K12, Inc.
*“Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Announces Investigation of K12, Inc.”* Press Release: Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, 12/16/2011 NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at K12, Inc. (“K12” or the “Company”) (NYSE: LRN - News). The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by failing to disclose that: (1) according to various academic benchmarks, K12 students were chronically underperforming their peers at traditional schools; (2) K12 has aggressively...more »
Harmony charter school network (TX)
*“Harmony schools causing discord.” *San Antonio Express-News (TX), 1/4/2012 The 36 schools that make up the Harmony charter school network are among the highest-rated in Texas. But despite its glowing academic record, Harmony has received a flurry of criticism for its business practices. In particular, the charter network's reliance on visas for Turkish-born staff and use of Turkish-owned businesses for construction and other contracts has raised questions about how it spends taxpayer money and whether it is too insular... Some Harmony critics point to a burgeoning number of ... more »
Florida charter schools (investigator observations)
*“Experiences As A Police Officer With The Ugly Side Of Charter Schools And Their Management Companies.”* Florida Public Employees Partnership, 12/15/2011 With such a strong push for continued expansion in Florida, I am compelled to share my experiences as a police officer with the ugly side of Charter Schools and their management companies. As a former investigator and supervisor of a public corruption unit, several years ago my unit was responsible for a series of criminal investigations involving personnel, owners, and partners of Charter Schools. Where as some of these inve... more »
Online schools (poor academic performance)
*“Students of Online Schools Are Lagging.”* New York Times, 1/6/2012 The number of students in virtual schools run by educational management organizations rose sharply last year, according to a new report being published Friday, and far fewer of them are proving proficient on standardized tests compared with their peers in other privately managed charter schools and in traditional public schools. About 116,000 students were educated in 93 virtual schools — those where instruction is entirely or mainly provided over the Internet — run by private management companies in the 2010-11... more »
KKK endorses charter schools (b/c of increased segregation)
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) responds to “Segregated Charter Schools Evoke Separate but Equal Era in U.S.”, 12/28/2011 The kids in the article below seem to be happy. Parents have been given a choice as to where to send their children and without government interference, many have selected schools with a student population that reflects the race of those children. In addition, many of these schools satisfy the children’s longing to identify with their racial history by incorporating cultural studies relating to their ethnicity. There is nothing wrong with this, yet s... more »
Minnesota charter schools (increasing segregation)
*"Segregated Charter Schools Evoke Separate But Equal Era in U.S.”*Bloomberg News, 12/22/2011 At Dugsi Academy, a public school in St. Paul, Minnesota, girls wearing traditional Muslim headscarves and flowing ankle-length skirts study Arabic and Somali. The charter school educates “East African children in the Twin Cities,” its website says. Every student is black. At Twin Cities German Immersion School, another St. Paul charter, children gather under a map of “Deutschland,” study with interns from Germany, Austria and Switzerland and learn to dance the waltz. Ninety percent of i... more »
Harlem Success Academy 3
*“High Teacher Turnover at a Success Network School.”*The New York Times SchoolBook, 10/19/2011 More than a third of the staff members at a Harlem charter school run by the Success Charter Network have left the school within the last several months, challenging an organization that prides itself on the training and support it offers its teachers. The unusually high turnover at Harlem Success Academy 3 and the network-wide issue of teachers quitting mid-year led the founder and chief executive of the Success Charter Network, Eva S. Moskowitz, to express concern in an October newsl... more »
Riverwood International Charter School
*“Riverwood athletic director resigns.”* Reporter Newspapers (GA), 10/6/2011 Another high-profile administrator at Riverwood International Charter School has resigned. Athletic Director Jeff Holloway, who was placed on administrative leave on Sept. 28 after various allegations were made against him, has resigned as athletic director and teacher at the school. Fulton County Schools executive director of communications Samantha Evans confirmed the resignation Oct. 6. According to an investigator’s report, the school system investigated parent complaints that Holloway mingled person... more »
Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School
*“Rejected 3 Times, School May Still Open Soon, and With a Grant, Too.”*New York Times, 1/8/2012 In the last couple of years, Sharon Akman, a real estate agent, applied to the state of New Jersey three times to open a new charter school in the Highland Park area, to be called Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School. Each time, she was rejected. Then on Oct. 6, one week after the state’s most recent rejection, the United States Education Department announced that it had approved a $600,000 grant to finance Ms. Akman’s proposed charter. It would have taken federal official... more »
Academy of Learning and Academy of Design and Technology
*“Charter school with troubled past wants to open in Norton.” *Beacon Journal (OH), 1/8/2012 A charter school is trying to open in Norton and compete with Norton City Schools for its students and state money, even though the district is rated excellent and generally should be off-limits to charter schools opening within its borders. The school for grades K-4 calls itself the Academy of Learning and first appeared under that name in Doylestown last fall. The Academy of Learning appears to have enrolled about a dozen children whose parents withdrew them from the excellent-rated C... more »
