — students, parents, teachers — tend to resist change. “No amount of listening is going to overcome those who are deeply invested in the way things are already done,” he said.
“For a dramatic change like this, you are going to see dramatic opposition.”
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131230/SCHOOLS/312300023#ixzz2sM5qxS1M
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131230/SCHOOLS/312300023/Michigan-s-school-recovery-district-crossroads?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
I forgot, that the State Superintendent of the School Board, Mike Flanagan, showed some resistance to adding statewide failing schools to the EAA. A bill is in the legislature to shift these schools to ISDs or neighboring districts with a track record of success rather than the EAA. It appears to have some bipartisan support the last I read. Seems that wouldn’t be necessary if the EAA was doing such excellent work. But we’ll see because the student attendance loss is making it already financially unstable. With continued loss, this model may fail sooner than later.
Here’s another:
The charge here seems to be that the EAA wants to expand their reach for students because enrollment didn’t meet expectations and they have to fund the schools and pay on the money they borrowed from the district:
http://www.freep.com/article/20131216/OPINION05/312160019/Michigan-public-schools-EAA
And, from Michigan Public Radio, on the financial problems:
http://michiganradio.org/post/foia-documents-reveal-financial-troubles-loans-education-achievement-authority
It baffles me why they’re having to file FOIA requests to get access to financials on public money. Upper midwest states like Michigan have historically had strong “sunshine laws”, it’s almost a state law tradition in those states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan).
What gives with the secrecy in these take-overs?
Mr. Abbott complains about anonymous reports with no names, dates, or other identifying information. He then “refutes” those claims based on reports and investigations by “educators in the EEA”. Um, aren’t those “educators” equally anonymous at this point? How about Mr. Abbott give us some names, dates and other identifying information? After all, these educators would have no reason to fear for their jobs, would they? So let’s see who steps up to own these alleged reports.
Nice try, though, Mr. Abbott.
Oops, that’s EAA, of course.
Ah – I do stand corrected – I see he’s listed the names at the end. I’d be curious who these people are, though. What grades do they teach? Are they TFAers? How long have they been in the district?
My comment on Ravitch’s blog:
Most if not all of the individuals Abbott lists are school principals. Which simply confirms Eclectablog’s point that the “investigation” merely involved Covington communicating to those directly under him who serve at his pleasure. I think Abbott believes he is being clever to include names, in contrast to the teachers in the blog interview who, out of well – founded terror of losing their jobs and other forms of retribution, insisted on anonymity. Abbott doesn’t understand that readers of this blog didn’t have Buzz and Brain Honey as teachers, and can therefore see the lack of equivalence in comparing principals who are willing to put their names to statements that Covington wants them to make, versus teachers who are afraid of putting their names to statements Covington doesn’t want them to make.
Thomas C. Pedroni
https://sites.google.com/site/thomascharlespedroni/
Listing names at the end isn’t the same as providing a name and job title to go with each assertion. I think your initial point stands, this is anonymous claim v. anonymous claim.
They are largely principals of the various. You can see the original report by EAA Chancellor Covington from which most of Mr. Abbott’s response comes from HERE (pdf). It shows their positions and the schools where they work.
It’s worth noting that I’ve been contacted by close to a dozen teachers and their stories all support each other’s claims. That’s not a coincidence in my book.
Dienne: the “new math” of the charterites/privatizers is like a boxer trying to win the championship belt—
By the challenger pursuing a strategy of letting the current champ exhaust himself and possibly break his hands by repeatedly hitting the challenger in the head with his best shots.
There is massaging numbers and stats. Then there is torturing them. Then there is making them up. Apparently the charterites/privatizers are abandoning those strategies in favor of providing their critics with irrefutable evidence of lack of good sense. Is 49 the new 50?
😎
And if Eclectablog is right that the investigation by EAA was as hasty and superficial as described in his comments below, done by the very people least capable of providing objective and reliable information, then EAA has done us all an invaluable service by putting the final nails in their own coffin.
