Posted on 12 June, 2011 by WindsorCOAct!forAmerica
Characteristics of Gulen charter schools
by C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S. – Citizens Against Special Interest Lobbying in Public Schools
What is a Gulen charter school?
A Gulen charter school is a publicly-funded charter school that was founded and is run by individuals who are secretly followers of a Turkish imam named Fethullah Gulen. Gulen’s followers are called Gulenists, and collectively they form a worldwide covert network called the Gulen Movement. The key defining feature of Gulen charter schools is that control of the schools’ policies and (most importantly) finances lies entirely in the hands of Gulenists. This allows the Gulenists to use the schools in ways that further the Gulen Movement’s goals. The infiltration of the Gulen Movement into our publicly-funded education system has been made possible by a perfect storm of very lax charter school regulation; the current political climate favoring expansion of charter schools; the Gulenists’ unparalleled skills at marketing, deception, and intimidation; the presence of influential sympathizers in our government and in academia; and an extreme reluctance on the part of many journalists, academicians and government officials to involve themselves in this issue for fear they might be labeled as Islamophobic or xenophobic.
Where are the Gulen charter schools, and how many are there?
The list of names of Gulen charter schools currently in operation in the US is given here at our companion site, which is about the Gulen Movement.Another blogger is also keeping count of the number of schools. At last count, 120 are currently in operation, in 25 different states, and the Gulenists are actively proposing and founding new ones (24 are currently in the works, and another 51 are known to have been attempted but never materialized).
What sort of information can I find here?
One of the most controversial aspects of these schools has been the public denials made by Gulenist administrators that there is any connection with the Gulen Movement. Many of the pages here are compilations of evidence that a strong connection exists. Other pages explore additional issues of concern about these publicly-funded schools.Our companion site, A Guide to the Gulen Movement’s Activities in the US, has more information about the Gulen Movement in general, as the charter schools are only one aspect of this movement’s growing influence in our country and around the world. For updates, follow CASILIPS on Twitter.
What are the characteristics of Gulen charter schools?
The following characteristics apply to nearly all of the over 100 Gulen charter schools across the country. Some exceptions exist; for example, the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania charter school appears to emphasize languages instead of the usual math/science emphasis. Some of the newer Harmony schools in Texas have names suggesting themes such as art, nature or political science. Nevertheless, there are strong commonalities among all these schools.
Emphasis on math
School advertised as emphasizing science, yet laboratory facilities are inferior to comparable schools and science classes have minimal or nonexistent experimental component
Small select group of students receives intense math coaching and attends numerous math competitions, including Mathcounts; awards generate much positive publicity for school
Free after-school tutoring; in some cases Gulenist teachers tutor in students’ homes
Automated online information system for students’ grades and assignments is highly touted as allowing for parental involvement, yet system is not kept current, and may be inconsistent, inaccurate or difficult to navigate
Emphasis on science fairs; for most students science project is mandatory
Students encouraged to participate in ISWEEEP (Gulenist-run science fair); hotel stay in Houston paid by school
Robotics clubs; participation in robotics competitions
Home visits offered to all families
Major emphasis on awards, mostly won by small fraction of the students
Unusually high scores on standardized tests, even with very challenging student demographics
Classes divided according to ability in math
Turkish language classes; Turkish mandatory in some grade levels; very limited selection of foreign language classes besides Turkish
Participation of students in Turkish Language Olympics
Unusually high number of H1B visa applications
Many teachers have poor English skills
High teacher turnover
Gulenist teachers spend unusual amounts of time with students in extracurricular activities or socializing
Sleepovers, especially for select group of students participating in math competitions
In communications with parents, school awards and achievements are relentlessly emphasized and not put into perspective relative to other non-Gulenist schools
Chronic problems with special education compliance
Turkish/Turkic teachers and administrators have no work experience in education outside of the Gulen school network
School not under local control
Application forms are excessively detailed, requiring information that legally cannot be used to determine admission
Relentless promotion of school through frequent press releases
Continual courting of public officials by administration
School administration nearly exclusively Gulenist males of Turkish or Turkic ethnicity
Hiring practices favor Gulenists over equally qualified American teachers or administrators
Achievements of female teachers minimized or ignored
Opportunities for career development much greater for Gulenist teachers and administrators than for American employees
Parental involvement encouraged in principle, but steered towards fundraising and supporting school; administration is authoritarian while attempting to appear otherwise
Character education classes
School inaccurately claims to have few or no discipline or bullying problems
Gulenist teachers often highly inexperienced in classroom management
In some schools, excessive use of out-of-school suspensions for discipline
No trained school counselors
School uniforms required; must be purchased from school
Dwindling enrollment with each successive year of high school
Sophisticated school security systems in established schools
In geographical areas where chain of schools has been established, flagship school is usually of higher quality
March 20, 2011|By Martha Woodall and Claudio Gatti
Fethullah Gulen is a major Islamic political figure in Turkey, but he lives in self-imposed exile in a Poconos enclave and gained his green card by convincing a federal judge in Philadelphia that he was an influential educational figure in the United States.
