THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Update on Gulen charter schools

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Update on Gulen charter schools

2013-2014: 147 schools in 26 states (# students TBD)
2012-2013: 140 schools in 26 states (59,953 students)
2011-2012: 136 schools in 26 states (51,950 students)
2010-2011: 126 schools in 25 states (44,727 students)

Closed or control transferred to another entity at the end of 2012-2013 (five schools):

California (1): Pacific Technology School – Orangevale (closed)
Florida (2): Sweetwater Branch Academy and Sweetwater Branch Academy Elementary (closed because of poor school grades and financial trouble)
Maryland (1): Baltimore IT Academy (indicators that control has been transferred: staff now using @bcps.k12.md.us email instead of @bitacademy.org; website used to be www.bitacademy.org but is now http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Domain/5027
Minnesota (1): Minnesota School of Science (closed)

School replaced (one school)

Arizona (1): Sonoran Science Academy – Peoria (17667 N 91st Ave., Peoria) has replaced Sonoran Science Academy – Phoenix Metro (2645 E. Osborn Rd., Phoenix) on the Sonoran Schools website. Webpage for SSA-Phoenix Metro redirects to SSA-Peoria, a new location 30 mi. away.

New schools (12 schools)

Florida (2)

Discovery Academy of Science (1380 Pinehurst Rd., Dunedin)
River City Science Academy – Innovation (3251 Newell Blvd., Jacksonville)

Illinois (2)

Horizon Science Academy Belmont (5035 W. North Ave., Chicago)
Horizon Science Academy McKinley Park (2245 W. Pershing Rd., Chicago)

Indiana (1)

Indiana Math & Science Academy – South (2710 Bethel Ave., Indianapolis)

Massachusetts (1)

Pioneer Charter School of Science II (planned for Saugus; using temporary location in Everett)

Missouri (1)

Gateway Science Academy – South (6651 Gravois Ave., St. Louis)

New Jersey (1)

Paterson Arts and Sciences Charter School (151 East 33rd St., Paterson)

New York (1)

Utica Academy of Science Charter School (1214 Lincoln Ave., Utica)

South Carolina (1)

Greenville Renewable Energy Education ("GREEN") Charter School (1440 Pelham Rd., Greenville)

Texas (2)

Harmony School of Exploration (9305 W. Sam Houston Parkway South, Houston)
Harmony School of Innovation – Euless (701 S. Industrial Blvd, Suite 105, Euless)

Known Gulen charter schools in the works as of 9/14/2013 (eight)

Connecticut (1)

Connecticut Academy of Math and Science: most recent known activity was in January 2013 when a Letter of Intent was submitted to the Connecticut Board of Education

Florida (1)

Capital City Charter Science Academy: most recent known activity was in August 2013 when an application was submitted to Leon County Schools

Maine (1)

Lewiston-Auburn Academy Charter School: most recent known activity was in September 2013 when a Letter of Intent was submitted to the Maine Charter School Commission

New York (1)

Westchester Academy of Science Charter School: most recent known activity was in February 2013 when the Letter of Intent was accepted and the operator was invited to submit its full application

Pennsylvania (4)

Allentown Engineering Academy Charter School: most recent known activity was in February 2013 when the application was rejected by the Allentown School Board
Erie Biosciences Academy Charter School: most recent known activity was in February 2013 when the application was rejected by the Millcreek School Board. There were indications that the founders might appeal.
Young Scholars of McKeesport Charter School: most recent known activity was in March 2013 when the application was rejected by the McKeesport Area School Board. The founders stated that they would appeal.
Academy of Business & Entrepreneurship Charter School: most recent known activity was in September 2013 when a Letter of Intent was submitted to the School District of Lancaster (SDL). The SDL school board had rejected the charter in March 2013.

For additional details about these schools and other past attempts, see Proposed Gulen charter schools, a page by CASILIPS.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Chesapeake Science Point Charter, Inc. in Hanover MD. run by "Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation Inc." an openly Gulen school, now has acquired charters for Baltimore IT Academy Inc. and Chesapeake Math and IT Academy Inc. both in Baltimore City according to their 990 form on Guidestar. More "GREAT!" charter schools for Baltimore.; March 24, 2014 at 5:03 PM

Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. LISTEN to my interview with At The Chalk Face , slide marker to 32:00 min. (5/19/2013)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

WE CAN DO IT!

Jim Hightower on populism:

"... what populism is at its essence is just a determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government."

Jim Hightower on plutocracy:

"Plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

More Jim Hightower HERE.
Read his Lowdown newsletter HERE.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.

On Bill Gates' ed reform

Joel Shatzky's comment on Huffington Post:

The inferior "test-prep" agenda which bases the pedagogically fraudulent "data" standardized test scores serves as a way of diverting the concerns of working parents who hope that better test scores will lead to better job opportunities for their children. If they realized that they were being given a con job, they might consider other, more "active" forms of political and social protest than simply lobbying for more money for charter and public schools.

New wealth gap report

Research and Policy Brief from the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University, May 2010:

"New evidence reveals that the wealth gap between white and African-American families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation."

You absolutely must click on this link to view the graph.

Now compare that graph to the one you'll see here.

Now read this entry.

And if you are a person who blames the schools, or believes they are responsible for fixing these problems, you can stop that type of thinking right now.

A Keeper

Posted on the Oakland Public School Parents listserv by a member:*

As a public health nurse, I am working with a generation of young parents who were drug-exposed, who are now having children who are drug-exposed, and it's a whole new ballgame. Many who were premature and will carry some deficits for life.

There are also many other families who have several generations of all kinds of abuse, not enough to eat, violence in and out of their homes, as well as chronic exposure to pollution and nutritional deficits. And there are regular people in the same neighborhoods who are just trying to live, but are poor and can't get ahead.

And there is major grief, and continuous LOSS. So many folks have lost so many folks, people around them dying, of one thing or another, every month almost. Young people (cousins, brothers, friends) dying from violent means, the elders dying too young of chronic disease and disparities in health care, among other things.

What we know about learning and development is that stressed nervous systems CANNOT learn, and that's what we have. Children with many major stressors. Abandonment, attachment disorders, fear, post traumatic stress, sadness, inability to trust or sleep. Many children. Many.

Resulting in: Lack of impulse control, lack of executive function, difficulty in expressing and controlling emotions, difficulty in sleeping, holding still, and paying attention, not to mention following directions and prioritizing tasks.

Our teachers will (perhaps already do) need more training, support, and smaller class sizes. They need major support and help with mental health issues. We really need some kind of expanded vocational track for those who can't perform even at the community college level.

We can't expect teachers to undo years and years of living. The availability of universal preschool would help. Sometimes a classroom is the first kindly, safe, structured, stimulating environment a child encounters.

Wise insights such as these are never uttered by people like Eli Broad, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Joe Williams, or any others who are of this type of school reform ilk. And this is why I know for certain that they just don't "get it." Maybe they don’t want to, OR maybe they don’t care.

* Thank you, B.R.

What Children Need

From Playing to Learn by Susan Engel (New York Times, 2/1/2010):

"Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

…Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

And to tag onto that, check out this video about the wood shop at one of Oakland's middle schools.

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Saturday, September 14, 2013

Update on Gulen charter schools

1 comment: