Category: Education

Educators help legislators understand that evaluation systems must help teachers improve, not just punish them

Educators help legislators understand that evaluation systems must help teachers improve, not just punish them

Educators provide insight on teacher evaluation to members of the Michigan House Education Committee Gary Abud, Jr. is the 2013-14 Michigan Teacher of the Year Teacher evaluation is a topic that has received a lot of attention in 2013. Earlier this year, the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness (MCEE) offered their recommendations and findings in a commissioned project on teacher […]

Read more ›
Why teacher retention should be a top priority for schools and how to achieve it

Why teacher retention should be a top priority for schools and how to achieve it

Major issues facing public education range from the policy level to classroom practice. Achievement disparities, graduation rates, poverty, standardized education reform, changes in public school funding, online education, teacher evaluations, equal access to quality schools, teacher quality and retention all impact the profession. Of these issues, teacher retention most impacts public education, because teachers are the greatest in-school influence on […]

Read more ›
Educ. Achievement Authority spokesperson in damage control mode over resignation of EMU College of Ed. Dean from EAA board

Educ. Achievement Authority spokesperson in damage control mode over resignation of EMU College of Ed. Dean from EAA board

Methinks thou dost protest too much Yesterday, I broke the news that Eastern Michigan University (EMU) College of Education Dean Jann Joseph had resigned her position on the board of the Education Achievement Authority (EAA), the state-run school district comprised of Michigan’s lowest-performing schools. The EAA is in the spotlight of late because they have given state legislators on the […]

Read more ›
BREAKING: EMU Dean of Education resigns from board of failing Education Achievement Authority, protest against EAA planned for TOMORROW

BREAKING: EMU Dean of Education resigns from board of failing Education Achievement Authority, protest against EAA planned for TOMORROW

Even top educators are walking away The “school district for wayward schools”, Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority, has been under increasing scrutiny over the past year. Questions have been raised about the veracity of their testing and test scores. State legislators on the Education Committee have raised red flags only to be told they have to file Freedom of Information Act […]

Read more ›
Michigan schools need sophisticated accountability measures for teacher performance and compensation

Michigan schools need sophisticated accountability measures for teacher performance and compensation

There has been a growing demand over the past decade for accountability in public education. Policy makers, students, families, and taxpayers all want teachers to be “held accountable.” Conventional accountability in teaching is based on student achievement on standardized tests and graduation rates. A current bill, HB 4625, is being considered in the Michigan House of Representatives and proposes that […]

Read more ›
Corporatist mission accomplished: charter schools strangling public schools

Corporatist mission accomplished: charter schools strangling public schools

Who could have EVER seen this coming??? A downgrade of the bond ratings of 53 Michigan school districts is proving what charter school opponents have long warned against: charter schools are diminishing public schools’ ability to have stable budgets by siphoning off tax dollars into for-profit corporations. Moody’s Investors Service made this move this week citing “significant fiscal strain related […]

Read more ›
Michigan GOP forms special committee to continue attacks on teachers

Michigan GOP forms special committee to continue attacks on teachers

Michigan Republicans are starting look desperate and obsessed and controlled by the Mackinac Center It’s no secret that Michigan Republicans are hellbent on destroying unions. Teachers unions seem to be their prime targets, likely because teachers are particularly vulnerable because they are focused on educating our kids, not on political action and activism. When Republicans rammed right to work (for […]

Read more ›
An Important Message For Michigan Educators

An Important Message For Michigan Educators

Michigan teachers are among the finest in the nation, but the media attention given to public education recently has been far from flattering. The public does not view our teachers in a positive light. From Proposal 2 last fall to failing school districts and emergency managers, it is easy for people to believe that teachers are not living up to […]

Read more ›
Introducing our newest Eclectablog contributor: Gary Abud, Jr. – Michigan 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year

Introducing our newest Eclectablog contributor: Gary Abud, Jr. – Michigan 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year

Who better to discuss education issues than the Teacher of the Year?! I am honored and exceedingly pleased to announce Eclectablog’s newest contributor, Michigan 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year Gary Abud, Jr. I normally introduce new contributors with an interview but Gary and I have already done an extensive interview (which you can read HERE.) Gary and I first connected […]

Read more ›
BREAKING: Michigan Education Association gives early endorsement to Mark Schauer for Michigan governor

BREAKING: Michigan Education Association gives early endorsement to Mark Schauer for Michigan governor

Standing proud for kids, teachers, and public education The Michigan Education Association (MEA), Michigan’s largest teachers union, threw their support behind Mark Schauer for governor today, giving him their official endorsement. Schauer is the son of a high school teacher and a product of Michigan’s public school system. As governor, he’ll be a fierce advocate for public education, our educators, […]

Read more ›
INTERVIEW: Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton on exposing violations of federal law by the Education Achievement Authority & how it’s failing our kids

INTERVIEW: Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton on exposing violations of federal law by the Education Achievement Authority & how it’s failing our kids

“Why have to work through all of the messiness of this thing called ‘democracy’?” I have written extensively about Michigan’s “Education Achievement Authority”. It as formed in September of 2012 as an interlocal agreement with Eastern Michigan University as a school district comprised of Michigan’s most failing schools. Originally it had 15 of Detroit’s worst schools. New legislation, House Bill […]

Read more ›
Quantcast
Quantcast