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BEEHIvE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOgY ACADEMY

A Small Charter School with Big Ideas

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Beehive Science & Technology AcAdemy

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A SmAll chArTer School wiTh Big ideAS

Produced by Eric Gunn & Written by Jim Barlow

Beehive Science & Technology Academy (BSTA) in Salt Lake City, Utah, touts itself as “a small charter school with big ideas.” Last fall the school literally rose to new heights, moving out of a comfortable but cramped basement of an office building to a facility more than three times as large, on two acres of land, three miles away.

“We didn’t have a playground and had to use a parking lot for playing,” said Frank F. Erdogan, Beehive’s executive director for the last two years. “It was so hard to deal with the tenants and owners, and it was hard to keep our students safe and secure. Finally, we moved to this building last summer.”

Erdogan was born in Azerbaijan and received his chemistry education in Turkey. He taught chemistry in charter schools in Los Angeles, California for a year, then started a charter school in San Diego and served as the principal for one year. The junior-senior high school, which opened in 2005, was founded amid growing concerns over problems educating the area’s children in math, science and technology. Since its opening, the school has achieved its annual academic yearly progress in every area. This year, at the new location some five miles south of downtown, approximately 200 students are enrolled.

“There are a lot of factors in a school environment -- among them parents, teachers, staff, the turnout rate for teachers and students,” he said. “All those factors should be put together when determining if a school is doing well. We’re supposed to teach life to the kids, not just a test.”

As an open-enrollment public charter school, the academy, however, must meet curricula standards of the Utah State Office of Education by providing the essential basic education components specified in Utah Core Curriculum. BSTA students must take the state-mandated criterion-referenced tests, but “it is not the mission of the academy to ‘teach the test,’” Erdogan said. The curriculum and instruction at BSTA is designed to teach students to master critical thinking and other crucial elements the test seeks to assess while still being flexible enough to meet different students’ needs.

BSTA, operating this year on $1.3 million budget, opened in August 2005. It is governed by a five-member board, on which Erdogan serves as a non-voting member. The school features a science-minded college preparatory program. According the school’s Web site, the curriculum “is designed to provide students with a solid foundation in humanities and social science as well as math, science and technology.” The goal is prepare students to be “responsible and educated members of the society who have the skills and understanding to participate and work productively in our increasingly technological, diverse, and multicultural society.”

“We have programs for highly achieving academic students and also for challenged students,” Erdogan said. Student progress is monitored by homeroom teachers. If a student, at any level, is found to be at risk of failing, teachers are required to arrange meetings with parents.

A part of Beehive’s culture is a clearly defined dress code, and a detailed guideline for personal appearance for all students. All students must wear navy-blue, polo-type-style shirts with the school’s logo affixed on the upper-left chest.

To help enhance the school’s science-heavy curricula, teachers

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Beehive Science & Technology AcAdemy

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get professional training from the California-based Accord Institute for Education Research. While that training is geared for preparing students for the Math Olympics, Erdogan said, “we actually get their concept in many different areas, such as after school tutoring programs, academic clubs for high-achieving students and our curricula.”

An example is the Advanced Math and Science Program for gifted and talented students, which prepares students for possible competition in the International Mathematics Olympiad, International Olympiad in Informatics, International Physics Olympiad, International Biology Olympiad, Intel Science Talent Search and Utah State Science Fair.

It is not easy to find high-caliber science teachers who fit the school’s programs, while also meeting NCLB standards for highly qualified teachers, admits Erdogan.

“It is hard to find highly qualified math and science teachers in the USA. For me, I hire teachers from different countries. If you’re looking for someone who is high qualified, but they don’t have teaching credentials, they have to take many steps so they can be coined highly qualified by the state standards. We have to follow some sort of processes; that’s fine, but not accepting some candidates as highly qualified teachers is hard for us.”

6 of his 18 teachers are from foreign countries. Assuring that

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candidates from non-English-speaking countries will be able to communicate with the school’s students is important. Candidates must first prove their English proficiency to their consulates, and they are interviewed in their home countries or by telephone by school staff. “Although this is the case, there have been problems with these teachers communicating with the students at first, but in a couple of weeks, they overcome this problem easily,” said Erdogan.

Recruiting successes are clear, he added, pointing to one teacher who received a gold medal at a national science competition; another won a national computer-Olympics competition and yet another received an award from the president of his home country in recognition of his teaching performance. “We really try to hire very intelligent people from other countries to help bring success to our program,” Erdogan added.

Parental involvement also is crucial to Beehive’s success, he said. Parents are strongly encouraged to volunteer for 30 hours per child. “Our parents are so much involved that most of them exceed the limits. In every part of the school, you can see our parents. They do the cleaning. They organize field trips. They organize fundraising events. They take care of our library. They organize our lunch program. They serve.”

In addition, teachers each year are urged to visit every student’s home to touch base with parents and students outside of the academic environment. The home-visit program, while voluntary, aims to promote partnership between parents and teachers, encourage parental involvement, help parents understand the school’s educational policies, explore each student’s learning style, understand the emotional and social needs and behaviors of students, and identify changes in students’ interests and concerns.

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“Our parents are so much involved that most of them exceed the limits...In every part of the school, you can

see our parents.”

~ Frank F. Erdogan

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www.beehiveacademy.org

Established : 2005Staff : 18

Students: 200Leading the School: Frank F. Erdogan

SCHOOL AT A GLANCE

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Beehive Science & Technology Academy1011 Murray-Holladay RdSalt Lake City, UT 84117

United States