Required here...
This time of the year all of the state testing results come out for the schools, which is always a great source of amusement to us when it comes to the Gulen-inspired schools’ reporting.
The boys like to boast about their schools' fabulous test scores, but we have long suspected that the test scores are manipulated, as well as the pre and post student admittance selection process, which would account for their alleged high test scores.
And to segue into that topic, we came across an interesting story about a former employee at the Noble Academy in Cleveland that was posted on the Gulencharterschools website.
Pay particular notice to the former employee’s claims that the school requires students to test before they are accepted into the school and as a result of poor scores, are systematically excluded and put on a “waiting list.”
And we wonder how this policy affects the students with special needs – are they too excluded because if they were admitted, it would require the school to provide special services and higher costs?
However, since the schools are paid per student, it is our guess that as enrollment numbers drop that the “failed’ students are quickly moved up the enrollment waiting list and quickly admitted.
The former employee has an incredible list of claims, one of which addresses fraudulent admission practices. She claims that the Turkish employees enrolled their underage kids into kindergarten programs in order to get them on enrollment rosters (and the school be paid for attendance), and then they stopped sending them to school, while the attendance money continued to roll in.
And the employee claims that Spanish had not been offered for five years, but Turkish was instead the foreign language of choice (gee, and we just bet that there was a Turkish H1-B holder for that teaching spot).
After complaining about their illegal practices (a very big no-no with the boys), the employee, who was a long-term employee -- was terminated.
When she filed for unemployment, “Mr. Hakan,” (not his full name – he’s one of those guys with an identity issue), fought the unemployment benefits and was eventually overruled. The employee eventually received the benefits after it was determined that Hakan’s bogus termination was baseless.
Now keep in mind that this former employee is a single mother with a small child, and we suspect was not being paid big bucks -- just trying to make a living and support her family. But along comes Hakan aka Mr. H., who wanted to throw his weight around and not only deprive this woman a means to make a living, but likewise then tried to prevent her from getting unemployment benefits in order to survive.
The boys keep jabbering on about how their schools are “schools of choice,” but whose?
Clearly – it is their choice, their rules, their harassment, their inflated salaries, their schemes, their discriminatory practices, and all funded with our money.
Karma, the principle of cause and effect -- action and reaction -- that governs all life, comes into play here. The boys have had eleven years of causes and actions, and soon – very soon – the feds will swoop in and handle the effect and reaction part of this karmic scenario.
And when it happens, the boys will not have to worry about whether or not they’ll get their unemployment benefits, instead they should be concerned about whether or not the soap slips out of their hands in the prison shower…
Below is the blog from Gulencharterschools.weebly.com:
http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/report-from-concept-schools-staff-member.html
A staff member from a Cleveland Concept School (i.e., a Gulen charter school in Ohio) has contacted this website and reported some observations and experiences regarding this school. This individual believes this information may help other employees, parents and community members and therefore wishes to share it. Note that this individual's information is presented here just as it was reported to us; while we do not have the ability or resources to confirm it through other independent channels, we were provided with supporting materials in the form of copies of letters, documents and emails, including a copy of an official document from the State of Ohio.
This individual, referred to below as S.M. (abbreviation for "staff member") reported the following about the school itself:
1. As part of the enrollment process, prospective students had to take tests referred to as "Concept Tests,” consisting of 38 math questions and 30 English/language arts questions. If a student scored below average then the student and family was told “they are on the waiting list." If the student was average or above average, somehow a place was open for that student. The families and students are under the impression that the students are taking these tests to see if they should receive tutoring or help in an area, whereas the true purpose of these tests is to identify students who will enable the school to achieve the status of excelling. The dialogue or script that staff at the school were trained to use basically suggested all grades/classes had a waiting list but "you never know what will happen," and once the prospective student took the test, then the school would make the decision.
2. Some families of Turkish ethnicity enroll their children in the school’s kindergarten before they are of age, that is, while they are still too young to be legally accepted into a traditional public school. However after a week or even days, these "students" stop showing up yet remain on the data base that reports to EMIS and CSADM. And because these children are not old enough to attend a traditional public school/kindergarten, no one knows or suspects a thing. Some of these families return to Turkey, so discrepancies are not noticed when the child reaches school age because they are no longer in the system. [Note: EMIS, or Education Management Information System, is a statewide data collection system for K-12 schools in Ohio run by the Ohio Department of Education. The CSADM is the Web application used to obtain data that the Ohio Department of Education uses to flow funds to community schools.]
