For the second consecutive day, Concept School’s Superintendent, Salim Ucan has put his foot in his mouth…making it more and more difficult to walk off all of his “untruths.”
On Tuesday, September 16, 2014, Ucan was questioned about allegations that as part of the enrollment process, Concept Schools made perspective students take an assessment test. Apparently, pre-enrollment assessment tests are illegal (as it applies to publicly funded schools). Ucan of course denied it, stating that the allegations were “untrue.” On Thursday, Ucan was again questioned about testing procedures and he again denied that Concept Schools required preadmission testing.
However, according to their own websites and admission procedures, the schools did require that the students take an assessment test. Ucan can deny it all he wants, but having personally witnessed students taking the tests at Horizon Science Academy Denison in Cleveland, I know that he is lying – again.
Ucan’s continuing credo whenever he is confronted with the truth is to sling mud at the accusers. In this case, he attempts to discredit former employee Amy Britton, despite the fact that she was in charge of handing out the tests as part of her position at Noble Academy in Cleveland for 5 years.
Each and every time criticism and accusations of illegal activities are lobbied at Concept Schools; Ucan’s response is to “shoot the messenger.” How can it be that there are so many “disgruntled” employees out there making similar allegations across state lines? How can they all be in collusion?
And yes, it’s certain that there are “disgruntled” employees out there; employees who are fed up with Concept Schools’ systematic abuses of our publicly funded schools. Sure and undoubtedly there are American teachers and administrators, who are disgusted about being discriminated against, overworked, underpaid, and manipulated in order to suit the needs of the Gulenists.
But the bottom line is that this operation is being funded by United States’ taxpayers and yet -- “managed” and operated by Gulenists whose best interests are not to educate American children, but instead – used to continually fund -- Gulen’s now crumbling financial empire.
Salim Ucan and his cronies need to be stopped – pure and simple. The lies and deception need to end and our schools returned to honest and ethical leaders. The schools must be delivered from charlatans like Ucan, whose greatest attribute is to attempt to defraud the American people by consistently lying about Concept’s operations and associated illegal activities.
Ucan has to resign.
And the Ohio Department of Education should finally do its due diligence and thoroughly investigate all of Concept’s schools before the feds step in and force them to.
Finally, more “disgruntled” employees need to come forward and tell their stories, demanding that state and federal officials investigate and act on the evidence provided to them.
As for Ucan, he should be thankful that he’s not Pinocchio, because otherwise by now -- he’d have a nose as long as the Brooklyn Bridge.
Below are two articles about Ucan’s denials as written by Plain Dealer reporter, Patrick O'Donnell, and published on September 16 and September 18, 2014:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/09/post_227.html
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Some Horizon Science Academy charter schools test applicants before admitting them, according to the schools' own websites.
If test scores are used to select students at the schools it would be an apparent violation of state law. Charter schools are privately-run, but they are public schools with state funding and open to anyone.
As state law says: "The school may not limit admission to students on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or athletic ability."
But the admissions procedures listed on Horizon websites may partially back charges that the schools use supposed diagnostic or placement tests to screen applicants and pick the best students.
"If they performed anywhere under 70 percent, I would tell parents the class is full and they would be put on the waiting list," Amy Britton-Laidman, a former administrator at Noble Academy, an affiliated charter school in Euclid, told The Plain Dealer.
She added: "I know that for a fact, because that's what I did for five years."
The procedures also contradict statements Tuesday from Salim Ucan, vice president of the Concept Schools charter school family that includes multiple Horizon schools and Noble Academy.
Though Horizon Science Academy has a strong reputation in Cleveland, Concept schools have been under fire in recent months because of a federal investigation and because of complaints against Dayton-area Horizon schools this summer.
Horizon and Noble students and parents: Were you tested before being accepted? Tell us below.
"Yes, we do give diagnostic tests," Ucan told The Plain Dealer, in response to the charges. "But no diagnostic test is given prior to that kid being accepted into the school. First they are accepted and then they are given diagnostic tests."
But that's not what the admissions procedure says at the Horizon middle school on Denison Avenue on the near West Side. Step one has parents fill out paperwork and step two has students take the test.
