Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Jersey Jazzman: Gulen Charters Expand in New Jersey

Jersey Jazzman: Gulen Charters Expand in New Jersey:


Gulen Charters Expand in New Jersey

In New Jersey's latest round of charter school approvals, two new charters were approved for Paterson: Paterson Arts and Sciences and Paterson Collegiate Charter School. Darcie Cimarusti over at Mother Crusader has been letting us know about the man behind PCCS, Steve Wilson, and his rather checkered past. But what about Paterson A&S?

According to the state's records, Paterson A&S's contact is Mr. Nihat Guvercin; he is currently the CEO of anetwork of three charters in Garfield, Hackensack, and Passaic. A little more than a year ago I took a look at Bergen Arts & Sciences in Garfield:
I went to the Common Core of Data at NCES to get the demographic data for all of the schools in the zip code of Bergen A&S. Using Bruce Baker's method, I made another another quick graph:


Many of the schools have a larger population of "free lunch" kids than Bergen, but