3. Students who are not meeting the academic achievement requirements of the school can be asked to withdraw. Many of these withdrawals take place immediately before the OAA(s) [that is, the state of Ohio’s standardized achievement tests].
4. The school has not had a Spanish class for 5 years. Only Turkish is offered as a foreign language. Parents do not agree with it, but when they try to argue with this policy, they are told to find another school since the school is a “school of choice.”
5. If any parent ever spoke about a Turkish teacher in a negative way or questioning way they were told to find another school.
S.M. also reported the following personal experiences with the school and its administration:
1. The school invited S.M. to attend a school-sponsored trip to Turkey. S.M. accepted this invitation, but had two experiences during this trip that were very concerning. First, a bellhop who delivered food to S.M.’s room attempted a sexual assault. S.M. was told by the trip guide (an employee at some other Concept School) that the bellhop was fired after this. Also, about 5 minutes before going through the departure gate at the airport in Istanbul, the trip guide asked S.M. to take some items including books and something called “stone soup” in S.M.’s carry-on bags. The guide said he had no more room and wanted to take these items back to friends. "Stone soup" turned out to be some sort of light-colored powdery substance.
2. S.M. was required as part of the job responsibilities to watch a traditional Ottoman Empire band that came to Cleveland and paraded through the streets downtown, apparently as part of a tour of the United States.
3. The school director wished to give all 8th graders the last day of school off, but wanted to mark all students as attending. S.M. states that she refused, as this would have been illegal and would have resulted in the school receiving taxpayer funds that it was not entitled too. (Note that many states compute the amount of funding a school receives based on the number of days that students actually are in attendance.) The school director reprimanded S.M., telling her "to learn to let some things just be,” and that if they wanted to give a gift of letting the students not come to school they could do so. He also asked her what gave her the right to know more than him. The school director claimed that (some) other Concept schools followed this practice for their 8th and 12th graders.
4. The school director once explained “change” to S.M. with a Turkish proverb. Change was compared to this (his exact words, according to S.M.): "if you are getting forcibly raped and there is nothing you can do about it, then why not find something pleasurable and enjoy it." Another staff member heard this as well. Both staff members found it deeply disturbing.
More significantly, S.M. provided this website with documentation to support her contentions that
(A) she was given contradictory instructions regarding her job duties;
(B) she was reprimanded for taking time off for essential reasons such as doctors' appointments for her newborn baby or herself, even though she had not used up all her FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) time;
(C) she was wrongfully terminated.
Details about these points, as well as the documentation, are now presented.
Termination without just cause
The following image shows S.M.'s termination letter (NOTE: see website for image).
As can be seen, a primary reason given for termination is that S.M. was alleged to have not followed proper procedures for enrollment. S. M. asserts, however, that:
· She enrolled one new student on the very day of her termination,
· On the day of her termination, which was a Monday, 2 new students that she enrolled on the previous Friday (3 days earlier) started at the school.
· In the previous 2 weeks, she had enrolled 3 new students.
S.M. further notes that in telling all interested parents that the school had a waiting list even when it did not, she was following the instructions she had been given during nearly her entire period of employment at the school. She had been told to always use the same script regardless of the number of students; that is, to say there was a waiting list for all classes except the Kindergarten.
The State of Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission investigated S.M.'s case and determined that S.M. was terminated without just cause. This can be seen in the following document:
(Note: see website for image)
In connection with the finding in this official state of Ohio document that this charter school was using a claimed waiting list as well as pre-admissions tests to select students, it is worth reviewing Ohio law on charter schools:
Ohio Revised Code 3314.06
Admission procedures. The governing authority of each community school established under this chapter shall adopt admission procedures that specify the following:
...
(E) That the school may not limit admission to students on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or athletic ability, except that a school may limit its enrollment to students as described in division (B) of this section.
(There is no provision in division (B) that would allow for restricting admission to higher-performing students based on their scores on an academic aptitude test.)