If only they would abandon their diehard adherence to Marxist doctrine:
“The secret of life is honest and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” [y’all know which Marx I’m referring to]
😎
You used the word “anonymous” 38 times, Mr. Abbott.
38 times.
Rather than discrediting the brave teachers who have come forward, and there are now many of them, I think with that you have more profoundly proven the point I have been trying to make than I ever could have: the EAA has created a culture of fear and an environment where teachers are afraid to speak out and terrified of retribution. In addition to the multiple teacher interviews I have already published, I have six more lined up. Not all of these are anonymous as some of them have left the program and are no longer in fear of what the EAA can do to them.
The “facts” that you present here are the result of Dr. Covington doing a quick poll of the people who directly report to him — the principals (my original blog came out at 9 p.m. on Jan. 22nd and this report was released the following Sunday.) He asked them whether they are using corporal punishment, whether there are safety issues in EAA schools, and if they are breaking federal law with regard to special needs students constitutes an “investigation”. It can’t possibly surprise you that these administrators didn’t admit to these things. It reminds me of Chris Christie’s laughable “investigation” of his staff over the George Washington Bridge scandal.
A more thorough investigation, one that acknowledges that there may be something to this with so many teachers coming forward now that they have a safe haven from which to speak, would involve giving teachers full protection from retaliation and retribution so that they could speak freely. It would involve interviewing some of the dozens of teachers who have already left the EAA. It would involve speaking to the parents of the students who left last year, fully ONE-QUARTER of the student population after the first year alone.
As more and more teachers step forward, I think we’ll begin to see more of them willing to use their names because, now that the sanitizing light of public awareness has been shown upon this situation, they no longer have to live in fear of an oppressive administration that leaves them feeling powerless. And, without a union to protect them, they ARE powerless.
It’s a shameful way to treat educators, particularly those who doing hard and important work in one of the most difficult teaching environments in America. I can all but guarantee you that, after their two-year mandatory stint in your school is done this summer, you will see an exodus of the Teach for America teachers, adding to those who have already left.
The EAA is a school system based on a platform that relies nearly exclusively on the use of computer instruction. Yet, by your own admission, the schools don’t have adequate numbers of computers to do that. It’s a school system that is intended to rapidly turn around the worst schools in our state yet one half of the teachers have never taught — in ANY school — before they came to the EAA. For these reasons and more, many of us are asking why this system seems designed to fail. Why would you do the exact OPPOSITE of what any rational person would say is the sensible approach to solve this intractable problem in Detroit?
That is the question we would like an answer to. And we would very much like the answer to that question BEFORE the system is codified into our state law and expanded statewide.
I’m not against education reform, Mr. Abbott. I am against THIS “reform” that looks very much like a system designed to fail so that for-profit charter schools can swoop in and save the day, funneling our tax dollars into their bank accounts in the process. If it takes a “political blog” (a phrase you used 18 times, btw) to make that happen, so be it.
Bravo.
I have a friend who is now in her second year in the EAA. The few things I have heard from her, which aren’t much, because she knows I am not a fan of what Snyder is trying to do to public ed here in Michigan, and specifically with my opinion on the EAA, and of course, she is truly trying to turn her school around, she certainly has had quite an eye opener. As soon as she finds a new job, which she is currently looking for, I will ask. I am sure her story will mirror the above stories. Nice investigative work Eclectoblog….keep the info. coming. The truth will set public ed free!
If Michigan’s economy was really humming there wouldn’t be any teachers in the EAA. I can’t believe all of the lies and propaganda coming out of Snyder admin who claimed he would be all about transparency. Maybe the people in the city will come out and vote in droves to vote Snyder out in the fall.
Love this one:
“The truth is that teachers from the Teach For America program participate in a five-week summer training institute with Teach for America prior to beginning their teaching assignment. As part of this assignment they teach in an urban classroom. They must also pass the state test in their area of certification prior to the start of the school year. Then, the Teach for America teachers receive two more weeks of professional development training from the EAA prior to the start of school and they receive coaching from both Teach for America and the Education Achievement Authority. These teachers also are assigned a mentor to help them, and they participate in regular professional development training through both the EAA and Teach for America.”
