Parents 4 Magnolia – Busting Gulen charter schools myths Parents disproving Gulen charter schools claims

On one side is the commitment and enthusiasm to improve quality of education in our state, while fabricated attempts to tag some public institutions as Gulen charter schools take place on the other… As a responsible parent, I’ve decided to look closer into what really is going on. In a nutshell, here is what I found in my humble research:

It’s been almost two decades, a sufficient time, for education officials and the California public throughout their experience of utilizing charter schools to further education outcomes. California, a leading state in charter schools, appears to be satisfied with the upshot so far. As nicely put by a report of the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office of the California State Legislature, “…statewide evaluations of charter schools in California have concluded that they are meeting original legislative intent—expanding families’ choices, encouraging parental involvement, increasing teacher satisfaction, and raising academic achievement, particularly for certain groups of disadvantaged students…”

What is more, charter schools are uplifting pupils in their educational experience, not only in California but all over the country. 99% of all elementary students in charter schools were included in a nationwide study by Caroline Hoxby of Harvard University, who has found that a higher percentage of students in established charter schools are judged proficient on the state reading and math examinations than their peers in the nearest traditional public school.

Supporting these findings by their exemplary achievements, Magnolia teachers and administrators make every effort to advance student learning, as the Academic Performance Index (API) scores available on the California Department of Education Website suggest.

This data is another confirmation that the charter school movement is an innovative initiative that helps our struggling public education heal and revive. Had these schools were not doing any better than the public schools they neighbor, they would have been closed long before by the overseeing agencies.

Magnolia charter schools have broken new grounds not only in California, but also throughout the ranks of charter schools across the country. If you’ve read one of the earlier posts in this blog, titled “Why shouldn’t you take Gulen charter schools labeling campaign seriously”, then you probably already know that Magnolia had received a silver medal degree nationwide. But did you know that they have had a world champion as well? One member of the gold-medal winning U.S. National Team at the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad was a student of Magnolia schools, being the first student from a charter school ever to represent the United States in the competition.

These accomplishments, however, are neglected in the equation, when ideological arguments are raised. As a recent and unfortunate example, “Gulen charter schools” phrase is trying to be spread around for the purposes of disinformation in order to mislead the public. Further scrutiny on what these people mean by associating Magnolia charter schools with the made-up Gulen charter schools term would prove that Magnolia schools, although already being held accountable with their performance, selectively face unreasonable claims regarding their operations.

No matter what these unsubstantiated arguments allege, overwhelming crystal clear data prove just the opposite. I hope with the support of the communities they serve, Magnolia Schools will continue to focus on academic excellence, despite the cacophony lauded by the ill-intentioned.

Related articles

• A New Fictitious Phenomenon: Gulen Charter Schools (parents4magnolia.org)
• These are not Gulen charter schools, these are OUR charter schools (parents4magnolia.org)
• A response to “Gulen Charter Schools” claims (parents4magnolia.org)
• On “Gulen Charter Schools” Bloggers (parents4magnolia.org)