Here's what the school's procedure says happens after that:
"Step three: After all documents are submitted and placement exams are completed Administration will review your child's file. You will receive a phone call from Administration to make an appointment for an interview with you and your child. Their acceptance will then be determined."
Noble Academy in Columbus has students take the test as parents turn in things like report cards and a child's birth certificate as they apply, not a two-step process like Ucan described:
"You MUST bring your students that you are planning on enrolling in Noble Academy with you when you come to fill out the paperwork and turn in documents as there are some assessments that your student will need to complete prior to enrollment."
It's a similar procedure at Horizon's middle school in Columbus:
"For admission to Horizon Science Academy Columbus Middle School, please stop by at our school, fill out the application forms while your child takes a diagnostic test. Your enrollment will be complete when you turn in the required application forms."
The enrollment-application packet for the Horizon high school in Columbus states that the school has a lottery for open seats, which would be a random drawing of applicants. But the school still requires the tests for all applicants before the lottery.
Several of the schools' websites state clearly that the tests will not be used for admissions, but the tests are still given before admission.
The Plain Dealer requested comment last night from both Ucan and the Ohio Department of Education. ODE spokesman John Charlton provided a copy of the state law governing charter admissions while he researches further.
Ucan did not immediately respond.
We will update when we hear more.
As was reported Wednesday along with Britton-Laidman's allegations, the schools are allowed -- and must -- seek transcripts when students enter a school. But Hollie Reedy, a lawyer for the Ohio School Boards Association, said that except for a few exceptions -- like single-sex schools, dropout recovery schools or arts schools -- the schools can't pick and choose students.
"You're not allowed to use that as a basis for whether to admit a student or not," Reedy said.
Diagnostic tests are allowed to place students at the appropriate level and in the right classes, she said, but not before admitting a student.
"The charter schools are public schools," Reedy said. "We take all comers."
We also reported Wednesday on other allegations from Britton-Laidman that schools push out bad students before state testing to make their scores look better. Evidence of that claim was unclear.
Several hundred Concept backers bused to Columbus Tuesday for a rally in support of the schools, while several spoke about them to the state Board of Education.
See cleveland.com's coverage of the supporters HERE.
State legislators complained Monday that for Concept to pay for buses and for lunch for supporters amounted to using tax dollars for lobbying.
And the Ohio Federation of Teachers is pushing a petition asking to put the Concept schools under state control and make them post bonds in case the federal investigation shuts them down.
The Ohio Department of Education has several of its own departments investigating allegations about the Dayton-area Concept schools. Charlton said this week that officials are also looking at complaints of testing violations in Columbus and Cincinnati.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/09/more_horizon_science_academy_students_leave_right_before_counting_on_state_tests.html
By Patrick O'Donnell, The Plain Dealer
on September 17, 2014 at 1:08 PM, updated September 17, 2014 at 3:10 PM
Concept Charter Schools Controversy CLEVELAND, Ohio -- There is some support for accusations this week that the Horizon Science Academy and Noble Academy charter schools push out bad students before state testing to make their scores look better.
More Horizon Science Academy students leave Horizon for the Cleveland school district in the weeks before annual state tests than at any other time -- other than around the start of a new school year -- according to three years of student transfer data from the Cleveland schools.
But that evidence is limited. And the schools deny driving off bad students -- a move that would be a significant violation for publicly-funded schools required to educate students regardless of academic ability.
The schools also offered their own data Tuesday that further clouds the issue.
The four Horizon Science Academy schools in Cleveland and the Noble Academy school in Euclid all belong to the Concept Schools, a 30-school network of charter schools spread across the Midwest.
Horizon's campus off Interstate 90 near East 55th Street has received numerous awards and commendations for academic performance.
Concept Schools has been under scrutiny in recent months due to a federal investigation of the network and complaints to the Ohio Board of Education in July about possible cheating on state tests and possible sexual and racial discrimination or harassment at Horizon schools in Dayton.