Oh, so the TFAers had *seven* weeks of training before taking on a classroom full of kids, not merely five. Well, that eases my mind.
Keep flailing, Mr. Abbott – let us know when you’d like a life preserver.
The State of Michigan requires that students do 12 weeks of student teaching, in a real classroom! Some colleges, like Wayne State, require a student to do some in a suburban school, and some in an urban school. TFA trains them for 5 weeks, not in a classroom, and calls “pot good” because they have a bachelor’s degree. What kind of sham is that? I guess a good one, because Wendy Kopft, of TFA, sure has a lot of friends in high places, from Bill Gates to J. Crew! A bachelor’s degree does NOT a teacher make! Michigan Teachers have a bachelors degree, an additional 30 college credits in education to go with that bachelors degree, take all the major, minor, and basic skills tests, 18 college credits within 5 years of their Provisional Cert. begin issued, up to this year, 6 college credits every 5 years and 30 PD hours yearly to retain your Professional Certificate. Now, we have to have 30 PD hours yearly to keep our certificate issued, every five years. Saying your teachers are “The truth is that teachers from the Teach For America program participate in a five-week summer training institute with Teach for America prior to beginning their teaching assignment. As part of this assignment they teach in an urban classroom. They must also pass the state test in their area of certification prior to the start of the school year. Then, the Teach for America teachers receive two more weeks of professional development training from the EAA prior to the start of school and they receive coaching from both Teach for America and the Education Achievement Authority. These teachers also are assigned a mentor to help them, and they participate in regular professional development training through both the EAA and Teach for America,” should be the most EMBARRASSING rebuttal EVER! I would NEVER let my own kids be taught by people with such little experience, and thrown to the wolves without even a teacher present 24-7, such as in a student teaching setting. A mentor is just not sufficient! Horrible model, will get you horrible results and make TFA teachers run for the hills.
I agree Dienne. Seven weeks vs a college major – same difference?
From December of last year. There’s a lot of names in this reporting:
“EMU’s Dean of Education Dr. Jann Joseph resigned from the EAA board Dec. 1 after 31 members of the faculty in the EMU College of Education publicly supported breaking away from the troubled district. The EAA was created by an agreement between the university’s board of regents and then Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts in 2011. To start, the EAA took 15 DPS buildings, their contents and state funding despite protests from the DPS elected board and community members.
To protest EMU’s ties with the EAA, six Washtenaw County districts and the Taylor school district are all refusing to allow EMU student teachers to practice in their schools
The EMU faculty protest continued at the Dec. 10, EMU Board of Regents meeting. “Affiliation with the politically-motivated, dysfunctionally-deployed and pedagogically-unsupportable EAA has tarnished our reputation,” said Steve Camron, EMU associate professor of special education. “The development, operations and instructional practices of the EAA run counter to our college’s mission, values and teaching.”
Camron was one of eight speakers asking the EMU regents to break ties with the EAA. EMU regents are appointees of the governor.
Meanwhile at the Dec. 3 meeting of the EAA, little was said about the drop in enrollment this fall. However, the effects of fewer pupils were visible in the amended budget. State revenues based on student head count are $3.7 million less than first projected for 2014. However, the federal department of education gave EAA $21.9 million more to spend than originally anticipated. In its first year, EAA had to borrow $12 million using DPS borrowing authority.”
http://michigancitizen.com/eaa-collapsing/
As I said, this has been widely reported. I’d also be curious to know the entire federal investment in Governor Snyder’s experiment. This report says an 21.9 million “more” from the feds.
This is fun:
“The anonymous accusation: The political blog used an anonymous alleged source to claim that the number of students in school classrooms is too large, sometimes reaching almost 50 students.
The truth: Educators in EAA schools report this anonymous allegation is largely false. EAA schools have no regular classes that are larger than 49 students, as is alleged in the political blog.”
Oh well, 49 then, that’s okay. As long as it’s not 50 – that would be too much.
