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| Fulton Science Academy in Atlanta, Georgia A GULEN CHARTER SCHOOL With new immigration laws that have caused outcry among advocacy groups, Georgia's reputation for diversity has seen better moments. But over the past few years, the state's education system has made quiet but steady strides in helping students build cultural competency and language proficiency. Nearly 380,000 students in grades 6-12, about 23 percent of all students enrolled in public schools, were taking world language courses in 2010. The total increased by 39 percent from 272,613 during the previous year, according to Jon Valentine, program specialist for world languages and international education at the Georgia Department of Education. The fact that the passionate 38-year-old's position even exists is a testimony to how forward-looking the state has been on the subject, he said. Perhaps because he knows first hand how studying a language and culture can change a student's outlook, Mr. Valentine describes his job in the same way a satisfied customer talks about his favorite product. As a high schooler in Mansfield, Ohio, who had never considered crossing the pond, he won a scholarship to spend his senior year in Germany. "Living abroad changed everything in my life," said Mr. Valentine, who now speaks advanced German. He's dedicated to bringing similar opportunities to students in Georgia schools, not just for the sake of knowledge, but because he believes the jobs of the 21st century require not only language skills, but also a willingness and ability to collaborate cross-culturally. In a global economy, unprepared students will hit a "glass ceiling" in their careers, he said, noting that Spanish has become essential for Georgia farmers and that nurses, police officers and members of the military can get signing bonuses if they can speak the language. Mr. Valentine feels that the state's significant progress in language instruction has gone largely unnoticed. Sixteen languages are now taught in Georgia, mostly in high schools. Though the state requires no foreign-language instruction for high school graduation, students at public universities need two years of credit to get a degree. The fact that colleges consider language proficiency in their admissions decisions has driven interest in high schools, Mr. Valentine said. The next frontier is to introduce more middle-school programs, as two years just isn't enough to bring students to the level where they can accomplish things in a language. "What if I told you you only needed two years of math? How much math could you do?" Mr. Valentine said. Still, most education decisions are out of the state's control. Language programs are funded solely at the local level, so the state has no direct say over which ones are taught where, Mr. Valentine said. Passionate teachers or a large number of native speakers in an area often drive interest and funding for a language. Around the state, Spanish still dominates, making up more than two-thirds of foreign-language enrollment at 284,200, counting students in middle school and up. French is a distant second at 62,929, followed by Latin at 15,367 and German at 11,753. Mandarin Chinese is coming on strong at 2,474, and brand new programs have been launched in Korean and Arabic. Nearly 200 students at Fulton Science Academy are learning Turkish. German has been a bright spot, with 10,677 students taking the language in 2010. Chamblee High School is one of 20 schools in the nation to offer the test for the German Language Diploma, which is issued directly from Berlin. More than 20 Georgia students scored at the highest level in 2010, allowing them to study at German universities for free if they choose. Georgia education Superintendent John Barge in June traveled to Saxony to sign an agreement with the German state to increase teacher and student exchange. Also, the German government is relocating Petra Reuter, its Southeastern educational consultant, from Miami to the Atlanta consulate in August. That's partly thanks to the large number of German programs and companies here, Mr. Valentine said. A fountain of information about language education in the state, Mr. Valentine cited other innovations like the Georgia Virtual School, an online program that allows high school students to take courses that augment or replace classroom studies. Language classes account for more than half the enrollment. "They have to shut down Chinese every year because it fills up so fast," he said. Contrary to popular belief, student interest in languages isn't waning in Georgia. The gap is on the teacher side, Mr. Valentine said, pointing to nine positions he says he could fill right now if qualified applicants came along. As for Mr. Valentine, he has no plans to leave a position where he can influence so many lives. "I love this job. I will do this job for as long as I can," he said. |
Gulen's American Empire
Gulen Empire map from Turkish Newspaper. DISCLAIMER: If you find some videos are disabled this is the work of the Gulen censorship who have filed fake copyright infringement reports to UTUBE
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Fulton Science Academy, a Gulen Charter School has 200 students learning Turkish
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Harmony Parent the TRUTH: Harmony Science Academy A Gulen Charter School to ...
Harmony Parent the TRUTH: Harmony Science Academy A Gulen Charter School to ...: "http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2011/06/28/investigation_of_charter_schoo.html In vestig..."