As evidence, his lawyer pointed to the charter schools, now more than 120 in 25 states, that his followers – Turkish scientists, engineers, and businessmen – have opened, including Truebright Science Academy in North Philadelphia and another charter in State College, Pa.
The schools are funded with millions of taxpayer dollars. Truebright alone receives more than $3 million from the Philadelphia School District for its 348 pupils. Tansu Cidav, the acting chief executive officer, described it as a regular public school.
“Charter schools are public schools,” he said. “We follow the state curriculum.”
But federal agencies – including the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education – are investigating whether some charter school employees are kicking back part of their salaries to a Muslim movement founded by Gulen known as Hizmet, or Service, according to knowledgeable sources.
Unlike in Turkey, where Gulen’s followers have been accused of pushing for an authoritarian Islamic state, there is no indication the American charter network has a religious agenda in the classroom.
Religious scholars consider the Gulen strain of Islam moderate, and the investigation has no link to terrorism. Rather, it is focused on whether hundreds of Turkish teachers, administrators, and other staffers employed under the H1B visa program are misusing taxpayer money.
Federal officials declined to comment on the nationwide inquiry, which is being coordinated by prosecutors in Pennsylvania’s Middle District in Scranton. A former leader of the parents’ group at the State College school confirmed that federal authorities had interviewed her.
Bekir Aksoy, who acts as Gulen’s spokesman, said Friday that he knew nothing about charter schools or an investigation.
Aksoy, president of the Golden Generation Worship & Retreat Center in Saylorsburg, Pa., where Gulen lives, said Gulen, who is in his early 70s, “has no connection with any of the schools,” although he might have inspired the people who founded them.
Another aim of the Gulen schools, a federal official said, is fostering goodwill toward Turkey, which is led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the pro-Islamic prime minister, whose government recently detained journalists after they alleged that Gulen followers were infiltrating security agencies.
Gulen schools are among the nation’s largest users of the H1B visas. In 2009, the schools received government approvals for 684 visas – more than Google Inc. (440) but fewer than a technology powerhouse such as Intel Corp. (1,203).
The visas are used to attract foreign workers with math, science, and technology skills to jobs for which there are shortages of qualified American workers. Officials at some of the charter schools, which specialize in math and science, have said they needed to fill teaching spots with Turks, according to parents and former staffers.
Ruth Hocker, former president of the parents’ group at the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School in State College, began asking questions when popular, certified American teachers were replaced by uncertified Turkish men who often spoke limited English and were paid higher salaries. Most were placed in math and science classes.
“They would tell us they couldn’t find qualified American teachers,” Hocker said.
That made no sense in Pennsylvania State University’s hometown, she said: “They graduate here every year.”
Other school parents described how uncertified teachers on H1B visas were moved from one charter school to another when their “emergency” teaching credentials expired and told of a pattern of sudden turnovers of Turkish business managers, administrators, and board members.
The charter school application that Truebright filed with the Philadelphia School District in 2005 mentioned that its founders helped start similar schools in Ohio, California, and Paterson, N.J.
Shana Kemp, a School District spokeswoman, said that the district had just learned Riza Ulker, Truebright’s permanent CEO, was on extended sick leave and that it would look into that. She said district officials knew nothing about a federal investigation of these charter schools.