ProgressOhio, the left-leaning activist group in Columbus that helped organize the July testimony to the state school board, leveled new charges against Concept Schools this week, just as Concept was organizing a rally in Columbus and its own testimony to the state board.
Are these transfers random? Or is there a pattern here? Tell us below.
Among them: Accusations from two former Cleveland-area employees that Concept schools have selective admissions for students, which would be against state law, and that Concept schools drive poorly-performing students out during the school year if it looks like those they will not do well on state tests.
The report states: "In an interview with ProgressOhio, Amy Britton-Laidman, a former administrative assistant from Cleveland's Noble Academy said the school routinely found reasons to expel some of the worst-performing students before standardized tests were to take place. She also said that although Nobel is supposed to take all students, it used entrance exams to cherry pick higher-achieving students, then lied to parents of low-achieving students by saying the school had a waiting list. She has been interviewed by the FBI but agents asked her not to provide details of their conversations.
Scott Courtney, a former teacher from Horizon's Cleveland high school, also said he was pressured to expel poor performing students but refused to do so.
ProgressOhio had identified these former employees to The Plain Dealer late this summer. Courtney did not respond to attempts to contact him this summer.
Britton-Laidman spelled out the same complaints to The Plain Dealer as to ProgressOhio.
She said she was an administrative assistant and enrollment coordinator at Noble Academy, on East 200th Street in Euclid from 2006-11 and both saw and participated in what she describes.
She said that in the spring, students who were not performing well would be cited for behavior problems, sometimes just for not turning in homework, and be asked to leave.
"They asked these kids to withdraw because they would have performed poorly on state tests," she told The Plain Dealer.
She said that students who had poor grades or who did poorly on their spring or fall standardized Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were told they and their parents had to sign an academic contract to remain at the school. Students who did not meet requirements in the contract were then asked to leave.
Her complaints prompted The Plain Dealer to request some student transfer data from the Cleveland school district that the district provided late last week.
Data from the district shows only a handful of transfers to the district from Noble Academy in recent years, mostly at the start of the school year, which does not support the pattern Britton-Laidman describes.
The Euclid schools did not have an immediate response to a request this week for similar data.
But the 331 transfers in the last three full years from the multiple Horizon schools in the area to Cleveland schools show a pattern. Horizon schools regularly have students leaving Horizon and transferring to district schools each month of the school year.
Aside from the peak in August and September as the school year starts, the highest number of student transfers out of Horizon schools and back to the district is in March. That's the month of the main high school exam -- the Ohio Graduation Test and a month before the Ohio Achievement Assessments start for younger grades.
We asked the Breakthrough charter school network in Cleveland for a quick breakdown of its student withdrawals for comparison. Excluding August and September for normal transfers at the start of the school year, Breakthrough's highest withdrawal month for its nine schools was October, with November and December the next highest.
Withdrawals from Breakthrough in March were less than half the number in October.
Data from the Cleveland school district also shows that controversy about Horizon schools may be leading more families to leave Horizon than normal. According to the district, 84 students left Horizon schools for district schools this August and September. That's double the rate of the previous three years. (See the full data below.)
Salim Ucan, the vice president of the 30-school Concept Schools network, said Tuesday that the schools neither expel bad students for academic reasons or pressure them to leave.
"We never expel a student for poor academic results," Ucan told The Plain Dealer. "If it's not discipline related, the student will not be expelled."
He provided The Plain Dealer with student withdrawal counts, by month, for each of the Cleveland-area schools for the 2013-14 school year. Concept's breakdown looks only at students leaving for any other school, not just in the Cleveland district.
It shows a far more even rate of students leaving than suggested by the Cleveland schools' numbers.
"That does not match the data that we have," he said of Cleveland's tally. "I would question the validity."
Ucan offered to show records to verify Concept's accounting, though he was not sure what he could provide without violating privacy laws.
Ucan said that transfers out of Horizon and Noble academies are consistent with the high mobility rate of Cleveland students. That's a regular issue for the district and other charter schools as students change addresses and move in and out of the city much more often than suburban students.
He also noted: "This doesn't mean that all these kids who leave Horizon and Noble are low performing students."
