My last post was about the sneaky way the University of Memphis education school was being side-swiped by the Relay Graduate School, a faux education group of pretend-educators who will end professional teacher preparation as we know it. Now, Eastern Michigan University (EMU) has a similar, but slightly different, situation brewing.
Moveon.org has a petition circulating to “Preserve the Integrity of the University as a Leader in the Preparation of Educational Professionals” at Eastern after a state school takeover group called the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) slyly got their plan approved to run schools, with approval of EMU. This deceived educators and citizens in Michigan, and the students.
Like the University of Memphis, the faculty at Eastern were given little, if any, opportunity to provide input into the new ideological business-driven plan to essentially privatize public schools. The good thing is that, also like in Memphis, the education professors figured out they were duped and many are fighting back. These events have shown a disregard of the professionals who know children best and who support real public schools!
It also isn’t a coincidence that the Obama administration is talking tough about teacher ed. schools, threatening to get rid of the TEACH grants to students who would seek employment in poor schools. (HERE for the LA Times report) If the administration was about real improvement in teacher ed. schools, that would be one thing. But the push is to replace professional teachers with for-profits run by those with little experience working with, or background studying children. This lets us know that real public teaching programs, and their influence on schools in the community, will soon be a thing of the past.
In Michigan, the EAA is eerily similar to the Achievement School District in Tennessee, although in Michigan the takeover of public schools involves mostly online schools with software called BUZZ. Diane Ravitch has written much about Michigan’s schools. HERE.
The EAA is called the “new public schools,” which is deceptive. Michigan has had such severe economic problems that public schools were thrown under the bus a long time ago—especially in Detroit. And Gov. Rick Snyder has not been a friend to public schools by any means.
Dr. John Wm. Covington was the chancellor of the EAA, which runs 15 schools separately from the regular education program in Michigan, led by Michael P. Flannagan. I’m not sure what degrees Flannagan has, or if any are in education. Usually state or local superintendents do not fight very hard for public schools, and often they were never real educators themselves.
Covington worked in Kansas, Colorado and Alabama and is known for attending the Broad Foundation Class of Fellows. Surprise! Any administrator with the stamp of Eli Broad will be a part of the movement to privatize schools.
Oddly, Broad attended public school in Michigan and he graduated from Michigan State University. I still find this fact both fascinating and sad. The MSU business school is named after him. What made Broad turn on public schools and their teachers? One wonders.
But now the EAA has a new chancellor named Veronica Conforme, who has been the interim chancellor for a while. I had to check her bio on LinkedIn. Here it is:
Conforme is a former independent education consultant in New York City and spent nine months as vice president of The College Board. Before that, she was COO of the New York City Department of Education from 2011 to 2013. She is also the former CFO, deputy chief schools officer and deputy executive director of finance and operations for the department, according to her profile. She has a BA degree from Syracuse University and a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. It does not look like she is a real educator by any means.
Conforme was under a $27,083.33-per-month temporary contract as EAA interim. She was chosen for the position with no public forum. Now she will get $325,000 a year under a new contract, and this will make her one of the highest paid school leaders in the country. How tough will her job be making sure the BUZZ online programs are running? Conforme must feel a bit guilty because she will donate $25,000 of her salary to a charity, although she will also get an extra $25,000 to cover relocation expenses. And of course she will get vehicle allowance and money for life insurance and security protection.
So with school leaders like Covington and Conforme, who needs real teachers? The next step towards privatization of public schools in Michigan and around the country, besides shutting down public schools and converting them to for-profit charters and online programs, is to get rid of any semblance of a teaching profession.
In addition, the goal of the Obama administration and previous administrations as well, has been to wipe out the teacher ed. schools. We saw it escalated with No Child Left Behind and the Gates’ backed National Council on Teacher Quality reports (Wendy Kopp from TFA was on the board), Teacher gibberish about Highly Qualified Teachers, and with the escalation of programs like Teach for America, The New Teacher Project, and fast-track diploma mills like ABCTE. They want to change the way teachers are prepared and the only way they can do that is by running down the current professional programs.
