Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder persuaded the Legislature to create the so-called Education Achievement Authority, a cluster of very low-performing schools in Detroit. The first superintendent of the EAA, some 15 schools, was John Covington, who resigned his job as superintendent in Kansas City (which soon afterwards lost its accreditation) to take over the EAA. Covington’s time in office was blighted by controversy over conditions in the schools, the over-use and misuse of technology, as well as issues concerning the use of EAA credit card for travel and other expenses. Snyder has wanted to make the EAA statewide, but thus far it has not been successful and has lost enrollment.
The board of the EAA hired Veronica Conforme, who has been the interim, leader, as superintendent at a salary of $325,000, the same as Covington’s. She pledged to give $25,000 of her salary to local charities. Most recently, Conforme was working at the College Board where she was involved in the “Access to Rigor” campaign; before that, she was chief operating officer for the New York City Department of Education during the Bloomberg administration. She began work in the headquarters of the NYC Department of Education in 2003, after serving as director of human resources at Columbia University’s Medical Center. She has degrees from Syracuse and Columbia. She has a strong administrative background, but apparently no experience as a teacher or principal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They’re never going to admit the EAA hasn’t been a success, Diane. Too many influential and powerful people rubber stamped it and backed it, literally sight unseen. They were all out there celebrating before the thing had enrolled a single student. When it started to come out that it was a disaster the response WASN’T to pull back, they wanted to expand it! They wanted MORE Michigan schools. They wanted to “scale up”. I think they wanted to scale up quickly because the business model of the EAA won’t work without fast growth, and they needed to add more schools quickly to make $7200 a student viable. They were hoping for economies of scale.
They had no earthly idea if “blended learning” or the “BUZZ platform” had any value for those kids but it didn’t matter. Duncan, Rhee, Broad, Snyder; they all promoted it as a fabulous success, right out of the gate.
Anyone who worked with an “Access to Rigor Campaign” (whatever the hell that was, I can’t seem to find anything about it now) well, let’s just say isn’t qualified to be anywhere near a public school and the students nor anywhere near where any decisions about the students are discussed/determined.
Excellent choice, Detroit!
With surname like “Conforme”, need anyone say more?
I prefer Veronica “Deforme” . . . . . .
Found something:
“As vice president of the Access to Rigor campaign, Conforme will lead what will become the organization’s signature social investment. The campaign will focus squarely on low income and traditionally underserved students and the actions they need to take to be most successful in college. Specifically, this campaign will mobilize students to take and succeed in those AP® courses for which they have potential; attend colleges where they are equipped to succeed without remediation; and explore the full range of college options available to them in order to ensure that they go to a college that is the best fit for their individual needs and academic qualifications.”
In other words she’s in charge of marketing the AP courses with a focus that will bring in greater profitability without regard to students’ financial circumstances.
Hey, at least she lasted a year and a half before moving up and onward in the great edudeformy world. Wonder what they got for that 1/2 million in salary and benefits given her?
With this approach to project management and the roll out of new initiatives, are we really surprised at how the business world went belly up in 2008 and sent our economy into the dumpster? And yet we keep trying to run the schools as though they are businesses, and use these crazy “business models.”
How about we start running businesses like schools for a change? The schools never bankrupted an entire nation’s economy, or trashed pensions for millions.
We are very familiar with achievement districts in Tennessee and here’s what they inspire http://norinrad10.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/gaslighting-asd-style/
“She has a strong administrative background, but apparently no experience as a teacher or principal.”
Then she’s qualified to order paperclips and toner for copy machines, but not to run a school district and tell teachers how to teach.
Just to set the record straight, the EAA was not created by, or approved by, the Michigan Legislature. It was created by the governor through an agreement between Detroit Public Schools and Eastern Michigan University. For the past three years the governor and Republican legislative leaders have attempted to establish the EAA in law, but have been unable to get a bill through the legislature. Right now the question is whether they will manage to push something through in the next two weeks, during the lame duck session, or will wait until the new session which begins in January..