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The Education Achievement Authority (EAA or Authority) is the governing body of the Education Achievement System, a Michigan statewide school system for failing schools.

The office of the State Superintendent or an Emergency Manager of a school district may transfer a failing school from its district into the System that is not under an approved redesign plan.

The EAA is in its second year of operating 15 schools in Detroit, nine elementary/middles schools – three are charters -- and six high schools.

History
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder created the authority in June 2011 to take over and turn around failing schools.

On August 26, 2011, the EAA Executive Committee went into executive session to discuss hiring John Covington as chancellor. In the summer of 2011, John Covington was appointed chancellor of the Authority school system. Pursuant to a complaint, on October 28 Judge Robert Colombo ruled them in violation of Open Meetings Act for failing to have a 2/3 vote to enter the executive session of August 26.

In December 2011, Covington held meetings in the Detroit area to explain the Authority, take input about system including whether the EAA should start with more than Detroit Public Schools.

The Authority began taking over Detroit schools in September 2012.

John Covington resigned as chancellor on June 16, 2014 with a year left in his contract. The EAA Board appointed Veronica Conforme as Interim Chancellor and on November 5, 2014 officially appointed her as the new Chancellor.

Objectives
The Education Achievement Authority has three publicly recognized objectives:
 * 1) To improve the academic performance of the lowest 5% of schools in the state of Michigan;
 * 2) To improve the condition of Detroit Public Schools (DPS) by resolving its academic and financial problems;
 * 3) To create a new executive authority that stimulates the use of innovative educational models beyond the scope of a traditional public school system structure.

Governor Snyder’s special message on education reform in April 2011 outlined his vision for the EAA, stating that, “[b]y introducing an education system that offers unfettered flexibility and adaptability for student learning models and styles, we will break down the status quo on how, when, and where students learn.”

Legal Framework
The Urban Cooperation Act of 1967 allows for interlocal agreements (ILA) between government entities. In 2011, the EAA was created by an interlocal agreement between The Board of Regents of Eastern Michigan University and the School District for The City of Detroit.

"Under the Act, a public agency may jointly exercise with any other public agency any power, privilege, or authority that the agencies share in common and that each might exercise separately. An agreement between one or more public agencies under the Act may provide for a separate legal or administrative entity, which must be a public body corporate or politic, to administer or execute the agreement."

Educational Framework
"EAA students attend school for 210 days a year, 40 more days than other Michigan students attend traditional public schools. Education Achievement Authority began its first semester in Aug. 2012 and students have made substantial academic progress with EAA’s longer school day and year and its more intensive, student-focused education program, with 59 percent of students achieving 1.5 or more year’s growth in reading and 58 percent of students achieving 1.5 or more year’s growth in math.

Each student is provided an assessment and their teacher develops an individual learning plan. Students learn at their pace; if a student is a fast learner they can excel to the next lesson and if a student needs more time to learn, they will be provided with more tools to reach mastery of their lesson.


 * Elementary/middle school students are served breakfast, lunch and dinner
 * Since the EAA began, schools have more parent involvement and students are more engaged in their learning career
 * All students have access to computers
 * Student progress based upon mastery not seat time
 * The EAA meets students where they are and provide individual learning plans"

Curriculum: Buzz, Student-Driven Learning
In collaboration with Agilix and School Improvement Network, the EAA created a student-driven, digital-based learning program called Buzz. Buzz provides and tracks a personalized curriculum based on the academic level of each individual student. Initially, students are tested to determine their academic level. Based on the results, Buzz creates individualized content and assessments and each child is able to advance at their own pace. Buzz allows teachers, parents, and students with the ability to electronically track academic progress. Teachers act as facilitators in the classroom and place students into groups based on academic level, not grade level. Students assume responsibility for their academics and do not have to wait for the next school year to advance to the next academic level.

Student Achievement
There are conflicting reports from different sources in regards to student achievement.

The EAA website states that:

"Test results from the spring of 2013 show:
 * 64% of students across all 12 schools that are directly run by the Education Achievement Authority achieved a year or more’s growth in reading, and 58% achieved 1.5 year’s growth or more
 * 68% of students across the 12 direct run schools achieved a year or more’s growth in math with 59% achieving 1.5 year’s growth or more
 * In more than 80% of the schools, special education students outperformed their regular student counterparts in both reading and math"

In contrast, Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies at Wayne State University, Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni, tracked MEAP test scores of students who now attend EAA schools using data from the Michigan Department of Education.

Amongst the students who were not proficient on the MEAP exam in 2012, the 2013 results are as follows:
 * In math, 78.3% showed either no progress toward proficiency and amongst those, 34.2% showed actual declines.
 * In reading, 58.5% showed either no progress toward proficiency and amongst those, 31.2% showed actual declines.

Amongst the students who were proficient on the MEAP exam in 2012, the 2013 results are as follows:
 * In math, 82.1% declined in proficiency in just one year with the EAA. Only 7.1% increased in proficiency, while 10.7 percent stayed the same.
 * In reading, 37% declined in proficiency.

Financial Framework
The EAA has been funded by about $15 million in private donations collected by a charity called the Michigan Education Excellence Foundation. Grants have also been awarded by the Kellogg, Skillman, and the Gates foundations. As the only privately funded school district in the nation, the EAA cannot accept local revenue and cannot ask for money from voters. Starting in the 2013-2014 academic year, the state of Michigan was expected to start providing $7,190 per student. The EAA is not expected to help in repaying the Detroit Public Schools long-term debt.

In the Media
The EAA is currently undergoing changes. For updated information from news media outlets:

March 12, 2015 Gov to take control of school reform office

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2015/03/11/snyder-school-reform-office/70170800/