It is in the education speak they dish out everywhere. Listen for it. They use subtle, not so subtle, language to damn teacher education programs. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in regard to teacher education recently stated, This is nothing short of a moral issue. All educators want to do a great job for their students, but too often they struggle at the beginning of their career and have to figure out too much by themselves.
So if you are a professor or a student in a teacher education program, in any major university, it isn’t a bad idea to be a little paranoid. Listen carefully to who it is that comes to provide in-service. Pay close attention to university administrators. Find out who is getting grant money, and for what. Probably these groups and individuals will push their ideology on the smaller colleges first.
It also wouldn’t hurt to watch for professors you know who may have jumped ship and bought into the new ideology. Because it seems like someone has to open the door from the inside.
Email me or let me know if your college is experiencing a takeover. I’ll make a list and keep everyone posted….
Sawchuk, Stephen. “U.S. Rules aim to Heighten Tracking of Ed. Schools’ Performance.” Education Week. 34 (13). Nov. 25, 2014.
Thank you for your advocacy!!!
Thank You!!!
For those who want to hear the story of the EAA originated, here is a link to EMU Regent Stapleton detailing it
http://www.upnorthprogressive.com/?p=628
Steve, Thank you for your hard work and revealing information about the difficulties in Michigan! And thank you for commenting here.
Please don’t believe everything you hear or read about Gov. Snyder. He has not been a friend to teachers unions and has received tremendous pushback from that. However, many of the decisions that he made were actually good for public schools by encouraging best practices that helped them make better use of their funding and provided them cover for tough decisions that they had to make that otherwise teachers unions would not have signed off on.
Gov. Snyder has been a great friend to students. Detroit Public Schools have been an abysmal mess for years despite having among the highest funding in the state and teachers paid above state average. While the EAA certainly has problems, he’s the first governor to take concrete steps to improve Detroit Public Schools other than throwing more money at it. Gov. Snyder has helped usher in greater choice for students, whether it is vocational tech or dual enrollment for high school students or allowing charter schools in districts that have graduation rates above 75%. Legislation he supported would have moved the emphasis from seat-time to student growth and created more opportunities for students to learn whatever way or place they learn best.
Overall state funding for public schools has increased during his time in office, something that cannot be said for his Democrat predecessor. Some of that funding went to shore up teacher pensions and while his detractors claim that this resulted in less classroom spending than before, what they don’t say is that schools would have had to shift the money from classrooms to pensions anyway. Even the liberal Detroit Free Press supported Snyder over his MEA detractors.
Mike Flanagan is a highly respected superintendent with a good educational background He’s made enemies in both parties by asking the tough questions and not just being a pawn of either party. Educators I know who have worked with him have praised him. I disagree with him strongly on several issues, but I certainly would never question his loyalty to the students of Michigan.
When Gov. Snyder sends his own children to public schools you can make those comments. He does not understand the realities of teaching and neither do you. He has not increased classroom funding. He has allowed the for profit charter schools to not contribute to the pension fund so the owners of the for profit charter schools can make more money. If all of the publicly funded schools had to pay into the pension fund he would not have had to shift money from the classroom to the pension fund. He created this shortfall and blames public school teachers for the problem. This was not a “tough decision” for him to allow his friends owning charter schools that receive public money to make a profit. And by the way, the Detroit Free Press is not liberal. Nolan Finley? You must work personally for Snyder or own a charter.
Shelly,
Nolan Finley is the Detroit News, not Free Press. The Free Press is quite liberal.
Why should charter schools be saddled with an antiquated retirement system that already is dooming traditional public schools? The state has been trying to move public employees off pensions for years. Why would the state require more employees to be on pensions?
Gov. Snyder may not send his children to public school, but neither a significant percentage of public school teachers. Are they anti-public school too?
I don’t ‘own’ a charter school, but am in the process of starting one because the traditional public schools have failed to provide my children the education they need.. We’ve had several teachers who have been wonderful, but a district that has let us down. This a school started by parents who are sick of having to beg and plead the monopolistic public schools for changes.