Further evidence of the ties comes from a disaffected former teacher from Turkey who told federal investigators that the Gulen Movement had divided the United States into five regions, according to knowledgeable sources. A general manager in each coordinates the activities of the schools and related foundations and cultural centers, he told authorities.
Ohio, California, and Texas have the largest numbers of Gulen-related schools. Ohio has 19, which are operated by Concept Schools Inc., and most are known as Horizon Science Academies. There are 14 in California operated by the Magnolia Foundation. Texas has 33 known as Harmony schools, run by the Cosmos Foundation.
In their investigation, federal authorities have obtained copies of several e-mails that indicate the charter schools are tied to Hizmet and may be controlled by it:
One activist sent an e-mail Aug. 30, 2007, to administrators at four schools and the president of Concept Schools in which he mentioned “Hizmet business” and several problems that needed to be addressed so that “Hizmet will not suffer.”
And the disaffected teacher who described the five regions gave authorities a document called a tuzuk, which resembles a contract and prescribes how much money Turkish teachers are supposed to return to Hizmet.
State auditors in Ohio found that a number of schools had “illegally expended” public funding to pay legal, immigration, and air-travel fees for nonemployees and retained teachers who lacked proper licenses. Audited records from the Horizon Science Academy in Cincinnati in May 2009 also say that “for the period of time under audit, 47 percent (nine of 19) of the school’s teachers were not properly licensed.”
The same records show that the founder of Horizon Cincinnati was listed as the CEO of the school’s management firm and as president of the school’s property owner.
The American charter schools were a central part of Gulen’s argument that won him a green card after the Department of Homeland Security ruled that he did not meet the qualifications of an “alien of extraordinary ability” to receive a special visa.
In a lawsuit Gulen filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia in 2007 challenging the denial, his attorneys wrote: “In his position as the founder and head of the Gulen Movement, Mr. Gulen has overseen the establishment of a conglomeration of schools throughout the world, in Europe, Central Asia, and the United States.”
His attorneys also referred to a letter of support from a theology professor in Illinois who described Gulen as “a leader of award-winning schools for underserved children around the world, including many schools in the major cities in America.”
On July 16, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Stewart Dalzell ruled that Gulen met the requirements for a green card.
Hocker, the State College parent, said the current CEO had assured her the school had no ties to Gulen.
Rather, he told her that Gulen had inspired him to go into education and that Turkey “wanted to be known for teaching, the way you would think of India” for information technology, Hocker said.
But she noted that when the school’s founding CEO disappeared, his successor arrived from the Buffalo Academy of Science, another Gulen school. The dean of academics came from a related school in New Jersey. Ulker, Truebright’s, CEO, was one of the school’s founders and is a board member.
“If you start looking at their names, you can connect them back to all the other charter schools and Gulen groups,” Hocker said.
She later withdrew her three children over concerns about secrecy and finances.
A sister school – Young Scholars of Western Pennsylvania – is scheduled to open outside Pittsburgh in the fall.
(Young Scholars in State College and Western Pennsylvania are not connected to the Young Scholars Charter School in North Philadelphia.)
Truebright, at 926 W. Sedgley Ave., opened in 2007, enrolls seventh through 12th graders, and is about to hold its first graduation. Ninety percent of its students are African American. The school has met the academic standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Law the last two years.
Cidav, the acting CEO, came from the Harmony Science Academy in Austin, Texas. He said he could not comment on behalf of the school. He referred all questions to Ulker, who Cidav said had gone back to Turkey for a family emergency after Christmas and was not expected back until July. Board Chairman Baki Acikel did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.
Before Ulker’s abrupt departure, he was involved in failed attempts to open charters in Camden and Allentown.
He also applied for Truebright to become one of the charter operators selected to take over failing Philadelphia schools as part of Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman’s Imagine 2014 initiative. In late December, Truebright was one of 10 organizations the district deemed “not qualified” for further consideration.
