Dove Science Academys and Discover Schools in Oklahoma are under the Cosmos Foundation in Texas. YES your State tax money is crossing over into Oklahoma where the Oklahoma Public Schools have denied sponsorship of these schools because of the rape and financial mismanagment. They are now sponsored by Langston University - we are sure that the Gulen Institute aka your tax dollars gives the University big donations for this.
Schools' backers say Islamic ties pose no threat
Four Oklahoma charter schools founded by Turkish nationals 11 years ago have ties to an international Islamic movement that promotes peace and interfaith communication. Experts say the connection is nothing to fear, while others are stirring controversy.
BY MEGAN ROLLAND mrolland@opubco.com
Published: May 1, 2011
Modified: April 30, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Modified: April 30, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Al Mikell heard the accusations about the elementary school where he sends his two young children.
At a glance
Origins of the schools
Five graduate students from Oklahoma State University founded Sky Foundation in 2000, which has since opened four charter schools in Oklahoma.
Most of the original Sky Foundation founders have left the country.
“We were only a group of graduate students who wanted to make a difference in our hosting community of Oklahoma (as a token of gratitude),” wrote founding member Elvan Ceyhan in an email to The Oklahoman. “I would know if there were connections to a larger network.”
Shortly after the first schools opened, Ceyhan left for doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is now a professor in Turkey.
At the same time the Sky Foundation began here, the Cosmos Foundation was established in Texas. Cosmos now has 33 charter schools in Texas, most named Harmony Science Academy.
In 2000, Cosmos applied for its first two charter schools in Austin and Houston. Ali Yavuz Zeybek, is listed as president of the board for both schools.
Zeybek received his doctorate in communications from the University of Oklahoma, is also listed as a founding member on the 2001 charter school application for Dove Science Academy in Oklahoma City.
Camuz said Sky and Cosmos foundations have always worked closely together, cooperating for students' benefit.
He did his own research, talked to teachers and students, and decided to stay.
“I was so impressed with the administrators, who happen to be Turkish, who happen to be Muslim, that I don't worry,” said Mikell, an associate professor of biology at Oklahoma Christian University. “I feel very comfortable. I have never had any fragment of an idea that they were trying to convert anyone to anything.”
Mikell's children attend Dove Science Academy Elementary, an Oklahoma City charter school funded with state tax dollars, run by a nonprofit organization, and free to students admitted through a lottery. Bloggers Note: Checking the faculty list at OCU there is no Mikell listed, can someone from the school please clarify.
It is one of four Oklahoma charter schools run by the nonprofit Sky Foundation, which was founded in 2000 by five graduate students at Oklahoma State University. Most were members of the Turkish Student Association. In 2009, Sky Foundation reported nearly $8 million in revenue.
More than 120 charter schools nationwide were founded by Turkish nationals, beginning in 1999. The schools have excelled academically. They also have brought thousands of workers into the country on temporary visas.
And today the schools are part of a brewing controversy that touches on religion, Middle Eastern politics, the growing school choice movement and immigration.
Mikell said none of the controversy matters when he considers the outstanding education his children are receiving, tuition-free, at the Oklahoma City school.
The movement
At the center is Fethullah Gulen, a 70-year-old Turkish Muslim philosopher who preaches peace, interfaith cooperation, democracy and an emphasis on science and math.
From his current home — described as a retreat or compound in Pennsylvania — Gulen also promotes his brand of volunteerism that has inspired countless people throughout the world.
Social scientists, who have researched the Gulen Movement, claim there are millions of followers around the world and thousands of Gulen-inspired schools.
However, a vocal and active group of bloggers is working to prove that the charter schools in America — founded and run predominately by Turkish men — are in fact a network of schools doing the bidding of Gulen and obscuring the true purpose of the schools: to promote the movement and to help bring Gulen followers to the U.S.
Those in the movement — who live their lives according to Gulen's teachings — are reticent to call it a movement, let alone agree there are charter schools inspired by Gulen.
“I would like to make a very clear distinction and put a space between Gulen-inspired schools and the nonexistence of what some bloggers call Gulen Charter schools,” said Ali Candir, president of The Gulen Institute at the University of Houston. “You can find these things on some ultra right-extremist blogs ... If there's a Turkish person there it can be imagined that some of these individuals, not all of them of course, might be inspired by the works and life of Mr. Gulen.”
International Studies professor Joshua Hendrick at the University of Oregon has published a paper on the Gulen Movement and spoke at Rice University in Houston.
“What is mind-boggling to some and infuriating to others is why do the leaders deny affiliation when affiliation is clear?” Hendrick said in his lecture. “The school choice movement here in the United States allowed ... the Gulen Movement to take advantage of public funding, to create a situation whereby the United States now hosts more Gulen-inspired schools than any country in the world outside of Turkey.”
Jill Carroll, who teaches religious studies at Rice and published a book on the movement, says that while the schools were clearly inspired by Gulen there is no central organization. She said the American public has nothing to fear.
“The tendency is for people over here who are afraid of Islam and Muslims to think that these are madrassas or they're teaching the Quran, and this is ridiculous,” Carroll said. “It's nothing but fear mongering ... not based on anything factual.”
Across the nation, the charter schools are known for their strong math and science curriculums, as well as a heavy use of temporary nonimmigrant visas — H-1B visas — to bring foreign teachers to the United States.