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Harmony Science Academy Gulen School to be INVESTIGATED-Who's Sorry Now
By Mike Ward | Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 06:57 PM
Amid concerns over curriculum and construction financing of publicly funded charter schools, the House General Investigating Committee will look into the state’s growing network of the privately run public schools, officials confirmed this evening.
Earlier this afternoon, legislative leaders said those concerns had played a role in an initial defeat of Senate Bill 1, a key budget-balancing bill, over provisions that provided state guarantees for charter school bonds among others.
When the House on a second vote approved SB 1, there was brief mention by state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, that the House panel would look into the operations of Harmony Schools, one of the largest charter school operators.
Its connections with a Turkish group and its use of teachers from Turkey were among the issues raised in a recent New York Times story about Harmony Schools, an article that piqued lawmakers’ interest, as well.
House General Investigating Committee Chairman Chuck Hopson, R-Jacksonville, said his committee has started a preliminary look-see into Harmony “and all the other charter school operators in the state.
“It’s nothing criminal. We just want to see whether they are spending our (state) money wisely,” he said. “There have been some concerns about (Harmony) building schools without competitive bidding, and about other issues, but we are going to looking at every one of the charters.”
He said the inquiry remained in the preliminary stages.
“There are a lot of people, including some members of the House, who have children in (Harmony Schools) and are very satisfied with them,” Hopson said.
House Education Committee Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said from what he knows, many charter schools including the Harmony Schools are successful. “There are a lot of people who think highly of them,” he said.
Earlier today, representatives from the Eagle Forum, a conservative group, were lobbying Capitol offices over their concerns about Harmony Schools, among other issues, several lawmakers said.
Before the second House vote on SB 1, several lawmakers said during floor debate that the concerns raised by the Eagle Forum had figured in the initial ‘no’ vote, but it was not clear just which concerns were involved.
Representatives from the Eagle Forum and Harmony Schools could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Gulen Schools- Turkish schools ranked the lowest in college graduates.
Can someone explain how the Gulen Movement has conned local school districts in the USA that Turkey has some sort of superior education? BALONEY!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576341353566196300.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
JUNE 27, 2011
In Search of a New Course
Germany's once-lauded education system is under fire. But fixing it hasn't been easy.
Germany, the birthplace of kindergarten and the modern university, has long been admired for its commitment to education and for good reason: For generations its specialized schools produced more than their share of Nobel Prize winners, as well as the highest skilled tradesmen—high-octane fuel for Europe's economic powerhouse.
Journal Report
Today, however, Germany is coming to grips with a much different report card—that of an academic underachiever. Almost one-fifth of Germany's 15-year-olds can't read proficiently, and just 29.8% of young adults have a higher-education degree, below the European Union average of 33.6%. Many students who attend the country's lower-tier high schools don't leave with the skills they need to get additional training in a trade, according to the government's 2010 education report.
For a country whose primary asset is brain power, Germany can hardly afford to lag behind in education. Fearing that large swaths of the future work force may soon be too uneducated to maintain Germany's export-driven economy, much less support its fast-aging population, policy makers have wrestled with a range of reforms in recent years despite deep support within society for the current educational system.
"Being just OK is not good enough for a country with high living standards, wages and technology," says Jörg Dräger, board member responsible for education programs at the Bertelsmann Foundation, a German think tank.
Many policy makers believe Germany's early-selection school system—one of the few in Europe that splits children up at around age 10—is at the heart of the problem. After four years of primary school in most German regions, the smartest go on to Gymnasien, top-level high schools for university-bound students, while average students are directed to Realschulen, a path usually to white-collar or technical trades. Those with the lowest grades go to Hauptschulen, schools traditionally meant to prepare students for mid-to lower-level vocational training but that over time have become reservoirs for immigrant children and others who have fallen through the cracks.
More than in most other developed countries, however, the biggest determinant of a German child's educational track appears to be his or her family's socioeconomic status. Even with similar grades, children with college-educated parents are at least three times more likely to go on to Gymnasien than those from working-class families, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
That's of particular concern as Germany's poorly assimilated immigrant population swells—some 20% of Germany's school children come from Turkish or other immigrant families. While the rest of the system scores average or better in many education standards, "the 20% or so that gets lost is a catastrophe," says Mr. Dräger.
