HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

Here are a few links for non traditional schools and an article from Dallas Tx

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/educa ... d=all&_r=0

http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/PA%20 ... _FINAL.pdf

While not about hockey read about the NCAA qualifying
Prime Prep Academy
By MATTHEW HAAG AND TAWNELL D. HOBBS
Staff Writers
Published: 16 July 2014 11:22 PM
Updated: 17 July 2014 11:17 AM
From the beginning, Prime Prep Academy was defined more by celebrity and sports than educating students. School officials built
support by flaunting their connections with Deion Sanders, the outspoken former NFL star and co-founder of the charter.
And it appears to have worked.
Members of the State Board of Education, the elected panel charged with authorizing charters, were captivated by Sanders’
involvement when Prime Prep came up for approval in fall 2011. Some members asked him to pose for photos and sign autographs
before the charter was approved.
“I have no doubt that his celebrity had an effect on the outcome,” former board member Michael Soto, D-San Antonio, said
Wednesday. “It was kind of embarrassing to see the process evolve into that celebrity worship.”
The end could be near for Prime Prep, which has battled infighting and outside scrutiny since its inception. The Texas Education
Agency notified the school this week that it will move to revoke its charter, citing mismanagement, financial problems and concerns
with its subsidized meals programs.
Superintendent Ron Price said, however, that Prime Prep won’t go down without a fight. He said Wednesday that the school will
appeal TEA’s decision by the July 30 deadline and will argue to keep the two campuses open for its 489 students.
“Everybody’s ready to roll up their sleeves and fight for these kids,” Price said. “We’re operating from the standpoint that we’re going
to keep functioning.”
The appeal means that Prime Prep’s two campuses, in Dallas and Fort Worth, will probably open for the fall session as planned, and
could operate for months before a final decision is made.
The decision by the Texas Education Agency culminates a turbulent two-year existence for Prime Prep. Despite the lofty academic
and societal impact the charter officials had promised, administrators bickered among themselves, the board fired Sanders twice and
officials pointed fingers at one another when concerns were raised.
The school’s closure, if ordered, would send parents scrambling to enroll their children at other campuses. Dallas ISD spokesman
André Riley said the district will be ready to help if needed.
Parent Katina Benson said she has no plans to move her two children from Prime Prep’s Fort Worth campus.
“I love Prime Prep. It’s like family,” she said.
Soto said he voted against Prime Prep’s charter application in 2011 because he said it lacked specifics about curriculum. But some
other board members appeared smitten with Sanders during the board meeting and laughed as he recalled playing in the Super
Bowl and the World Series.
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Prime Prep Academy flaunted celebrity, athletics and Deion Sande... http://www.dallasnews.com/news/educatio ... /20140716-...
1 of 9 7/18/2014 2:54 AM
State education board Vice Chairman Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, said Wednesday that “some of my colleagues got
enamored” with Sanders.
“I did express a concern that I didn’t want our process to turn into the Celebrity of the Month Club, that Deion Sanders was here
posing for pictures and signing autographs,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s a Deion problem or a board problem.”
Despite Ratliff’s concerns, he voted for Prime Prep, saying he generally votes for a charter if the district representative supports it.
Two other board members contacted Wednesday, Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, and Patricia Hardy, R-Weatherford, said they
didn’t recall how they voted and blamed Prime Prep’s troubles on its management.
While short on academic specifics, Prime Prep’s application highlighted the role of Sanders. It noted Sanders’ connections with
major companies and professional sports leagues. Representatives of the NFL, Major League Baseball, Pepsi Co. and Under
Armour met with Sanders about supporting the school the week the Super Bowl was played in Arlington in 2011, the application
says.
“Deion Sanders’ powerful media presence has been utilized to bring more attention to the plans of bringing a charter school of this
type to the DFW area,” the application states.
The application also emphasized the school’s focus on athletics. In a question about what “unique curricular experiences” Prime
Prep would offer, it mentioned its sports programs before stating its focus on hiring excellent teachers.
But Prime Prep struggled to achieve its goals. Its sports programs faced scrutiny for recruiting and eligibility allegations, and the two
campuses also battled employee turnover. The Texas Education Agency investigated a shortage of “highly qualified” certified
teachers.
Price, a former Dallas ISD trustee, took over the superintendent’s position officially in January and promised to clean up the school,
but problems continued to mount.
The Texas Department of Agriculture told Price in April that Prime Prep had to repay $45,830.92 it had received for providing
subsidized meals in fall 2013. The department said the school provided no documentation that those meals were served.
Sanders, who is not currently employed by the school, said on Twitter that he would be willing to repay the money. The school’s
name is a play on his nickname “Prime Time.”
But Soto said Sanders’ offer shouldn’t be enough to keep Prime Prep open.
“I would hope that simply repaying taxpayers the money that was swindled from them is not enough to reinstate a charter,” he said.
“Clearly they were not ready for prime time.”
The school has been ineligible to participate in federally funded free and reduced-price lunch and child nutrition programs for more
than 30 days. The TEA mentioned that as a top reason for moving to close Prime Prep, where 50 percent of the students qualify for
subsidized meals.
Debbie Ratcliffe, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman, said the appeals process could take months. An informal review could
take a month. If the revocation is upheld, the case would move to the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which could take
months to wrap up. Decisions made by that agency are final and cannot be appealed.
Staff writers Brittney Martin and Melissa Hirsch contributed to this report.
mhaag@dallasnews.com; thobbs@dallasnews.com
Did you see something wrong in this story, or something missing? Let us know.
You Might

By the way Texas is not at the top of educational standards one of the bottom 4 states.