I support education. I support students. I support wherever those students can be educated, whether it is traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, parochial schools, cyberschools, home schooling, unschooling, or something else. But I can’t support trapping students in an environment not right for them just to perpetuate that environment.
Joshua, I always appreciate your comments, but have to disagree here. First of all, do you really condone the EAA and the points made in my post? You think online charters are the way to go? I honestly think it is outrageous!
Also, you worry about pensions, yet condone an individual with no real background in education to be in charge of schools with an outrageously high salary?
And why is Snyder against the teachers union? I will say I don’t think previous Mich. governors were very supportive of public schools either. But don’t you believe we need a real teaching workforce in America?
Michigan is dear to my heart. I grew up and attended college there. I actually did part of my student teaching in a school near Detroit– Edgewood Elementary. Gone now. It had superb teachers. I learned from the best! They shared materials and resources in a unique way that saved money and fostered good team teaching. Why was that school closed?
Public schools in Mich. used to be pretty good. Certainly poor urban areas needed help, but I question your point that so much money was spent on Detroit schools. If so, how was it spent? The last 30 years have seen a concerted effort to privatize public schools.
You have made good points about gifted ed. in the past, but charters have not proven to be better in general, and I certainly would rather have a school that provided many rich resources than a small charter for gifted kids.
I also think every child should be taught by real teachers who study and learn in accredited institutions if at all possible. Of course, due to ugly reforms in today’s schools that is not always possible, so if you are inclined to start a charter I wish you luck.
Nancy,
I have primarily left the EAA out of my posts because it is a mess. Is it a bigger mess than Detroit Public Schools? Probably not.
The schools in the EAA are the dysfunctional schools from the Detroit Public Schools. The ones that were at least quasi-functional were not moved to the EAA.
In 2009-2010, per pupil spending for the Detroit Public Schools was $14028. (see http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/b101410_349994_7.pdf) This is 45% higher than Michigan average. (I choose that year since it was pre-Snyder. In 2012-2013, it was up to 49% more.)
The Detroit BOE rivaled Detroit City Council as the most disasterous government body in the state. Meetings were regularly shouting matches with police called to keep the peace. Misspending was rampant. Graduation rate was at 59%. 47% of Detroiters were functionally illiterate. Only 21% of Detroit parents said DPS would be their first choice given options. Attempts by an emergency manager to help fix DPS were thwarted by the BOE. Removing schools out from under Detroit’s BOE appeared to be the only viable solution.
Do I think the EAA was implemented correctly? It left a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, this was primarily due to parties being unwilling to work together. Programs that have been successful elsewhere have a tendency to disintegrate when brought to Detroit.
I didn’t say that Gov. Snyder has been against teachers unions, just that he hasn’t been a friend to them. They haven’t received the special treatment that they’ve been used to. Like pretty much everyone else, teachers now have to contribute to their health care premiums. Like pretty much everyone else who is retired, teachers now will get taxed on their pensions. Of course, what really made teachers unions mad was right to work legislation. However, that never would have seen the light of day if Michigan’s unions hadn’t attempted to write unions into the state constitution. He’s put in additional best practices, including collaboration between school districts, which often ends up in saving for the districts through some job reductions. Again, teachers unions mad. I think what probably happened behind closed doors is a meeting asking school superintendents what changes they needed to keep their districts financially viable yet could not get past union contracts and Gov. Snyder included those as best practice legislation for districts to get additional funding.
And, of course, there is that most Republicans do not believe in the artificial wage floors of unions and know that unions will try to unseat Republicans using union dues. There certainly is no love between Republicans and unions to begin with. However, even the powerful Gov. Engler pretty much left unions alone.
I’m not sure why Edgewood closed. I had more local things on my mind in 1982, like starting fourth grade at a new school. Most likely it was a population decrease. It was 12 years before charter schools in Michigan.