It is also worth noting that while the termination letter, dated Nov 2011, refers to the school struggling to meet its enrollment objectives, in May 2012 the school website still displayed the following text (a screenshot has been archived): "Our enrollment has grown to 240 students, with a 98% retention rate and a waiting list for future students." This provides an example of a Gulen charter school using claims of a waiting list for marketing purposes, to suggest to parents that there is a high demand for the school, even when no such waiting list exists.
S.M. also asserts that while the termination letter states she took Oct 31, 2011 off without being approved for leave, in fact she had entered the school director's office and asked him personally for approval in advance, and he had nodded yes.
Conflicting job instructions
S.M. sent the following email to another school staff member in connection with a field trip: (identifying names have been replaced with *****)
"Good afternoon Dr. ******,
Many of our students are transported to school by the Euclid School bus, and will not be arriving at ***** till 7:50-8:00. Some students have no other transportation than the school bus. The arrival to school for Cedar Point field trip says 7:30.....that might not work for those students who ride the school bus
Thanks,"
The other staff member responded (and copied to the school director):
"We are not trying to upset or be inconvenience for anybody but for that day they will need to arrange their ride from/to school to benefit this privilege (not a right) which costs ***** about $60 per student. We want to leave as early as possible with breakfast provided and come back not late."
S.M. then sent the following email:
"Please call Mother of ***** Family at ***** regarding Cedar Point trip. Thanks."
S.M. was then reprimanded by the school director with the following email:
"Summary of our talk:
I do not approve your approach as it elevates the tension among the staff. As a ***** employee, you should be able to defend the school practices rather than posing the staff a challenge as seen below. Why does Dr. ***** need to call this parent? You explained everything to this parent as he explained to us so fast and this parent has still questions? We really do not mind talking to them.
We value our parents and we are trying to keep lines of communication open. I gave (am still giving) my cell phone to our parents during parent orientation. Please also do not stress yourself in coping with parents call. We are a team here. If the parents are not satisfied after your first attempt, then you can direct them to the right person. We expect you to reach this person in an appropriate tone and with some basic details.
thanks,"
This email contains contradictory instructions, as it is reprimanding S.M. for asking another staff member to call parents, yet then says that S.M. can direct parents' calls to the right person.
It is also concerning that the school was unwilling to wait 20-30 more minutes to include bus riders in the field trip.
Reprimands for using FMLA time, and taking time off for essential doctors' appointments in connection with newborn child and S.M.'s own health problems
S.M. reports that she did not use all her FMLA time after the birth of her child, yet a number of statements of the school director expressed disapproval of leave taken. Some excerpts of emails from the school director to S.M. are given here.
1. "I will talk to you more in person regarding your position and next year. Briefly I am very pleased with your paperwork and communication with the central office. You are excellent in enrollment and public relations. However I can say the school suffered a lot with your excessive absences. Your position requires a better attendance and better relations with all of the staff. Even after this e-mail it seems you missed 1.5 days. You can not have a healthy communication with the staff and parents if you miss so many hours and days. Besides your absences have become a big burden on other staff members and makes you an undependable employee. I am sure this bothers you as well."
2. “As I indicated several times, your excessive absences and tardiness are still a concern and make you unable to perform your duties effectively and efficiently. That is why we have now a secretary sub and an office assistant to cover you and help you to perform some of your duties. We made adjustments at school to accommodate the best condition for you. This is very unusual at work places. Your Monday absences are the ones especially that trouble us recently.”
3. “You missed some of our Monday meetings. I cannot truly keep track up your assignments (what we started, where we left, what we talked...etc). Since I cannot have a sound communication because of your excessive absences and tardiness, it is an extra burden on me as I need to make extra effort to follow up school related issues concerning your position.”
4. “However I am hopeful things will change. I understand you moved recently. You have a little baby home and several documented/undocumented doctor visits and health issues that you needed to deal with past three months. I see your family is important to you. The only thing that helps me to move forward and being patient with you is your long history and hard work at *****.”
Indeed, S.M. reports that on one day, contrary to her pediatrician's advice, she did not bring in her child for an emergency appointment because of the dissatisfaction already expressed by the school director over absences. Instead, she left work 20 minutes early, after checking with other staff members, to pick up a prescription as the doctor's office was going to close. She was nevertheless reprimanded for leaving work early.