The investigation is focusing on an alleged system of kickbacks that Turkish workers make to their charter-school employers, and on whether the schools are misusing taxpayer money, the story says. You may recall last year I wrote about the Tucson-based Sonoran Science Academy’s high use of workers from Turkey and itsconnections to the Gulen Movement.
Here’s how Italian investigative reporter Claudio Gatti and Inquirer staff writer Martha Woodall put it in Sunday’s paper:
Federal agencies – including the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education – are investigating whether some charter school employees are kicking back part of their salaries to a Muslim movement founded by Gulen known as Hizmet, or Service, according to knowledgeable sources.…
(The investigation) is focused on whether hundreds of Turkish teachers, administrators, and other staffers employed under the H1B visa program are misusing taxpayer money.
The story has appeared at an interesting moment. The New York Times is allegedly investigating the so-called “Gulen Schools” now (USA Today did last year). But even as acceptance of these charter schools as affiliated with the Gulen movement is spreading, a counteroffensive is growing on the Internet.
An unnamed writer started a website called “Goose Network,” which describes itself as “deciphering vicious bloggers calling them Fethullah Gulen Charter Schools.” This site takes aim at some of the more extreme critics of the Gulen-inspired charter schools who have described the movement as militant or terroristic.
Another site, about the “imaginary schools of Fethullah Gulen,” has a similar aim — undercutting the idea that the schools are linked to the Gulen movement. These sites tend to be written by unnamed people.
The funny thing is, these sites have emerged at the same time many people sympathetic to the movement have acknowledged that the schools are at least “inspired” by Gulen, if not outright affiliated with the movement’s hierarchy. This site, for example, is clearly supportive of the Gulen movement and refers to the schools as “Gulen inspired.”
A sympathetic American scholar, Jill Carroll, hasrepeatedlyacknowledged that the American charter schools are affiliated with the international Gulen school movement. And sociologist Joshua Hendricksuggested at a recent conference that Turkish-run charter school officials should stop denying the undeniable connections to the Gulen movement.
A counter-offensive by Gulen-movement supporters appears under way in Turkey as well. There, the government has arrested at least seven journalists, some of whom raised concerns about infiltration by Gulenists in the country’s security services.
While being led away, one journalist said of the Gulen movement “Whoever touches it gets burned.”
Recent News Reports Question Operations Of Group Connected To State College Charter School
Posted: 8:12 pm EDT March 21, 2011 Updated: 9:15 am EDT March 22, 2011
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Recently released reports have linked a charter school in Centre County to a controversial network with Turkish links that has gained the attention of federal authorities.
A report published by the Philadelphia Inquirer linked the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania in State College to a network of more than 120 charter schools in the U.S. connected to Turkish preacher and Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen.
Gulen is living in self-imposed exile in a remote section of the Poconos in Pennsylvania.
Several reports claim that followers of Gulen have opened the network of charter schools across the U.S., and that federal authorities are investigating claims that school workers are donating portions of their salaries to a Muslim movement founded by Gulen.
Former Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Parent Group President Ruth Hocker told WJAC-TV that she started filing freedom of information requests when local teachers were replaced by Turkish teachers and school administrators wouldn’t explain the changes or verify teacher certification.
“We liked that they were multicultural, but any group that is favoring certain people over other people; favoring less-qualified people based on their race, that’s when it’s of concern,” said Hocker.
Hocker said four of her children attended Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania; one graduated elementary school and three were eventually pulled from the classroom.
“We would say, ‘Why are you hiring teachers who aren’t certified?’ and they would respond with, ‘We can’t find anyone local and certified who is qualified.’ We would respond with, ‘Penn State is right around the corner,; how can you not find someone certified and qualified in this town.’ It doesn’t even make sense,” said Hocker. “We weren’t concerned about their safety, but we certainly are concerned about the secrecy and where the money is being spent.”
State College Area School District officials said that the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania charter was renewed last July.
Calls requesting comment to the FBI, Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania have not yet been returned.
Posted on 4 November, 2010 by WindsorCOAct!forAmerica
Lotus School of Excellence (LSE) Accord Institute Schools
11001-a E. Alameda
Aurora, CO 80012
Last known principal – Adnan Doyuran
Lotus School for Excellence (LSE) is attempting to expand, this charter school is one of 150+ managed by the Gulen Movement. Learn about Islamic Imam Fethullah Gulen and his grand ambition “work in the arteries of the system until you reach all power centers. LSE is due to present their expansion before the St. Vrain School District on November 12th. What can you do?