Ucan also denied Britton-Laidman's other charge -- that Concept schools admit only students who look like they will score well. She had told The Plain Dealer that the schools review report cards of applicants and give them the schools' diagnostic and placement test before admitting them
"If they performed anywhere under 70 percent, I would tell parents the class is full and they would be put on the waiting list," she said.
She added: "I know that for a fact, because that's what I did for five years."
Hollie Reedy, a lawyer for the Ohio School Boards Association, said all schools must seek transcripts for any prospective students before admitting them. But except for a few exceptions -- like single-sex schools or arts schools -- the schools can't pick and choose students.
"You're not allowed to use that as a basis for whether to admit a student or not," Reedy said.
Diagnostic tests are allowed to place students at the appropriate level and in the right classes, she said, but not before admitting a student.
"The charter schools are public schools," Reedy said. "We take all comers."
Ucan said Britton-Laidman's accusations are "not true at all."
"Yes, we do give diagnostic tests," Ucan said. "But no diagnostic test is given prior to that kid being accepted into the school. First they are accepted and then they are given diagnostic tests."
ProgressOhio's report was just one piece of a flurry of activity in Columbus this week. Several hundred Concept backers bused to Columbus Tuesday for a rally in support of the schools, while several spoke about them to the state Board of Education.
See cleveland.com's coverage of the supporters HERE.
State legislators complained Monday that for Concept to pay for buses and for lunch for supporters amounted to using tax dollars for lobbying.
And the Ohio Federation of Teachers is pushing a petition asking to put the Concept schools under state control and make them post bonds in case the federal investigation shuts them down.
The Ohio Department of Education has several of its own departments investigating allegations about the Dayton-area Concept schools. Spokesman John Charlton said this week that officials are also looking at complaints of testing violations in Columbus and Cincinnati.
Students leaving Horizon schools for Cleveland school district schools, by month, according to district. (Note: See the table on the link provided above).
Here is Horizon's report of student withdrawals, by month, for this fall and for the entire 2013-14 school year. Below that are total withdrawals for previous years. These numbers show students transferring to any district or school, not just Cleveland.
Note: See the table on the link provided above).
Charter schools were supposed to re-direct students into more solidly educational paths and they came with dress codes and behavior requirements that were to be more able to be enforced. They do take tax dollars, so that they can pick and choose all of their students is up for question. If this were a private or parochial school, there would be no doubt that a student could be expelled for academic inability or if the student were just plain uncooperative about discipline. This, by parochial and private schools, would not have anything to do with ditching underperforming students to raise state test scores. Charter schools are a whole new ballgame.
http://www.horizondenison.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/steps-to-enrollment.pdf
HORIZON SCIENCE ACADEMY-DENISON MIDDLE SCHOOL
Thank you for your interest in HSA-Denison! Below you will find the steps and procedures for
enrollment into HSA. If you have any questions please feel free to ask Administration! We hope to see
you and your child here at HSA!
Step One:
Complete and return the application. Please be sure to submit the following documents along with your
application:
*Child’s Birth Certificate
*Child’s Social Security Card
*Child’s Immunization Records
*Proof of Residency (This must be either electric, gas, or lease agreement)
*Child’s Final Report Card (This must state what grade they will be in for the following school
year.)
*Test Scores Including IOWA’S and OAA’S (3rd-8th Grade)
*IEP/MFE/ETR if applicable
*Parent/Guardian Picture I.D.
ALL of the above documents MUST be submitted before your child’s file will be reviewed and
considered for enrollment.
Step two:
Make an appointment with the secretary for your child(ren) to take the placement exam.
(Grades Kindergarten and 3rd-8th)
Step three:
After all documents are submitted and placement exams are completed Administration will review your
child’s file. You will receive a phone call from Administration to make an appointment for an interview
with you and your child. Their acceptance will then be determined.
Step four:
Upon acceptance into HSA-Denison you will be responsible for a non-refundable material fee. The fee
is $50.00 per student for the school year. This fee covers books, art supplies, paper, etc. HSA also
has a required uniform shirt and lock (4th-8th grade) that must be purchased from the school. You will
still be responsible to purchase the school supplies that are requested by the teachers.