Nevertheless, the three-track system continues to have deep support within society, partly because of Germany's past education and economic success. Most prized—and staunchly defended—are Germany's academically rigorous Gymnasien.
"The idea is that homogenous learning groups are better at helping children perform," says Katharina Spiess, education and family research director at the German Institute for Economic Research, of the early-selection system.
But Germany received a rude shock nearly a decade ago, when its teens unexpectedly scored in the bottom third of a widely watched OECD study, well behind many European peers.
German states, which control the education system, have made modest changes, and academic improvement, since then. In some regions, Hauptschulen arebeing combined with Realschulen, and in most cases, students at the combined secondary schools still have the option of pursuing a course toward a diploma that would allow them to attend a university.
But the collapse of a plan to reform schools in the port city-state of Hamburg last year underscores the difficulty of pushing through bolder reform. There, the city's conservative-Green ruling coalition pitched a plan to extend primary school by two years, waiting until after the sixth grade to divide children into different schools. The idea was to give children more time to determine the best education path, and let poorer and slower learners benefit from mixing longer with faster ones.
The result was a fierce backlash, especially among university-educated parents who feared their children's education would suffer by shortening the Gymnasium phase of it. Voters decisively rejected the plan in a referendum last July, leading to the resignation of Hamburg's mayor.
The defeat has discouraged political leaders in other German states from broaching more radical school reform. North-Rhine Westphalia sought to sidestep a similar battle by allowing individual municipalities to decide whether to form schools that kept children together until up to the 10th grade as part of a pilot project.
That didn't stop protests among some parents and teachers. In April, a judge blocked one of the first moves to form a so-called community school, putting the effort in legal limbo.
Still, many Germans argue its education system needs to become less rigid to adapt to an ever more global economy and give its people more opportunities to broaden their skills.
Sabine Lochner-Zerbe, a 51-year-old mother of two in Berlin, learned firsthand the difficulties of changing education course when as a youth she was sent to Realschule.
"I had the grades, but my father didn't think it was so necessary for girls to go to Gymnasium," she says. After training to become a florist, she realized she wanted to go to college. To do so, however, she had to go back for three years of high school to get the necessary diploma. At age 25, she began her university studies, eventually receiving a physics degree in Scotland.
But her tenacious efforts to pursue a higher degree haven't always been looked upon favorably. "People just view it as indecision," she says.
In Berlin, children already wait until after the sixth grade to take a specific school path. Ms. Lochner-Zerbe's 10-year-old daughter will learn next year whether her primary school recommends her for Gymnasium—"a lot of stress," she adds. "But I think it's better that they have more time than I did."
Ms. Fuhrmans is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Berlin. She can be reached at vanessa.fuhrmans@wsj.com.
Gulen Charter Schools in Georgia, Atlanta Public School teachers take a trip to Turkey
On returning to the U.S., Curry and Arriagada receive a welcomed surprise. ePals awarded the two teachers the “Teacher Teamwork-Collaboration Award.” The work that both these teachers have done to expose Bolton Academy to a whole new world is nothing short of amazing.
Through ePals’ international community, Curry and Arriagada have been able to engage in and complete standards-based projects that promote global citizenship with their students. “Through connecting with classes from across the globe, my students and I have celebrated our differences and similarities,” Curry said. Besides Turkey, Curry and Arriagada also have ePals in Hong Kong, Syria, Lithuania, Australia, Kenya, Chile, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Bolton Academy and two other schools in APS – Sutton Middle and North Atlanta High – also will be hosting Turkish students for the week of Sept. 6. Curry sums the ePal experience up saying, “Perhaps we will never travel to all these distant lands. Yet, through the power of technology, we share our humanity; our children learn and grow together.”
FOR A LIST OF UPDATED GULEN MANAGED CHARTER SCHOOLS IN GEORGIA GO TO:
Fulton Science Academys
Friday, June 24, 2011
Harmony Parent the TRUTH: Gulen Charter Schools, the TRUTH behind the Newswe...
Harmony Parent the TRUTH: Gulen Charter Schools, the TRUTH behind the Newswe...: "Harmony Schools Named as Miracle Schools by Newsweek. Two Harmony Science Academy High Schools (Dallas, and Austin) were ranked among the ..."
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