The Carden School of Tucson
*“2 charter schools struck by thefts.”* Arizona Daily Star, 1/1/2012 When charter school director Bette Jeppson sat down with an accountant last March, she expected to get a few tips on how the school could improve its bookkeeping and finances. What she got instead was a litany of illegal transactions by the school's business manager that drained resources to the point the school was forced to cut back in educational spending, making it one of two Southern Arizona charter schools to come under investigation by the Arizona attorney general for financial improprieties. For examp... more »
Harmony Science Academy – Waco
*“Man sentenced in Waco for sex assault of teen.”* ABC13 KTRK (TX), 11/21/2011 WACO, TX -- A former Child Protective Services worker and Waco high school teacher has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl he met while they were acting in a play. The Waco Herald-Tribune reports 32-year-old Clifton Grasham-Reeves, a former English teacher at Harmony Science Academy who regularly performed in Waco Civic Theatre productions, was convicted of four counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by contact... Among... more »
Creative Studies Charter School
*“Accuracy of Charter School Applications Questioned; State denies Creative Studies' founder's bids for charters in Lacey and Voorhees.”* LaceyPatch (NJ), 1/4/2012 The state has not yet released a detailed explanation of its decision to dismiss the Creative Studies Charter School proposal, but the veracity of the organization's founder's applications to the state have been called into question. Department of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf cited "deficiencies" in denying founder Pamela Brown's applications for charter schools in Lacey Township as well as Voorhees. A revi... more »
General John Vessey Jr. Leadership Academy
*“Financial woes force West St. Paul's Vessey Leadership Academy to close.”*Pioneer Press (MN), 1/3/2012 Students from General John Vessey Jr. Leadership Academy are hunting for new schools after their 8-year-old charter high school abruptly closed over Christmas break after running out of money. The mood was glum at the small West St. Paul school Tuesday, what should have been the first day back, as students hugged and said goodbye. It was their last chance to collect belongings before trying to find a new place to attend classes and finish out the school year. "It sucks," s... more »
Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School
*“State offers to help investigate Vitalistic charter school; Pennsylvania Department of Education offers Allentown and Bethlehem school officials help examining charter's financial and special education records.”* The Morning Call (PA), 12/31/2011 State officials have offered to help the Allentown and Bethlehem Area school districts with their joint investigation of Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley. Bethlehem Superintendent Joseph Roy said Friday his staff "received a very supportive call" from the Pennsylvania Department of Education concerning Vital... more »
Gulen charter schools in Georgia
*STATE* *# ACTIVE* *# PENDING * *# INACTIVE* * *TOTAL* GA 3 0 1 4 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status =============================================================== *SCHOOLS* =============================================================== *FULTON** SCIENCE ACADEMY MIDDLE SCHOOL (formerly Cosmos Science Academy)* *Status* *ACTIVE,* charter initially approved 5/2001; school opened 8/2002; charter not renewed 11/2011; 5-year term expires 6/30/2012; FSA will reapply. http://alpharetta.patch.com/articles/fulton-science-academy-wants-school-board-to-reconsider-its-charter *Cha... more »
Prime Prep Academy
*“Former football player’s charter school raised questions.” *Austin American-Statesman, 11/4/2011 Last month, the state Board of Education granted its approval for two charter schools affiliated with former professional football and baseball star Deion Sanders to open next fall, in Fort Worth and Dallas. A review of recently released public records shows that early versions of the charter’s application contained two business arrangements that appeared to be designed to give school executives opportunities to personally profit off the school. A spokeswoman for the Texas Education A... more »
The Pima Partnership School
*“Former Tucson school principal given probation in theft case.”* Arizona Daily Star, 10/13/2011 A former charter school principal was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay nearly $23,000 in restitution for attempted theft Thursday. William Eddings Jr. was the principal at a charter school operated by the Pima Prevention Partnership when discrepancies were discovered during an audit by the Arizona Department of Education, according to court records. The audit and subsequent investigation revealed that between June 16, 2006, and March 15, 2008, Eddings submitted inflat... more »
Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School
*“Tribal school test scores invalidated.”* Warren Record (NC), 8/17/2011 As a result of an investigation into testing irregularities in the 2010-11 academic year at Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School, a public charter school, biology test scores for nine students have been invalidated. The school board for the tribal school, which has been investigating the matter, held a special meeting earlier this month during which they voted to place Principal Chenoa Davis on a three-month probationary period and directed her to terminate the contract of Assistant Principal Thomas Buchanan in respon... more »
KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy
*“Charter school football coach fired for sex comments, DPS says.”* FOX31 (CO), 10/11/2011 DENVER – An assistant football coach at KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy has been fired after being accused of making an online sexual advance toward a student, FOX31 News has learned. The coach, whose name has not been released, allegedly made the remarks on a student’s Facebook page. A Denver Public Schools spokesperson says the coach is a part-time employee of the charter school and not a DPS employee.