On Tuesday, September 16, 2014, Ucan was questioned about allegations that as part of the enrollment process, Concept Schools made perspective students take an assessment test. Apparently, pre-enrollment assessment tests are illegal (as it applies to publicly funded schools). Ucan of course denied it, stating that the allegations were “untrue.” On Thursday, Ucan was again questioned about testing procedures and he again denied that Concept Schools required preadmission testing.
However, according to their own websites and admission procedures, the schools did require that the students take an assessment test. Ucan can deny it all he wants, but having personally witnessed students taking the tests at Horizon Science Academy Denison in Cleveland, I know that he is lying – again.
Ucan’s continuing credo whenever he is confronted with the truth is to sling mud at the accusers. In this case, he attempts to discredit former employee Amy Britton, despite the fact that she was in charge of handing out the tests as part of her position at Noble Academy in Cleveland for 5 years.
Each and every time criticism and accusations of illegal activities are lobbied at Concept Schools; Ucan’s response is to “shoot the messenger.” How can it be that there are so many “disgruntled” employees out there making similar allegations across state lines? How can they all be in collusion?
And yes, it’s certain that there are “disgruntled” employees out there; employees who are fed up with Concept Schools’ systematic abuses of our publicly funded schools. Sure and undoubtedly there are American teachers and administrators, who are disgusted about being discriminated against, overworked, underpaid, and manipulated in order to suit the needs of the Gulenists.
But the bottom line is that this operation is being funded by United States’ taxpayers and yet -- “managed” and operated by Gulenists whose best interests are not to educate American children, but instead – used to continually fund -- Gulen’s now crumbling financial empire.
Salim Ucan and his cronies need to be stopped – pure and simple. The lies and deception need to end and our schools returned to honest and ethical leaders. The schools must be delivered from charlatans like Ucan, whose greatest attribute is to attempt to defraud the American people by consistently lying about Concept’s operations and associated illegal activities.
Ucan has to resign.
And the Ohio Department of Education should finally do its due diligence and thoroughly investigate all of Concept’s schools before the feds step in and force them to.
Finally, more “disgruntled” employees need to come forward and tell their stories, demanding that state and federal officials investigate and act on the evidence provided to them.
As for Ucan, he should be thankful that he’s not Pinocchio, because otherwise by now -- he’d have a nose as long as the Brooklyn Bridge.
Below are two articles about Ucan’s denials as written by Plain Dealer reporter, Patrick O'Donnell, and published on September 16 and September 18, 2014:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/09/post_227.html
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Some Horizon Science Academy charter schools test applicants before admitting them, according to the schools' own websites.
If test scores are used to select students at the schools it would be an apparent violation of state law. Charter schools are privately-run, but they are public schools with state funding and open to anyone.
As state law says: "The school may not limit admission to students on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or athletic ability."
But the admissions procedures listed on Horizon websites may partially back charges that the schools use supposed diagnostic or placement tests to screen applicants and pick the best students.
"If they performed anywhere under 70 percent, I would tell parents the class is full and they would be put on the waiting list," Amy Britton-Laidman, a former administrator at Noble Academy, an affiliated charter school in Euclid, told The Plain Dealer.
She added: "I know that for a fact, because that's what I did for five years."
The procedures also contradict statements Tuesday from Salim Ucan, vice president of the Concept Schools charter school family that includes multiple Horizon schools and Noble Academy.
Though Horizon Science Academy has a strong reputation in Cleveland, Concept schools have been under fire in recent months because of a federal investigation and because of complaints against Dayton-area Horizon schools this summer.
Horizon and Noble students and parents: Were you tested before being accepted? Tell us below.
"Yes, we do give diagnostic tests," Ucan told The Plain Dealer, in response to the charges. "But no diagnostic test is given prior to that kid being accepted into the school. First they are accepted and then they are given diagnostic tests."
But that's not what the admissions procedure says at the Horizon middle school on Denison Avenue on the near West Side. Step one has parents fill out paperwork and step two has students take the test.