-----
The boys like to boast about their schools' fabulous test scores, but we have long suspected that the test scores are manipulated, as well as the pre and post student admittance selection process, which would account for their alleged high test scores.
And to segue into that topic, we came across an interesting story about a former employee at the Noble Academy in Cleveland that was posted on the Gulencharterschools website.
Pay particular notice to the former employee’s claims that the school requires students to test before they are accepted into the school and as a result of poor scores, are systematically excluded and put on a “waiting list.”
And we wonder how this policy affects the students with special needs – are they too excluded because if they were admitted, it would require the school to provide special services and higher costs?
However, since the schools are paid per student, it is our guess that as enrollment numbers drop that the “failed’ students are quickly moved up the enrollment waiting list and quickly admitted.
The former employee has an incredible list of claims, one of which addresses fraudulent admission practices. She claims that the Turkish employees enrolled their underage kids into kindergarten programs in order to get them on enrollment rosters (and the school be paid for attendance), and then they stopped sending them to school, while the attendance money continued to roll in.
And the employee claims that Spanish had not been offered for five years, but Turkish was instead the foreign language of choice (gee, and we just bet that there was a Turkish H1-B holder for that teaching spot).
After complaining about their illegal practices (a very big no-no with the boys), the employee, who was a long-term employee -- was terminated.
When she filed for unemployment, “Mr. Hakan,” (not his full name – he’s one of those guys with an identity issue), fought the unemployment benefits and was eventually overruled. The employee eventually received the benefits after it was determined that Hakan’s bogus termination was baseless.
Now keep in mind that this former employee is a single mother with a small child, and we suspect was not being paid big bucks -- just trying to make a living and support her family. But along comes Hakan aka Mr. H., who wanted to throw his weight around and not only deprive this woman a means to make a living, but likewise then tried to prevent her from getting unemployment benefits in order to survive.
The boys keep jabbering on about how their schools are “schools of choice,” but whose?
Clearly – it is their choice, their rules, their harassment, their inflated salaries, their schemes, their discriminatory practices, and all funded with our money.
Karma, the principle of cause and effect -- action and reaction -- that governs all life, comes into play here. The boys have had eleven years of causes and actions, and soon – very soon – the feds will swoop in and handle the effect and reaction part of this karmic scenario.
And when it happens, the boys will not have to worry about whether or not they’ll get their unemployment benefits, instead they should be concerned about whether or not the soap slips out of their hands in the prison shower…
Below is the blog from Gulencharterschools.weebly.com:
http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/report-from-concept-schools-staff-member.html
A staff member from a Cleveland Concept School (i.e., a Gulen charter school in Ohio) has contacted this website and reported some observations and experiences regarding this school. This individual believes this information may help other employees, parents and community members and therefore wishes to share it. Note that this individual's information is presented here just as it was reported to us; while we do not have the ability or resources to confirm it through other independent channels, we were provided with supporting materials in the form of copies of letters, documents and emails, including a copy of an official document from the State of Ohio.
This individual, referred to below as S.M. (abbreviation for "staff member") reported the following about the school itself:
1. As part of the enrollment process, prospective students had to take tests referred to as "Concept Tests,” consisting of 38 math questions and 30 English/language arts questions. If a student scored below average then the student and family was told “they are on the waiting list." If the student was average or above average, somehow a place was open for that student. The families and students are under the impression that the students are taking these tests to see if they should receive tutoring or help in an area, whereas the true purpose of these tests is to identify students who will enable the school to achieve the status of excelling. The dialogue or script that staff at the school were trained to use basically suggested all grades/classes had a waiting list but "you never know what will happen," and once the prospective student took the test, then the school would make the decision.
2. Some families of Turkish ethnicity enroll their children in the school’s kindergarten before they are of age, that is, while they are still too young to be legally accepted into a traditional public school. However after a week or even days, these "students" stop showing up yet remain on the data base that reports to EMIS and CSADM. And because these children are not old enough to attend a traditional public school/kindergarten, no one knows or suspects a thing. Some of these families return to Turkey, so discrepancies are not noticed when the child reaches school age because they are no longer in the system. [Note: EMIS, or Education Management Information System, is a statewide data collection system for K-12 schools in Ohio run by the Ohio Department of Education. The CSADM is the Web application used to obtain data that the Ohio Department of Education uses to flow funds to community schools.]