While it may be tempting to blame the dearth of gifted education in Michigan’s schools on funding or laws, gifted education programs were rare when schools had plenty of funding, are often cut first when funding is tight, and most Michigan schools still fund programs for gifted athletes with hundreds of thousands of dollars yet little to nothing for gifted academics. And while standardized tests that measure proficiency have been doom for gifted learners, standardized tests that measure growth may be what saves them.
The problem is in the attitude towards gifted learners. Even gifted-friendly teachers struggle with this. Just once when we ask at a parent-teacher conference “What is your goal F&P reading level for our daughter for this year?” we would like to get a response other than “I hadn’t considered this since she is already reading above grade level.” I know some are against iReady, but I’m encouraged since it will concretely show academic progress made by high ability students.
We’ve tried for over five years to get changes in our district. ‘Progress’ has been minimal and sometimes even counter to gifted students. When I posted about the acceleration we did over the summer to advance our daughers in math – http://rochestersage.org/2013/11/14/adventures-in-math-acceleration/ – the district responded by moving the test up to before summer and surprising parents so they could not help prepare their children. 12 students in the entire district (15000 students) advanced. Parents who attempted the way that had worked for our family were told that it was now against district policy.
Our school will have ‘real teachers who study and learn in accredited institutions’. We have no desire to have ‘public school lite’, but instead present an educational experience that will engage gifted learners, opening a breadth and depth of curriculum that they will not receive in most traditional public schools. This is a school born of the dreams of parents and gifted-friendly educators, not a faceless corporation. This is a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens changing the world.
Thank you, Shelley. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the country cared deeply for public schools and made them all vibrant institutions, where everyone, including Governors would support and send their children?
Snyder and his aides, including David Murray, don’t hate educators, they embrace Greenhills teachers and administrators and charter charlatans like Steven Ingersoll, but they hate organized (MEA & AFT) teachers. They are so arrogant that they believe they know what is best and don’t need to listen to actual educators or professors. Snyder & Bolger are intent on transforming the public good to a free-market illusion. Don’t forget Snyder’s “skunkworks” and his “value” education model for reducing the costs of public education. Might as well turn over public education to Walmart!
Thank you, Steven. Points well-taken.
Joshua, Thanks again for your comment, although I continue to disagree.
I’d like to suggest some history about what happened to public schools starting around the time you were in 4th grade. It might give you a different perspective. Start with The Manufactured Crisis by David Berliner and Bruce Biddle. Here is another interesting article: http://www.edutopia.org/landmark-education-report-nation-risk
I have a book too, noted on my website. Certainly not as well known as the one above, but I cover some mistaken notions about public schools and problems they have faced due to lacking funds and support. I have a whole chapt. on special ed. and I discuss the gifted situation.
Talk about throwing money at schools… http://archive.freep.com/interactive/article/20140622/NEWS06/140507009/State-charter-schools-How-Michigan-spends-1-billion-fails-hold-schools-accountable. Whether you like that newspaper or not you can’t deny good reporting.
Just curious…what are your credentials to start a charter school? In many places almost anyone can start one…which goes back to my current post. I believe it is critical to support a professional workforce in education. I don’t think tax dollars should go to anything less. It is terribly unfair to put such harsh requirements on public schools and teaching with high-stakes testing, while charters run without transparency. A lot of money has been diverted from public schools and wasted on corrupt charters.
A private school or home school situation is different, of course. Although, certainly, those situations should be monitored as well. But I have no problem with parents and business folks starting their own private school…or parents doing home schooling.
Nancy,
Thanks for your response and recommendations. I read the article and certainly agree with the authors that there is good reform and bad reform. I’ve never been a fan of NCLB. Common Core has good and bad reform mixed together. What I’ve seen in the past 30 years for gifted students has been primarily bad reform with the move towards differentiation with teachers who don’t have time to differentiate and colleges of education who don’t seem to grasp that giftedness isn’t simply being able to speed through academics.
We have plenty of gifted families homeschooling in the area and there are several great gifted schools. But I don’t believe that families should have to pay a time or financial penalty to get what the public schools should be providing and aren’t.