Here's what the school's procedure says happens after that:
"Step three: After all documents are submitted and placement exams are completed Administration will review your child's file. You will receive a phone call from Administration to make an appointment for an interview with you and your child. Their acceptance will then be determined."
Noble Academy in Columbus has students take the test as parents turn in things like report cards and a child's birth certificate as they apply, not a two-step process like Ucan described:
"You MUST bring your students that you are planning on enrolling in Noble Academy with you when you come to fill out the paperwork and turn in documents as there are some assessments that your student will need to complete prior to enrollment."
It's a similar procedure at Horizon's middle school in Columbus:
"For admission to Horizon Science Academy Columbus Middle School, please stop by at our school, fill out the application forms while your child takes a diagnostic test. Your enrollment will be complete when you turn in the required application forms."
The enrollment-application packet for the Horizon high school in Columbus states that the school has a lottery for open seats, which would be a random drawing of applicants. But the school still requires the tests for all applicants before the lottery.
Several of the schools' websites state clearly that the tests will not be used for admissions, but the tests are still given before admission.
The Plain Dealer requested comment last night from both Ucan and the Ohio Department of Education. ODE spokesman John Charlton provided a copy of the state law governing charter admissions while he researches further.
Ucan did not immediately respond.
We will update when we hear more.
As was reported Wednesday along with Britton-Laidman's allegations, the schools are allowed -- and must -- seek transcripts when students enter a school. But Hollie Reedy, a lawyer for the Ohio School Boards Association, said that except for a few exceptions -- like single-sex schools, dropout recovery schools or arts schools -- the schools can't pick and choose students.
"You're not allowed to use that as a basis for whether to admit a student or not," Reedy said.
Diagnostic tests are allowed to place students at the appropriate level and in the right classes, she said, but not before admitting a student.
"The charter schools are public schools," Reedy said. "We take all comers."
We also reported Wednesday on other allegations from Britton-Laidman that schools push out bad students before state testing to make their scores look better. Evidence of that claim was unclear.
Several hundred Concept backers bused to Columbus Tuesday for a rally in support of the schools, while several spoke about them to the state Board of Education.
See cleveland.com's coverage of the supporters HERE.
State legislators complained Monday that for Concept to pay for buses and for lunch for supporters amounted to using tax dollars for lobbying.
And the Ohio Federation of Teachers is pushing a petition asking to put the Concept schools under state control and make them post bonds in case the federal investigation shuts them down.
The Ohio Department of Education has several of its own departments investigating allegations about the Dayton-area Concept schools. Charlton said this week that officials are also looking at complaints of testing violations in Columbus and Cincinnati.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/09/more_horizon_science_academy_students_leave_right_before_counting_on_state_tests.html
By Patrick O'Donnell, The Plain Dealer
on September 17, 2014 at 1:08 PM, updated September 17, 2014 at 3:10 PM
Concept Charter Schools Controversy CLEVELAND, Ohio -- There is some support for accusations this week that the Horizon Science Academy and Noble Academy charter schools push out bad students before state testing to make their scores look better.
More Horizon Science Academy students leave Horizon for the Cleveland school district in the weeks before annual state tests than at any other time -- other than around the start of a new school year -- according to three years of student transfer data from the Cleveland schools.
But that evidence is limited. And the schools deny driving off bad students -- a move that would be a significant violation for publicly-funded schools required to educate students regardless of academic ability.
The schools also offered their own data Tuesday that further clouds the issue.
The four Horizon Science Academy schools in Cleveland and the Noble Academy school in Euclid all belong to the Concept Schools, a 30-school network of charter schools spread across the Midwest.
Horizon's campus off Interstate 90 near East 55th Street has received numerous awards and commendations for academic performance.
Concept Schools has been under scrutiny in recent months due to a federal investigation of the network and complaints to the Ohio Board of Education in July about possible cheating on state tests and possible sexual and racial discrimination or harassment at Horizon schools in Dayton.
ProgressOhio, the left-leaning activist group in Columbus that helped organize the July testimony to the state school board, leveled new charges against Concept Schools this week, just as Concept was organizing a rally in Columbus and its own testimony to the state board.
