Monday, May 14, 2012

60 Minutes on the Gulen Charters « Diane Ravitch's blog

60 Minutes on the Gulen Charters « Diane Ravitch's blog:


60 Minutes on the Gulen Charters

I was curious to see how Lesley Stahl and 60 Minutes would deal with the Gulen Charter schools in their program last night.
The Gulen charters are the largest charter chain in the United States, with something like 135-140 charters. Few people realize that the Gulen charter chain is far larger than the KIPP chain.
They focus mainly on math and science. Some of the Gulen charters get high test scores.
That seems to seal the deal for 60 Minutes. Stahl was very impressed with the schools’ test scores and with the students’ interest in math and science.
The show points out that the Gulen schools are tied, in some non-specific way, to a Turkish imam named


Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991