It’s like how they advertise $9.99! instead of ten dollars 🙂
As an inner city public school teacher and administrator, I can verify that we sometimes had vocal and instrumental music, as well as gym classes that had 50 or more students in them with one instructor.
Does anyone have facts about which classes have 49-50 students in them?
Keep defending the posers Joe. Always the frauds over the teachers.
Joe, he specifically said only 49 or less in REGULAR classes, nothing about special classes, except gym, which had well over 50 students.
Couldn’t agree more. Once again, most ridiculous rebuttal EVER! Phew, 49 makes me feel soooo much better than 50!
Sorry, my attention faded right after “historic school turnaround effort …” — did he say anything that wasn’t straight out of the ALEC script?
So go ahead and give Terry Abbott his fair hearing but know that he has been training for this role over a long period of time. Here is a clip from a 2007 Susan Ohanian post.
“Houston ISD press secretary Terry Abbott’s advice is in demand among school districts hoping to get more positive coverage from their local media. According to this story in Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind., Abbott visited last month to offer some tips for working with reporters. His trip was coordinated through the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation. That’s the same non-profit school reform group that dubbed Houston ISD the best urban school district in America in 2002, before the rest of the nation learned that HISD has drastically under-reported the number of students who dropped out of its schools.”
“The EAA is a school system based on a platform that relies nearly exclusively on the use of computer instruction.”
I’d like to have a real discussion about this. I’d like to know why we’re going to “computer instruction” for kids in low income areas.
I’m seeing more and more of this in ed reform. How do they justify conducting this experiment exclusively on low income kids?
Why don’t I see wealthier suburban districts in Michigan going to classes of 50 kids + computers?
Why do I suspect other peoples’ kids are going to get stuck with “computer instruction” rather than teachers? If this is such a great idea, who don’t ed reformers put it in somewhere wealthier first?
I have never understood why the bubble test or its computer version is considered a quality measure of learning. A student is never asked to recall and synthesize information. Rather the students are generally only asked to recall the correct information from a list of choices. What a mind numbing vision of education!
“I have never understood why the bubble test or its computer version is considered a quality measure of learning.”
2O2T,
Don’t even try understanding, you might as well be beating yourself in the head with a hammer, because it isn’t a quality measure of anything because those tests aren’t measuring devices and therefore cannot measure anything.
What sticks out in the numerous news reports about the problems in the EAA is the response from ed reformers to reports about financial problems, declining enrollment, loss of a university sponsor, etc.
The response was and is EXPAND IT. Rush an expansion through the state legislature. Pull in some more students.
To me that means this was never an “experiment”. The plan was expansion, and facts be damned. They’re going to expand it whether it’s “collapsing” or not.
That’s not a school system. It’s a business plan that is dependent on a constant stream of new students. Do they need additional students to make the payments on the money they borrowed? Doesn’t that give them a powerful incentive to capture more public schools to keep the revenue stream going?
Joe Nathan
February 4, 2014 at 8:15 am
As an inner city public school teacher and administrator, I can verify that we sometimes had vocal and instrumental music, as well as gym classes that had 50 or more students in them with one instructor.
Joe, you’re not addressing one of the main points of the piece. The Detroit EAA is being held up as an example of “computer based instruction”. That’s the experiment on these kids. They took a developer of a system called “Buzz” from Kansas City and plunked it down in Detroit. Detroit charters are known for this. It’s all over the city under “reform”.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Governor Snyder came out of the tech industry!
That’s why they have huge class sizes. They justify the huge class sizes by pointing to the tech.
Joe Nathan, here you go. This is what’s going on in Detroit.
Detroit is a huge experiment in “blended learning”:
You can read all about how fabulous BUZZ is in Detroit from a noted national ed reformer who also seems to work for some ed tech organizations, judging by his disclosures at the bottom of the page:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on_innovation/2013/04/whats_all_the_buzz_about_detroit.html
Chiara – Some creative district public school educators also are using various forms of “blended” learning:
http://hometownsource.com/2012/02/22/minnesota-educators-use-creative-online-resources-to-promote-learning/
Joe, I have yet to see a low income area where this hasn’t been used to justify increased class sizes and cutting costs on staff.
