Hacking Education

20Sep11

By Hannah Chahbazi

On Friday night Nora, Allie, and I were fortunate enough to attend the Hacking Education dinner held in Detroit’s Renaissance Center.  The goal of the dinner, as it had also been previously in 4 other cities across the country, was to bring together people who are passionate about turning around the current education climate; literally “hacking into education” as it stands.  There were attendees from all over the country with a number of different backgrounds including business, education, investment, and technology.

The three of us were able to meet and connect with a diverse and dynamic group of people who care deeply about improving education and are part of some amazing organizations.  I learned about Wayne State University’s Tech Town, which offers incredible support to growing businesses, and also truApp and Virtual Nerd, both of which are providing innovative opportunities to high school students.  And a true highlight of the evening was watching Nora teach “dinner EBLI” to Dave Marino of Grockit, a company that provides test prep for high school and college students.

Jon Bischke, one of the minds behind the Hacking Education dinners, spoke about why he and his friends want to spur change in education.  We also heard from members of UM’s Social Venture Fund, who had the idea to sponsor a Hacking Education dinner specifically in Detroit.  Representatives from the evening’s other sponsors, Houghton-Mifflin and NewSchools Venture Fund, briefly outlined the work their companies do in education.  I had the opportunity to speak at length with Joe Ventura of NewSchools, and he mentioned EBLI in a great article in the NewSchools blog.

Nora has been teaching educators for 12 years, but only in the past year has EBLI been in Detroit.  The need for literacy instruction coupled with the inspiring passion of educators there prompted her to think of Detroit as the epicenter for the reading revolution.  If we want to teach the world to read, Detroit is one of the best places to start because, to quote Nora, “if it can be done in Detroit, it can be done anywhere.”  And if the energy in the room on Friday night was any indication, there are many others who are ready to do their part.

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