this is what broad does to tender young black children in order to make a market for agilix software...,

dianeravitch | Eclectablog has run a series of articles about the Education Achievement Authority, the special district created by Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder to contain the state’s lowest performing schools.

The district is run by Broad-trained superintendent John Covington, who left Kansas City right before the district lost its accreditation.

The communications director for EAA complained about the Eclectablog series, for obvious reasons.

Here, another teacher speaks out. This teacher is a veteran, with 43 students in his or her class.

This is part of the interview:

Can you give me some specific examples.?

Yes, I can. For example, the BUZZ program. The BUZZ program does not work. I had 43 students in my classroom the first year…

All by yourself?

By myself. And, with the 43 students, I didn’t have enough computers. Just like other teachers have stated. There were not enough computers. And half the time the computers would freeze up or the internet would crash.

I really feel sorry for the Teach for America teachers because they had been put into an environment that they really were not prepared for. It was like throwing an inexperienced lion trainer into a cage full of lions. But, at the same time, if the EAA really wanted to help students, these so-called disadvantaged students or at-risk students, if they really cared about them, they would have brought in professional veterans like me; teachers who had been proven and in their career for quite a while, who knew what they were doing. That would have made sense.

It’s true that everything is based on the performance series testing, but at the same time how can you give students higher learning, critical thinking skills — they want them to do that — but not teach them the basics? But they wanted us to keep pushing and keep testing them. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work.

I got very frustrated because they kept asking me to use this Student Centered Learning (SCL) model and I knew it wasn’t working. I knew it wasn’t helping the children. So, I did what one of the other teachers in your articles did. I just ignored what the EAA administrators said and started doing the traditional things that I knew from years of experience work for children.

It’s true that they didn’t have any curriculum. No textbooks. A lot of times we didn’t have just basic supplies. So, I would go out of my own pocket and do what knew what I had to do. I had a lot of materials of my own from over the years and I would bring them in and supplement when the EAA was not giving me the materials that I needed. What they wanted me to do was put the kids on the computer and let them teach themselves. And half the time the computer program didn’t even work!

That’s the thing that blows my mind the most, that they designed the whole thing around computers and then didn’t give you guys enough to teach the kids with!

I’m speaking out because I feel for the children. And, you can quote me on this: This reminds me of the Tuskegee Experiment.

In other words, this is what states do to Other People’s Children, especially children of color.

You can be sure that you won’t find these methods in the upscale, well-funded schools of Grosse Pointe.