Education related events are popping up all over the southeast part of Michigan over the next week. Here is a run-down on those that I have learned about. FRIENDS OF EDUCATION MEET & GREET – MARCH 8, 2014 (TODAY!) AT NOON IN ANN ARBOR Today from noon to 2:00 at the Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, a wide variety […]

In a Detroit News op-ed today, Governor Rick Snyder doubled down on his support for the failed experiment with Detroit students known as the Education Achievement Authority. The piece, titled “The EAA is a worthy experiment” is nearly comical in its Polly Annaish view of the EAA. Our governor seems to have bought every single story told to him about […]

Educator and education activist Sherry Gay-Dagnogo has created a MoveOn.org petition asking Governor Rick Snyder to end his education experiment on Detroit’s students — the failed Education Achievement Authority. You can sign the petition HERE Here is the text of the petition: Tell Governor Snyder to Shut the E.A.A. Down! To be delivered to The Michigan State House, The Michigan […]

Several days ago, I wrote about how MEAP testing scores of students in the Education Achievement Authority experiment in Detroit fail to support claims that students in the system were actually making progress. Further analysis of the “cohort data” which tracks individual students from one grade level to the next shows that the situation is actually much worse than the […]

Today’s interview is with a former EAA administrator who was fired by Chancellor Covington (though she was allowed to “resign”) but never given a reason why. In fact, after she collected unemployment for over a month, the EAA challenged her unemployment on the basis of “misconduct”. However, their accusation was found to be unsubstantiated and their claim was denied. But […]

Not an authority on education achievement, apparently A couple of weeks ago, after listening to a WKAR interview with Education Achievement Authority Chancellor John Covington and the lawmaker who sponsored the bill that would expand the EAA statewide, Lisa Lyons, I wondered aloud if perhaps Ms. Lyons had already seen the MEAP scores that were released yesterday. Lyons, the chair […]

As I mentioned yesterday, the ACLU discovered that the Education Achievement Authority had a job posting on their website for pre-school teachers that described the position at three different schools as being “teachers are responsible for implementing a developmentally appropriate early childhood education curriculum in a Christian setting”. As I wrote in my post about this, the job posting language […]

Yesterday, the ACLU of Michigan sent Education Achievement Authority Chancellor John Covington a letter asking about this job posting (archived HERE.) The job posting is for preschool teachers at Law, Bethune, and Brenda Scott elementary schools, all part of the EAA. The job description says that the, “teachers are responsible for implementing a developmentally appropriate early childhood education curriculum in […]

Today’s interview is with Karyn Brooks, a former teacher at the Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary-Middle School, or “Bethune” as everyone generally calls it. Karyn is unique among the teachers with whom I have spoken because she had the good sense to get out of the EAA before the end of its first calendar year of existence. She took a more […]

On Wednesday of this past week, news broke that State Superintendent Mike Flanagan was ending a 15-year exclusivity contract with the Governor Rick Snyder’s failed experiment with Detroit children known as the Education Achievement Authority. The contract specified that the State School Reform/Redesign District (SSRRD) would only place “low performing” schools in the EAA. By ending that part of the […]

This afternoon the 1,300-member Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber issued the following statement regarding Governor Rick Snyder’s failed education experiment with Detroit students known as the Education Achievement Authority: The A2Y Chamber’s Executive Board held a deliberation on HB 4369, legislation to expand the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). The A2Y Chamber encourages the Michigan Legislature to reject the current House version […]