3. Students who are not meeting the academic achievement requirements of the school can be asked to withdraw. Many of these withdrawals take place immediately before the OAA(s) [that is, the state of Ohio’s standardized achievement tests].
4. The school has not had a Spanish class for 5 years. Only Turkish is offered as a foreign language. Parents do not agree with it, but when they try to argue with this policy, they are told to find another school since the school is a “school of choice.”
5. If any parent ever spoke about a Turkish teacher in a negative way or questioning way they were told to find another school.
S.M. also reported the following personal experiences with the school and its administration:
1. The school invited S.M. to attend a school-sponsored trip to Turkey. S.M. accepted this invitation, but had two experiences during this trip that were very concerning. First, a bellhop who delivered food to S.M.’s room attempted a sexual assault. S.M. was told by the trip guide (an employee at some other Concept School) that the bellhop was fired after this. Also, about 5 minutes before going through the departure gate at the airport in Istanbul, the trip guide asked S.M. to take some items including books and something called “stone soup” in S.M.’s carry-on bags. The guide said he had no more room and wanted to take these items back to friends. "Stone soup" turned out to be some sort of light-colored powdery substance.
2. S.M. was required as part of the job responsibilities to watch a traditional Ottoman Empire band that came to Cleveland and paraded through the streets downtown, apparently as part of a tour of the United States.
3. The school director wished to give all 8th graders the last day of school off, but wanted to mark all students as attending. S.M. states that she refused, as this would have been illegal and would have resulted in the school receiving taxpayer funds that it was not entitled too. (Note that many states compute the amount of funding a school receives based on the number of days that students actually are in attendance.) The school director reprimanded S.M., telling her "to learn to let some things just be,” and that if they wanted to give a gift of letting the students not come to school they could do so. He also asked her what gave her the right to know more than him. The school director claimed that (some) other Concept schools followed this practice for their 8th and 12th graders.
4. The school director once explained “change” to S.M. with a Turkish proverb. Change was compared to this (his exact words, according to S.M.): "if you are getting forcibly raped and there is nothing you can do about it, then why not find something pleasurable and enjoy it." Another staff member heard this as well. Both staff members found it deeply disturbing.
More significantly, S.M. provided this website with documentation to support her contentions that
(A) she was given contradictory instructions regarding her job duties;
(B) she was reprimanded for taking time off for essential reasons such as doctors' appointments for her newborn baby or herself, even though she had not used up all her FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) time;
(C) she was wrongfully terminated.
Details about these points, as well as the documentation, are now presented.
Termination without just cause
The following image shows S.M.'s termination letter (NOTE: see website for image).
As can be seen, a primary reason given for termination is that S.M. was alleged to have not followed proper procedures for enrollment. S. M. asserts, however, that:
· She enrolled one new student on the very day of her termination,
· On the day of her termination, which was a Monday, 2 new students that she enrolled on the previous Friday (3 days earlier) started at the school.
· In the previous 2 weeks, she had enrolled 3 new students.
S.M. further notes that in telling all interested parents that the school had a waiting list even when it did not, she was following the instructions she had been given during nearly her entire period of employment at the school. She had been told to always use the same script regardless of the number of students; that is, to say there was a waiting list for all classes except the Kindergarten.
The State of Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission investigated S.M.'s case and determined that S.M. was terminated without just cause. This can be seen in the following document:
(Note: see website for image)
In connection with the finding in this official state of Ohio document that this charter school was using a claimed waiting list as well as pre-admissions tests to select students, it is worth reviewing Ohio law on charter schools:
Ohio Revised Code 3314.06
Admission procedures. The governing authority of each community school established under this chapter shall adopt admission procedures that specify the following:
...
(E) That the school may not limit admission to students on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or athletic ability, except that a school may limit its enrollment to students as described in division (B) of this section.
(There is no provision in division (B) that would allow for restricting admission to higher-performing students based on their scores on an academic aptitude test.)
