Eclectablog reports that the children in the so-called (and misnamed) Education Achievement Authority were used as guinea pigs for experimental technology.
Eclectablog writes:
“In the course of reporting on the tragic situation in Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority (read all of my posts HERE), one of the things that I have learned is that the computer platform that is used to administer the EEA’s “student centered learning” model — known as BUZZ — is hated nearly across the board by teachers and students alike.
Instead of being a model for implementing a computer-based teaching model, BUZZ crashed regularly, had major content deficiencies, and was so hard to use that its benefits were all but overwhelmed by its flaws.”
Teachers are cited who describe the failure of BUZZ, and Eclectablog concludes:
“… instead of investing the resources necessary to accomplish the goal of turning around our worst-performing schools as quickly as possible, the EAA operated on the cheap, using an untested, unproven, beta stage software platform with the teachers and students the beta testing guinea pigs.”
Why would the state of Michigan be so indifferent to the well-being of its neediest children? Why put commercial interests ahead of the children? Why are the children treated as rejects and discards by public officials? When will there be a lawsuit to stop this charade or a public investigation?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Post a list of all those heavily invested in BUZZ and follow the campaign contributions from BUZZ back to politicos and there will be the answer. Note that the sham had to be foisted upon children from impoverished communities as there would be less push-back encountered. Then be sure to hire Terry Abbott, who has been trained over time by the Best of The Broadies, to cover it all up and attempt to put a good face on the endeavor – despite the failure anticipated at the inception.
That’s okay, maybe Snydely can sell that BUZZ thing to China.
He’s something of an expert on how to liquidate a once-thriving asset to fund his political ambitions.
BTW, anyone wanna buy a used Gateway computer, pas cher?
They dropped ed reformers from Kansas City into Detroit and that’s where BUZZ came from:
“Mary Esselman is the academic driver behind the innovation. I met this pedagogica tinkerer in Kansas City three years ago where she developed and piloted Buzz. When her boss John Covington took on the EAA challenge, they brought Buzz and student- centered learning to Detroit along with a couple great principals.”
Doing a close reading and excluding all the marketing language and hype in that paragraph, what happened was Detroit got stuck with BUZZ because the developer worked for Covington in Kansas City.
http://gettingsmart.com/2013/04/whats-all-the-buzz-about-detroit/
BTW, Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education, says the EAA is “the future”. My sense is his endorsement of Snyder’s ed reforms were a political horse trade predicated on Snyder’s promoting DUNCAN’S pet project, the Common Core but that’s the cynical political view 🙂
Sorry, off-topic, but in case anyone was having too good of a day (after starting your day with 6+ additional inches of unplowed snow (on top of the 4 feet we’ve already had this year if you’re in the Midwest), read this and you won’t have that problem anymore: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/04/parent-of-dying-boy-has-to-prove-her-son-cant-take-standardized-test/
Wow, if this had happened in a public school district, the harsh criticism would’ve dwarfed the complaints of the early website failures for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act better known as Obamacare.
But when the critics and corporate raiders are responsible, not a word except from their few and underfunded critics.
Then, of course, with so many billionaires supporting the thieves, the high priced PR machine will be spinning soon to place the blame somewhere else or go into denial mode while bumping up their harsh vilification of public school teachers and teacher unions.
If one public school teacher stumbles somewhere in the country and allegedly gets caught doing something wrong, the critics will turn their vigilante PR stooges lose to do as much damage as possible by making it appear that all teachers are cut from the same cloth.
For instance, I read a comment in a Yahoo! news thread where some idiot said 99% of teachers were liberals and couldn’t be trusted.
But that’s not true. A November 2008 exit poll conducted by Peter D. Hart Research found that 30 percent of teachers voted for Republican John McCain.
in addition, CNN exit polls showed that 38 percent of (teacher) union members voted for President Bush in the 2004 election.
Then there’s this: As MORE THAN ONE MILLION loyal registered Republicans who are also proud active NEA & AFT professionals, we are all devoted to creating excellent public schools.
http://www.elephanteducators.org/about.htm
This is from someone who actually worked at an EAA school. There is a lot of hearsay. Some of it is true, and some of it is grandiose. I was recruited to Michigan to help with finances, HR, admin role. Also i often checked on students and staff to see if there were things they needed/could be improved. If something happened I pretty much knew about it. So if you have some questions, ask. I will be honest and open. PS on my phone so grammar might be terrible.
Don’t you get it? Some kids are more profitable than others. (snark)
Follow the money
And you can bet
It flows in circles
Pocket to pocket
And down the toilet.
Burma Shave