Here is an article from CBS Sports on how no one checked with the NCAA until it was to late.
At least with the regular high schools you know what you are getting.
These are FOR PROFIT not FOR EDUCATION schools

Those two years spent at Prime Prep put Emmanuel Mudiay in a tough spot
July 18, 2014 7:39 pm ET

Emmanuel Mudiay attended Prime Prep, which is facing possible closure. (USATSI) Emmanuel Mudiay attended Prime Prep, which is facing possible closure. (USATSI)

Parrish: Eligibility concerns led to Mudiay decision

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. -- Emmanuel Mudiay's family has insisted all week that the star basketball prospect's decision to skip college in favor of a professional contract overseas was not connected to eligibility concerns, and I suppose they'll say that forever.

They might actually believe it.

But the truth is that Mudiay was not yet through the NCAA's Eligibility Center, and multiple sources told CBSSports.com that the odds of him being granted initial eligibility were slim, in part because of the past two years he spent at Prime Prep Academy in Texas.

"Emmanuel Mudiay has decided to pursue professional basketball opportunities," SMU coach Larry Brown said in statement released earlier this week. "This is not an academic issue, since he has been admitted to SMU, but rather a hardship issue."

To be clear, nobody disputes that Mudiay has a hardship issue. Or that there's money to be made overseas. Or that he wants to use the money to support his mother. All true, that stuff. But Brown saying there was "not an academic issue, since [Mudiay] has been admitted to SMU" qualifies as a statement without meaning because SMU admitting a student has nothing to do with whether that student might have academic issues in the eyes of the NCAA. I mean, SMU could enroll my 11-year-old tomorrow, if it wanted, because SMU can enroll whomever it wants. But my 11-year-old still wouldn't get through the Eligibility Center without proper credentials. Again, one has nothing to do with the other.

Which brings me back to Prime Prep.

The charter school -- co-founded by NFL Hall of Famer Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, hence the name "Prime Prep" -- is facing closure due to improper financial management and a failure to comply with the state's education code, according to the Texas Education Agency. In other words, it might soon cease to exist. But Prime Prep has existed since 2012 -- although, for purposes of qualifying academically to compete at an NCAA institution, Prime Prep has never been considered a safe route, mostly because it has, according to the NCAA, forever "been under an extended evaluation period to determine if it meets the academic requirements for NCAA cleared status."

Translation: Attend Prime Prep at your own risk.

What defenders of Prime Prep might point out is that Prime Prep alums Jordan Mickey and Karviar Shephard enrolled at LSU and TCU last year and were cleared academically, and that's true. But a source told CBSSports.com that both players needed a waiver to get through the Eligibility Center, and that their waivers were only considered because both had done enough academic work before enrolling at Prime Prep to meet the waiver threshold. The source added that neither Mickey nor Shephard ultimately relied on even a single course from Prime Prep to attain initial eligibility.

Which brings me back to Mudiay.

He didn't spend just one year at Prime Prep like Mickey and Shepard.

He spent two full years at Prime Prep.

And that, almost certainly, was going to be a problem for Mudiay because he didn't have enough academic work completed before enrolling at Prime Prep to meet the Eligibility Center's waiver threshold, meaning he would've only been eligible to compete as a freshmen at SMU if the NCAA accepted some of his coursework from Prime Prep. As stated above, because Prime Prep is "under an extended evaluation period to determine if it meets the academic requirements for NCAA cleared status," all coursework from Prime Prep is subject to further review on what an NCAA official reached by telephone Friday in Indianapolis told me is a "case-by-case basis." And do you want to guess how many times the NCAA has reviewed coursework completed at Prime Prep and allowed it to count toward a prospective student-athlete's transcript?

Zero, according to a source.

Z.E.R.O.

So, to get through the Eligibility Center and play Division I basketball this season at SMU, the bottom line is that Emmanuel Mudiay would've needed the NCAA to do something it's literally never done, i.e., count courses from Prime Prep. Could that have happened? Maybe, in theory, I guess. (First time for everything and all that.) But it would've been foolish to rely on that given the Eligibility Center's history with Prime Prep, which is why college coaches here at the Nike EYBL Finals at the Peach Jam are baffled by the fact that those closely connected to Mudiay allowed him to spend two years at Prime Prep.

"It's so crazy," said one college coach who recruited Mudiay before the 6-foot-5 guard committed to SMU last August. "It's just insane that somebody wasn't smart enough to get the kid out of there. Insane. He would've been better off anywhere but there."

CBSSports.com contacted Prime Prep coach Ray Forsett for comment Friday.

He declined.

Anyway ...

It's important to note that this will probably all workout fine for Mudiay. He'll go overseas, kill it and return as a consensus top-three pick in next June's NBA Draft. Or he'll go overseas, struggle like Brandon Jennings once struggled, return and get picked 10th or so in next June's NBA Draft. Mudiay's floor remains really high. We should all be so lucky.

Regardless, the idea that Mudiay picked Europe or China over SMU is silly.

Those weren't his options.

His options, as of this week, were to pursue a contract overseas or keep trying to get through the NCAA's Eligibility Center, and those two years spent at Prime Prep were going to make the latter nearly impossible. Thus, Emmanuel Mudiay made the sensible decision (all things considered) to give up that fight and bypass college ... but only after too many folks made the dumb decision to complicate his academic credentials by letting him spend two years at an academy that's never been in good standing with the NCAA.