The superintendent of the four Sky Foundation schools in Oklahoma, Kaan Camuz, said of 35 teachers at Dove Science Academy, 11 are from Turkey, Russia, Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan.
Those teachers, along with many others on the school's four campuses, came to America on H-1B visas. Federal law allows employers unable to find qualified American employees to fill positions with foreign labor through a visa application process.
Last year, according to U.S. Department of Labor records, Sky and its charter schools had 53 H-1B visa applications, of which eight were withdrawn or denied and 45 were certified. The certified applications were sent to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of State for further approval. Some were approved, others not.
“There are a lot of Turkish people in administration. There also are a lot of non-Turkish people in administration,” said Maureen Brown, principal of the Discovery School of Tulsa, an elementary school founded by Sky in 2009. “I'm one of those people, and I'm not Turkish. I really like working in a multicultural environment.”
Getting in
The Oklahoma charter schools serve a high percentage of minority and low-income students and perform solidly on mandatory state exams. Dove Science Academy — a sixth- through 12th-grade school that just celebrated its 10-year anniversary — was named the state's top high school in 2009 by Business Week.
Last month more than 100 parents filled the cafeteria at Dove Science Academy, hoping their children would be selected to attend the school next August.
“I'm just really hoping that she gets in,” Ivonne Simental said of her daughter, wanting to fill one of the few slots open for seventh grade.
But her eyes filled with tears when her daughter wasn't drawn in the lottery for automatic admission.
“I'll probably work two jobs to try to send her to a private school,” she said.
Camuz said every year they have to turn away more students. He tells parents, students and teachers about the accusations against his school, but most often they aren't concerned.
“They give their most valuable thing to us, their children,” Camuz said.
Tulsa school board ends charter with Dove Science Academy
By ANDREA EGER World staff writer
Published: 10/26/2009 10:22 PM
Last Modified: 10/27/2009 12:11 AM
Citing concerns about services for special education students and the legality of consequences for certain behavior infractions, the Tulsa school board voted unanimously Monday to end its sponsorship of Dove Science Academy, one of the city’s longest-operating charter schools.
In a separate action, the board approved a three-year renewal of its contract with the Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, a charter high school.
The school board’s charter school committee had recommended that Dove Science Academy’s request for a five-year contract renewal be denied.
Board member Ruth Ann Fate, who serves as the committee chairwoman, questioned the school’s special education and disciplinary practices and claimed that the school has failed to comply with a laundry list of terms in its contract with TPS.
“The documentation submitted by Dove regarding its special education services and programs demonstrates substantive compliance problems in the IEPs (individualized education programs) developed. … This strongly suggests that Dove is plugging all special-needs students into one system rather than making individualized decisions,” Fate said, reading from a prepared statement.
She also cited “myriad deficiencies” in Dove’s student discipline handbook, including expulsion as a consequence and the withholding of student records in certain disciplinary cases, both of which are not allowed under Oklahoma law.
The committee could reconsider its recommendation if Dove officials can prove that they are in full compliance by Nov. 23, Fate noted.
About 75 people, most of whom were Dove employees and parents, could only listen because the board did not allow public comments.
Afterward, Dove Principal Mustafa Kili said he was surprised by the school board’s decision.
“We have one full-time and one part-time staff plus regular staff who help special education students,” Kili said. “As for the other things, I was told that TPS officials would come and audit our student files on Dec. 19, and those items (including expulsion and record withholding) have been in the handbook for four years at least, and they were supposed to be reviewing us every year.”
Located at 208 S. Memorial Drive, Dove Science Academy was founded in 2000 and now serves about 400 students in grades 6-12. Its contract with Tulsa Public Schools expires June 30.
Board President Lana Turner-Addison did not attend Monday’s special meeting because she is out of state on business, but she said in a telephone interview that she supports the board’s action and that Dove officials were warned about the board’s concerns in a letter sent to them in June.
“At the end of last (school) year, we had made a decision with Dove to give them a one-year renewal and to look at it again. There are still some questions regarding them being compliant in some areas,” she said.
“As a district, we support school choice and will continually strive to impact students and families in that manner. However, we have a responsibility to do what is right and make decisions that fall in line with district policies and the (Oklahoma) Charter Schools Act.”
At Monday’s meeting, board member Brian Hunt asked, “How is it that we’ve gotten to this point after nine years?” referring to the charter school’s long history with TPS. Bobbie Gray, a much longer-serving board member, responded.
“I was on the board in 2000, and we were very pleased to announce the charter with Dove. … I don’t know if there has been a change in administration or a change in staff, but we’ve never had the concerns that we had this time in the things that we’ve looked at. It’s very concerning to us when the state laws aren’t being followed,” she said.
Bill Powell left Monday’s meeting angry, with his wife in tears and his son, a seventh-grader at Dove, looking confused.
“TPS dropped the ball with my son in the third grade. He left one of their pretty good schools with a D-average and now has a B-plus and A-minus average in a little over a year. I’m very irritated,” Powell said. “ I do want to know if these allegations are true — I’m sure some are — but at the same time, are they digging up dirt about the assault last year just because they can?”
Powell was referring to the reported rape of an 11-year-old girl in a Dove rest room by a 17-year-old fellow student in December 2008.
The board had expressed concern about that allegation in its June letter to the school. The teenager, Donnie D. Johnson, is awaiting trial as an adult on first-degree rape charges in the case in Tulsa County District Court.