It is also worth noting that while the termination letter, dated Nov 2011, refers to the school struggling to meet its enrollment objectives, in May 2012 the school website still displayed the following text (a screenshot has been archived): "Our enrollment has grown to 240 students, with a 98% retention rate and a waiting list for future students." This provides an example of a Gulen charter school using claims of a waiting list for marketing purposes, to suggest to parents that there is a high demand for the school, even when no such waiting list exists.
S.M. also asserts that while the termination letter states she took Oct 31, 2011 off without being approved for leave, in fact she had entered the school director's office and asked him personally for approval in advance, and he had nodded yes.
Conflicting job instructions
S.M. sent the following email to another school staff member in connection with a field trip: (identifying names have been replaced with *****)
"Good afternoon Dr. ******,
Many of our students are transported to school by the Euclid School bus, and will not be arriving at ***** till 7:50-8:00. Some students have no other transportation than the school bus. The arrival to school for Cedar Point field trip says 7:30.....that might not work for those students who ride the school bus
Thanks,"
The other staff member responded (and copied to the school director):
"We are not trying to upset or be inconvenience for anybody but for that day they will need to arrange their ride from/to school to benefit this privilege (not a right) which costs ***** about $60 per student. We want to leave as early as possible with breakfast provided and come back not late."
S.M. then sent the following email:
"Please call Mother of ***** Family at ***** regarding Cedar Point trip. Thanks."
S.M. was then reprimanded by the school director with the following email:
"Summary of our talk:
I do not approve your approach as it elevates the tension among the staff. As a ***** employee, you should be able to defend the school practices rather than posing the staff a challenge as seen below. Why does Dr. ***** need to call this parent? You explained everything to this parent as he explained to us so fast and this parent has still questions? We really do not mind talking to them.
We value our parents and we are trying to keep lines of communication open. I gave (am still giving) my cell phone to our parents during parent orientation. Please also do not stress yourself in coping with parents call. We are a team here. If the parents are not satisfied after your first attempt, then you can direct them to the right person. We expect you to reach this person in an appropriate tone and with some basic details.
thanks,"
This email contains contradictory instructions, as it is reprimanding S.M. for asking another staff member to call parents, yet then says that S.M. can direct parents' calls to the right person.
It is also concerning that the school was unwilling to wait 20-30 more minutes to include bus riders in the field trip.
Reprimands for using FMLA time, and taking time off for essential doctors' appointments in connection with newborn child and S.M.'s own health problems
S.M. reports that she did not use all her FMLA time after the birth of her child, yet a number of statements of the school director expressed disapproval of leave taken. Some excerpts of emails from the school director to S.M. are given here.
1. "I will talk to you more in person regarding your position and next year. Briefly I am very pleased with your paperwork and communication with the central office. You are excellent in enrollment and public relations. However I can say the school suffered a lot with your excessive absences. Your position requires a better attendance and better relations with all of the staff. Even after this e-mail it seems you missed 1.5 days. You can not have a healthy communication with the staff and parents if you miss so many hours and days. Besides your absences have become a big burden on other staff members and makes you an undependable employee. I am sure this bothers you as well."
2. “As I indicated several times, your excessive absences and tardiness are still a concern and make you unable to perform your duties effectively and efficiently. That is why we have now a secretary sub and an office assistant to cover you and help you to perform some of your duties. We made adjustments at school to accommodate the best condition for you. This is very unusual at work places. Your Monday absences are the ones especially that trouble us recently.”
3. “You missed some of our Monday meetings. I cannot truly keep track up your assignments (what we started, where we left, what we talked...etc). Since I cannot have a sound communication because of your excessive absences and tardiness, it is an extra burden on me as I need to make extra effort to follow up school related issues concerning your position.”
4. “However I am hopeful things will change. I understand you moved recently. You have a little baby home and several documented/undocumented doctor visits and health issues that you needed to deal with past three months. I see your family is important to you. The only thing that helps me to move forward and being patient with you is your long history and hard work at *****.”
Indeed, S.M. reports that on one day, contrary to her pediatrician's advice, she did not bring in her child for an emergency appointment because of the dissatisfaction already expressed by the school director over absences. Instead, she left work 20 minutes early, after checking with other staff members, to pick up a prescription as the doctor's office was going to close. She was nevertheless reprimanded for leaving work early.
-----