It’s not like the promoters hide it. Right after “personalized learning” comes “efficiency” in the sales pitch.
My eldest son works for a huge tech company. He spent his entire childhood taking computers apart and putting them back together. He’s been working in the field since he was 17.
HE thinks this is a bad idea, replacing teachers with computers. He think it’s being oversold and being used to cut costs and staffing. He doesn’t want his 5th grade brother put in one of these experiments.
Chiara, the ways computers are being used, like other technology over the last 50 years, varies widely. I agree we need to carefully evaluate various uses and share results.
I also think that what works well for one youngster does not necessarily work for others. For some school districts have found that “flipped” learning where a teacher creates a lesson that she/wants students to look at ahead of time works well with some youngsters whose families have a computer in their home and good wireless set up. But it does not work well when youngsters don’t have this situation.
I need to turn to other things for the rest of the day but will check back on this conversation tonight.
Looks like the spokesman is so desperate to discredit what we say based on what we find through assault-and-accuse tatics. I can tell what he is up to since he also tried to extend his tone of accusation to anyone who takes side with Michigan teachers and their supporters. Just like the tactics frequently used by apologists and some authority-kind folks, you know.
“Joe Nathan
February 4, 2014 at 9:11 am
Chiara, the ways computers are being used, like other technology over the last 50 years, varies widely. I agree we need to carefully evaluate various uses and share results.”
Okay, Joe, and creativity is great, but I think there has to be SOME frank discussion of the financial benefits of adopting these models. Those would be two: huge incentive to sell them AND the reality of education funding, where we grab at anything to cut costs.
In my view, it is irresponsible not to consider these realities. I don’t think you can offer me any assurance that this won’t be used to promote “efficiency” over quality and with that comes a huge risk. At least acknowledge the risk. Ignoring it makes me think the promoters are one of two things: clueless or self-interested.
Absolutely computers and other technology can be used poorly.
Just reading about the EAA I have concerns about the use of public funds and what we’re investing in, how the computers are being given priority.
The general rule is one doesn’t borrow money to fund something that depreciates. Why is LA buying devices over 30 years? That’s nuts.
These things I’m reading add to my general sense that there’s a rush to adopt this without any real debate. I think I’d repair the roof or hire a teacher’s aide before I bought a laptop for these schools. Public schools don’t have unlimited funds. Trade-offs are made all the time. I’m really wary of this. I think we’ll regret the rush.
My comment on Ravitch’s blog:
Most if not all of the individuals Abbott lists are school principals. Which simply confirms Eclectablog’s point that the “investigation” merely involved Covington communicating to those directly under him who serve at his pleasure. I think Abbott believes he is being clever to include names, in contrast to the teachers in the blog interview who, out of well – founded terror of losing their jobs and other forms of retribution, insisted on anonymity. Abbott doesn’t understand that readers of this blog didn’t have Buzz and Brain Honey as teachers, and can therefore see the lack of equivalence in comparing principals who are willing to put their names to statements that Covington wants them to make, versus teachers who are afraid of putting their names to statements Covington doesn’t want them to make.
Thomas C. Pedroni
https://sites.google.com/site/thomascharlespedroni/
He says “All teachers have access to the Individualized Education Plans every day.”
What does this say? Nothing. There could be two lesson plans available and they might be poorly planned.
And where are the names of all the teachers he alleges are being supported properly. We need his anonymous witnesses to stand up and identify themselves—every teacher who works for them should be sworn in as a witness in front of a judge and asked to testify to the truth of these facts—behind closed doors so the bosses don’t know what they are saying.
And these teachers should be offered whistle blower protection.
This is nothing but spouting numbers, and without an exhausting time consuming amount of research, how do we know if these facts aren’t being cherry picked. It’s very easy to cherry pick facts to even make the Nazis and the KKK look good.