Are these transfers random? Or is there a pattern here? Tell us below.
Among them: Accusations from two former Cleveland-area employees that Concept schools have selective admissions for students, which would be against state law, and that Concept schools drive poorly-performing students out during the school year if it looks like those they will not do well on state tests.
The report states: "In an interview with ProgressOhio, Amy Britton-Laidman, a former administrative assistant from Cleveland's Noble Academy said the school routinely found reasons to expel some of the worst-performing students before standardized tests were to take place. She also said that although Nobel is supposed to take all students, it used entrance exams to cherry pick higher-achieving students, then lied to parents of low-achieving students by saying the school had a waiting list. She has been interviewed by the FBI but agents asked her not to provide details of their conversations.
Scott Courtney, a former teacher from Horizon's Cleveland high school, also said he was pressured to expel poor performing students but refused to do so.
ProgressOhio had identified these former employees to The Plain Dealer late this summer. Courtney did not respond to attempts to contact him this summer.
Britton-Laidman spelled out the same complaints to The Plain Dealer as to ProgressOhio.
She said she was an administrative assistant and enrollment coordinator at Noble Academy, on East 200th Street in Euclid from 2006-11 and both saw and participated in what she describes.
She said that in the spring, students who were not performing well would be cited for behavior problems, sometimes just for not turning in homework, and be asked to leave.
"They asked these kids to withdraw because they would have performed poorly on state tests," she told The Plain Dealer.
She said that students who had poor grades or who did poorly on their spring or fall standardized Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were told they and their parents had to sign an academic contract to remain at the school. Students who did not meet requirements in the contract were then asked to leave.
Her complaints prompted The Plain Dealer to request some student transfer data from the Cleveland school district that the district provided late last week.
Data from the district shows only a handful of transfers to the district from Noble Academy in recent years, mostly at the start of the school year, which does not support the pattern Britton-Laidman describes.
The Euclid schools did not have an immediate response to a request this week for similar data.
But the 331 transfers in the last three full years from the multiple Horizon schools in the area to Cleveland schools show a pattern. Horizon schools regularly have students leaving Horizon and transferring to district schools each month of the school year.
Aside from the peak in August and September as the school year starts, the highest number of student transfers out of Horizon schools and back to the district is in March. That's the month of the main high school exam -- the Ohio Graduation Test and a month before the Ohio Achievement Assessments start for younger grades.
We asked the Breakthrough charter school network in Cleveland for a quick breakdown of its student withdrawals for comparison. Excluding August and September for normal transfers at the start of the school year, Breakthrough's highest withdrawal month for its nine schools was October, with November and December the next highest.
Withdrawals from Breakthrough in March were less than half the number in October.
Data from the Cleveland school district also shows that controversy about Horizon schools may be leading more families to leave Horizon than normal. According to the district, 84 students left Horizon schools for district schools this August and September. That's double the rate of the previous three years. (See the full data below.)
Salim Ucan, the vice president of the 30-school Concept Schools network, said Tuesday that the schools neither expel bad students for academic reasons or pressure them to leave.
"We never expel a student for poor academic results," Ucan told The Plain Dealer. "If it's not discipline related, the student will not be expelled."
He provided The Plain Dealer with student withdrawal counts, by month, for each of the Cleveland-area schools for the 2013-14 school year. Concept's breakdown looks only at students leaving for any other school, not just in the Cleveland district.
It shows a far more even rate of students leaving than suggested by the Cleveland schools' numbers.
"That does not match the data that we have," he said of Cleveland's tally. "I would question the validity."
Ucan offered to show records to verify Concept's accounting, though he was not sure what he could provide without violating privacy laws.
Ucan said that transfers out of Horizon and Noble academies are consistent with the high mobility rate of Cleveland students. That's a regular issue for the district and other charter schools as students change addresses and move in and out of the city much more often than suburban students.
He also noted: "This doesn't mean that all these kids who leave Horizon and Noble are low performing students."