My school district is really good for the vast majority of students. Most school districts in my area are. But almost all are failing to provide education that promotes growth for gifted learners. We aren’t looking to replace our public schools, just to provide an alternative for a group they have refused to educate.
What are my qualifications for starting a charter? I’m a parent and with my wife the first educators of my children. Did a pretty dang good job of it too. However, that and my substantial skills in IT don’t really count for much, do they? That’s OK. I’m just the driving force behind the charter. The one who is gathering administrators from charter and public schools, great teachers from public and private schools, and helping to figure out what authorizer and ESP we need to create this school. I have no special talent. I am just passionately curious. And pretty good at bringing the right people together to make it happen.
As for the Freep’s articles on charters, they were long on rhetoric and short on truth. Michigan’s 2012 law for charter schools means that they have all the transparency and accountability of public schools plus additional criteria they need to meet. According to the 2013 CREDO study, 35 percent of the state’s charter schools have more positive learning gains than their school district counterparts in reading, while 2 percent of charter schools have lower learning gains. In math, 42 percent of Michigan charters perform better than their traditional districts and 6 percent perform worse. The CREDO report found the typical student at a Michigan charter school gains more learning in a year than his or her traditional school district peer, amounting to about an additional two months of growth in reading and math. (CREDO info from the Ann Arbor News.) While over 80 charter schools have closed for failure to meet expectations, how many traditional public schools have? Instead they just keep showing up at the bottom of the ranking year after year.
I won’t claim that all charter schools are good or that there aren’t real concerns addressed by the Freep, but efforts or claims against all of them because some are bad is like claiming that we shouldn’t fund Grosse Pointe schools because the neighboring Detroit Public Schools are extremely corrupt and have abysmal test scores.
So what changes would make charter schools palatable to you? Or is there no legislation that would have you agree that they have an important place?
Joshua, In general, the CREDO study is nothing to brag about for charter schools. Instead of splintering the nation’s schools, think what could be done if local communities could focus on good all-inclusive public schools with special programs and resource classes for individual needs.
And you are wrong about public schools not closing. They are closing right and left across the country, under arbitrary rules and conditions…replaced by for-profit charter schools many online. Few Mom & Pop charters survive.
Charter schools were originally to be for teachers to run with parents and the community–approved by local school boards. Now states have taken over in many places.
Many believed charters would be a way for teachers to demonstrate their professionalism and side-step rules. And that these schools would be laboratories of innovation. That concept was stolen by those who want to privatize schools. Many teachers in these schools are now cheap fast-tracker trained–if that!
And if you read about history of public schools and the reforms foisted on them, you will find that there has been an intentional effort to replace them. Look at the draconian cuts to programs like the arts in places. The reformers have intentionally driven parents away.
I know of people who have started charters with their hearts in the right place. I even know of some decent charter schools. But most of them are not inclusive of students. They will not bring students together. Just like a gifted school will isolate gifted kids from the mainstream.
And while you may be the best parent in the world, and even a good teacher, you are not a real educator in my book. Sorry. I believe in regulations. I want to see evidence those who work with children studied and passed some tests to prove they know something. If not, anyone will be able to start charter schools with no credentials. America’s kids deserve better.
Nancy,
In my well-off district, this will be the first charter. The entire resources of the community have been focused on our schools. However, the district has chosen to ignore parents, several school board members, the African American Parent Network, and many others in requests for gifted education. I’m not one to sit down and take it where my kids are concerned. What do you suggest I do?
You should be glad! This will be a charter school done right! It will be formed by teachers, parents, and community. It will be authorized by a university. I wouldn’t trust our district to authorize it. They’ve already broken trust with us. Also, a nearby district, Livonia, authorized a language-immersion charter and rented the building to the charter. Then they stopped leasing the building to the charter and cancelled its authorization because it didn’t have a building for its school. It wasn’t that the district thought the program wasn’t performing or meeting student needs, because the district immediately set up the same program in its schools. It was just a naked money grab by the district. If our district authorized a charter, it could easily do the same, but not set up any program for gifted learners, leaving them with no services again.