1) Blog about this as Act for America chapters have:
3) Stay involved with your local politcs and School District board members
4) Show up to the November 12th meeting
5) Encourage parents to educate themselves and others, pull your children out of these school they rely on enrollment for tax money reimbursements.
Gulen Interfaith in Colorado is called Mosaic Foundation- Read below about FREE Trips to Turkey for Colorado politicians, media and academia
People involved/background Gulen organizations
You don’t know who Fethullah Gulen is or why he is described as the most dangerous Islamic Imam in the world? Gulen has a grand ambition to control media, education, politics, interfaith dialog, police and military. This is being conducted worldwide. In the USA the Gulen Movement operates over 150 Charter schools, growing at a rapid pace. However, many of the school applications are denied and there have been Gulen Charter schools closed for chronic financial mismanagement. The teachers have no credentials and largely are imported to the USA via h1-b visas, they are NOT SCHOLARS. Gulen lives in seclusion on 40 acres in Poconos, PA, where his network of foundations and institutes oversee his $25 billion empire. One of Gulen’s grand schemes is to have Turkish/Turkic Academia representatives in ALL major US Universities to support his efforts in the USA. This same plan/model is nothing new it is carried out worldwide, and in Gulen’s native Turkey where he was exiled for attempting to overthrow a secular government there is current investigations into the Gulen movement. 5 credible sources with facts, and government data:
These above 5 web sites are by ex teachers, parents of ex students and the “Boiling Frog” is by Sibel Edmonds, who is an ex FBI Turkish translator turned whistle blower who knows more about Gulen than Gulen knows about himself.
The local Interfaith Gulen groups offer free dinners and trips to **Turkey for politicians and other higher academia people to gather support for their schools and other business interest. Gulen owns the media in Turkey and (Zaman Today, ERBU TV and Fountain Publishing) So you will see a fair amount of biased and sweet information about the 5th grade educated Fethullah Gulen. Turkey has no tolerance for Christianity or other faiths, look what they have done to their Christian minorities the first people of the area and their churches? Turned them into mosques and museums, it was a Turk who tried to kill Pope John Paul II.
Trips ** Several trips to Turkey for Colorado Academia, Politicians and Journalists:
Alan Gottlieb a local educator in Colorado was sent to report back how great the Gulen education is in Turkey.
This has been done from state to state, some send the local TV news stations as in the case of Dan Marries by Accord Institute’s sister schools in Arizona. Who in turn did a series on the trip to Turkey with the students from SSA.
We learned today why other countries are eating our lunch when it comes to education. We paid a visit to Ibrahim Büyükkoyuncu hıgh school on the outskirts of Konya, a provincial capital in south-central Turkey. It’s a private Gülen school for boys grades 9-12. Actually, it’s two schools in one (and there is a girl’s equivalent across town) – one focused on sciences, one on languages. (One of the many excerpts from Gottlieb’s blog) by the way this is untrue, Turkey’s educational system is horrid and corrupt
Mayor Chad Auer gets a complimentary trip to Turkey by the Gulen Interfaith people – note his slide show photos one is in front of Gulen”s Zaman – Newspaper media. Chad Auer is the mayor of Firestone, CO, 13 miles from Longmont where the second Lotus school is trying to open.
There’s a high probability that the Multicultural Mosaic Foundation Gulenists provided him with the trip.
Reporters of the Vail Daily in Turkey – Dennis Jones and Yolanda Marshall
Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish intellectual now living in Pennsylvania. His writings have inspired a movement, said to have the sympathies of 75 percent of Turks. One of its primary goals is education. Later, we are to visit several schools and a university built by the movement- EXCERPT FROM THEIR TRAVEL BLOG TO TURKEY….I GUESS WE KNOW WHO PAID FOR THIS TRIP DON’T WE?
**Colorado members of Congress sent to Turkey 2006-2010 Total $18,089
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