Ucan also denied Britton-Laidman's other charge -- that Concept schools admit only students who look like they will score well. She had told The Plain Dealer that the schools review report cards of applicants and give them the schools' diagnostic and placement test before admitting them
"If they performed anywhere under 70 percent, I would tell parents the class is full and they would be put on the waiting list," she said.
She added: "I know that for a fact, because that's what I did for five years."
Hollie Reedy, a lawyer for the Ohio School Boards Association, said all schools must seek transcripts for any prospective students before admitting them. But except for a few exceptions -- like single-sex schools or arts schools -- the schools can't pick and choose students.
"You're not allowed to use that as a basis for whether to admit a student or not," Reedy said.
Diagnostic tests are allowed to place students at the appropriate level and in the right classes, she said, but not before admitting a student.
"The charter schools are public schools," Reedy said. "We take all comers."
Ucan said Britton-Laidman's accusations are "not true at all."
"Yes, we do give diagnostic tests," Ucan said. "But no diagnostic test is given prior to that kid being accepted into the school. First they are accepted and then they are given diagnostic tests."
ProgressOhio's report was just one piece of a flurry of activity in Columbus this week. Several hundred Concept backers bused to Columbus Tuesday for a rally in support of the schools, while several spoke about them to the state Board of Education.
See cleveland.com's coverage of the supporters HERE.
State legislators complained Monday that for Concept to pay for buses and for lunch for supporters amounted to using tax dollars for lobbying.
And the Ohio Federation of Teachers is pushing a petition asking to put the Concept schools under state control and make them post bonds in case the federal investigation shuts them down.
The Ohio Department of Education has several of its own departments investigating allegations about the Dayton-area Concept schools. Spokesman John Charlton said this week that officials are also looking at complaints of testing violations in Columbus and Cincinnati.
Students leaving Horizon schools for Cleveland school district schools, by month, according to district. (Note: See the table on the link provided above).
Here is Horizon's report of student withdrawals, by month, for this fall and for the entire 2013-14 school year. Below that are total withdrawals for previous years. These numbers show students transferring to any district or school, not just Cleveland.
Note: See the table on the link provided above).
Charter schools were supposed to re-direct students into more solidly educational paths and they came with dress codes and behavior requirements that were to be more able to be enforced. They do take tax dollars, so that they can pick and choose all of their students is up for question. If this were a private or parochial school, there would be no doubt that a student could be expelled for academic inability or if the student were just plain uncooperative about discipline. This, by parochial and private schools, would not have anything to do with ditching underperforming students to raise state test scores. Charter schools are a whole new ballgame.
http://www.horizondenison.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/steps-to-enrollment.pdf
HORIZON SCIENCE ACADEMY-DENISON MIDDLE SCHOOL
Thank you for your interest in HSA-Denison! Below you will find the steps and procedures for
enrollment into HSA. If you have any questions please feel free to ask Administration! We hope to see
you and your child here at HSA!
Step One:
Complete and return the application. Please be sure to submit the following documents along with your
application:
*Child’s Birth Certificate
*Child’s Social Security Card
*Child’s Immunization Records
*Proof of Residency (This must be either electric, gas, or lease agreement)
*Child’s Final Report Card (This must state what grade they will be in for the following school
year.)
*Test Scores Including IOWA’S and OAA’S (3rd-8th Grade)
*IEP/MFE/ETR if applicable
*Parent/Guardian Picture I.D.
ALL of the above documents MUST be submitted before your child’s file will be reviewed and
considered for enrollment.
Step two:
Make an appointment with the secretary for your child(ren) to take the placement exam.
(Grades Kindergarten and 3rd-8th)
Step three:
After all documents are submitted and placement exams are completed Administration will review your
child’s file. You will receive a phone call from Administration to make an appointment for an interview
with you and your child. Their acceptance will then be determined.
Step four:
Upon acceptance into HSA-Denison you will be responsible for a non-refundable material fee. The fee
is $50.00 per student for the school year. This fee covers books, art supplies, paper, etc. HSA also
has a required uniform shirt and lock (4th-8th grade) that must be purchased from the school. You will
still be responsible to purchase the school supplies that are requested by the teachers.