This will be a school of innovation! We aren’t going to have a lot of choice on that because gifted students need more than what traditional education has provided. The Roeper School understands that. The Davidson Academy – essentially a charter school – understands that. However, they have funding that it will be hard to acquire. Charter schools operate on less funding than traditional public schools.
This reform will bring parents to the education table. That is one of the commitments of our school. Our district has refused to have any parents on the committee tasked with creating supports for gifted learners. That would probably explain why that committee has no sense of urgency and has yet to produce anything that benefits gifted students.
I understand why some people believe gifted schools isolate gifted children from the mainstream. Gifted children are already isolated from the mainstream. Heterogenous classrooms are often disasterous social situations for gifted learners. A gifted classroom or school gives these children a mainstream where they fit. I’ve toured Grosse Pointe’s magnet classrooms. There biggest benefit to gifted students isn’t academics. It is freedom to be gifted! This is particularly true for gifted girls, who often hide their talents so that they can fit in and not be isolated.
There are so many social and emotional issues that gifted children face in the standard classroom. Isolation from the mainstream is the least of my worries! Parents of gifted children need to what is best for their kids and often that is getting them into an environment where they belong. http://www.sengifted.org/archives/articles/social-and-emotional-issues-faced-by-gifted-girls-in-elementary-and-secondary-school
“America’s kids deserve better.”
On this, you and I agree! We just disagree on how to get there.
Joshua, I have much respect for the Davidsons and visited the Roeper School years ago. It is good that you are doing a charter that sounds right. And certainly you must do what is right for your kids. But the part of MI I think you speak of is a world apart from the poor for-profit driven charter schools of Detroit.
And I can’t help but feel that your district problems are designed to drive parents out of reasonably good schools. In the end there will be charters for the wealthy and poor charters. The march-in-a-straight-line charters don’t usually have the credentialed teachers you seem to be implying your charter will have. A lot of them are totally unregulated.
And not to be a Debbie Downer, but many charters find it hard to stay running and are eventually turned over to a EMO. My guess is you, or those who follow, will eventually pay out of pocket which will be similar to a private school.
Last, I think gifted students need a gifted class or resource in regular schools that run well and have options for everyone including sports and the arts etc. And yes, I do think they need to mix it up a bit and mingle with their peers. I do believe inclusion in some classes for gifted students is ideal.
But good luck with your endeavor and keep me posted.
As a student in EMU’s teacher education program I am very frustrated with EMU. How can EMU charge me over $30,000 to obtain my teaching certificate and then turn their back on their alumni and current students by backing a business like the EAA? It has taken me 5 years to complete the program and obtain my certification. I AM A HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHER and have the knowledge and skills to help our youth become positive and democratic members of society. The EAA has sold the idea that under qualified teachers should be teaching in schools that are populated with undeserved children. ???
**Thank you EMU professors for:
*advocating for real highly qualified teachers for ALL children!
*adding the word hegemony to my vocabulary:
Hegemony:
Dominance of one social group over another, such that the ruling group or hegemon acquires some degree of consent from the subordinate, as opposed to dominance purely by force.
ie: internationally among nation-states, and regionally over social classes, between languages or even culture.
This needed to be said. Thank you for having the courage to say it. Many educators could echo the same thing.
However, I do think there are many professors who do realize what is happening.. That is why there is a petition.
I was not being sarcastic about thanking my professors. Many of them have encouraged advocating for education. I would not have been aware of the EAA or many other attacks on public education if they were not opening their students eyes to the mission\fight future educators have in their futures. I admire many of them because they teach and lead by example.
“Be the change you want to see in the world” -Gandhi
Yes, of course. I am sorry I misunderstood.
But your original comment is one many of us can identify with, and I thank you.
Thank you, for raising awareness and keeping for-profit charter schools in conversations. There is power in knowledge and also in numbers. Keep up the great work!
Thank you. I appreciate that! Hang in there, and I hope things work out for you.