A Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopic campaign of eight Milky Way (MW) dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellite galaxies has generated spectral synthesis-based abundance measurements for nearly 3000 stars. The elements measured are Fe and the α elements Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti. The dSph metallicity distributions show that the histories of the less luminous dSphs were marked by massive amounts of gas loss. The [α/Fe] distributions indicate that the early star formation histories of most dSphs were very similar and that Type Ia supernova ejecta contributed to the abundances of all but the most metal-poor ([Fe/H] < −2.5) stars. Finally, a numerical chemical evolution model reveals that the star formation history of a dSph is a strong function of its present-day luminosity, but not velocity dispersion, half-light radius, or Galactocentric distance.