Maybe they should throw open the doors to an unbiased third party. For instance, a trained team of professional educators/teachers from Finland, Singapore, and South Korea to drop without warning at any time to inspect any school in the system.
This response is unbelievable. OK – there aren’t “50” kids in a class. There are only 49. And, “all” of the metal detectors aren’t working. Only 3 of 4 of them at the high school level. And they ordered 3,000 more laptops – so they’re good to go. What a farce. There was no independent investigation. An administrator asking teachers whether there is a problem is not an investigation!
This district must be shut down. But the state wants to expand it.
I say call in the ACLU. These communities have lost their schools. They have no say. Even if the parents spoke out – would the current managers or our state legislators or our Governor listen? The citizens of Detroit must feel powerless right now.
The children deserve better than to be experimented on, abused and left to their own devices.
Your response, Mr. Abbott, does not satisfy me. And nothing but an independent investigation into this district will.
I have been contacted by the ACLU and have sent their offer to help EAA teachers to all 14 of those with whom I have communicated.
It’s up to the teachers if they want to engage with them. I’ve been very careful not to “out” any of them. The most outrageous thing about this sordid affair is the culture of fear and intimidation that has been created by the EAA administration. It is preventing things from getting resolved. Even teachers who have left the EAA won’t go on the record in some cases. I’ll be publishing an interview tomorrow, however, from a teacher who IS willing to use his name and I have at least one, possibly two others in the hopper, as well.
Stay tuned.
We must thank the EAA, however, for giving us an object lesson in why academic freedom, the freedom to serve be a reflective practitioner and to utter one’s professional opinion, is part and parcel of being a teacher.
FOLLOW THE TAINTED $$$$$!
It got tainted through skunk spray.
Mr. Abbott, me thinks thou dost protest too much!
They have very well behaved students if these were the only instances of confrontations. And how long were the suspensions? After attacking the teachers, did some of them return to the same class? And what is this alternative site? Plus – where do the “expelled” students go?
The answers bring up more questions.
If you’ve been in the educational system long enough, you can interpret “administrative” speak (otherwise known as spin). 29 teachers replaced not 40. Oh well, that’s okay, then. 49, not 50 students in a class. Well, why didn’t you say so. 7 weeks of instruction, not 5, with student teaching (not mentioning it is for an hour or two a day, not for an entire semester). That’s dandy.
Nice try.
I wanted to point out that Mr. Abbott claims the teacher turnover rate is 6.83% this year. The 20% figure in my original piece comes from this piece by MIRS news service last September:
The turnover rate for classroom teachers at the EAA is about 20 percent.
“To be honest, we don’t really apologize for that,” said EAA Chief Officer of Accountability, Equity and Innovation Mary Esselman.
She said that they want the best teachers in front of kids.
Just so we’re all clear on where that number came from.
As a former teacher in the EAA who chose to leave at the end of last year, I feel it is important to point out that the response from the EAA lists his sources as “educators from the EAA.” If you do some digging into the names given, I recognize almost every one as a school principal or district administrator. I can’t say anything about what has been going on this year as I am not there, but last year, we definitely had over 50% turnover at our school alone between the beginning of the year and end. We also had a lack of support for new teachers – just because the schools hire coaches does not mean they actually provided support. There is nothing posted from my school about the investigation of a teacher twice last year for allegedly putting his/her hands on our students. And nothing about how the Performance Series data is inaccurate due to students being retested sometimes up to 4 times in a single sitting so that their scores will reflect 1.5 years of growth. Our coaches would delete the low scores at our schools so it looked like we were more successful than we were – talk about false advertising! So clearly these principals and district administrators are still sweeping many things under the rug in order to save face. It makes me so sad that instead if focusing on making the schools that they do have successful, they continue to spout off BS through their “public relations” so that they can expand and take over more schools and more money. Those kids deserved better than what DPS was providing, and they deserve better than being used as guinea pigs for the EAA to experiment on!
I have many stories to share and will likely be joining the list of teachers who reach out to Eclectablog in the near future.