AL MAUN EDUCATION CENTER

Education

Know that you are better than them!

Know that you are less then them!

1.To make good people 2. To make good citizens 3. To make each student

find some particular talents to develop to the

maximum.

. Education As a Tool to Instill a

sense of inferiority/Superi

ority

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Our goal is to provide all children with a strong and early start to their formal education.

To offset the established process of instilling inferiority in children.

At some point it is hoped to include a “Countdown to Kindergarten”. This will help families and students prepare for a successful transition to school.

We will place low-income preschool children on the road to literacy and future success by empowering their educators to use the arts to teach academic skills. 

VISION

• Every child has access to quality early childhood education.• Every early childhood educator has access to quality professional development.• We also with adequate funding, look to create a “Parent University”. This educational structure for the parents, will deepen the home-school connection. By establishing computer education and pre-GED education for the parents, we will close the educational gap between student and parent. To do this we must close the educational gap.

Today we remain focused on ensuring that the Center is a school that any parent would be happy to choose.

• By becoming more flexible and by adding resources , we have intervened with many of the lowest-performing students, many of which are showing such growth that the parents have not only expressed their gratitude, but have encouraged others to enroll their children.

• By extending our efforts to partner with community organizations and expanding grant opportunities, we look to expanding science, arts and extend summer learning opportunities to end the cycle of summer learning loss.

…But The Gap is not only in buildings and resources

Dilapidated and crumbling resources

The Educational Gap

And the consequences are long term and tragic.

Academic Excellence for Every Child

Al-Maun Education Center is committed to transforming the lives of all children. The plan on achieving this, is by way of exemplary teaching in a world-class system in an innovative, welcoming school. We look to partner with the community, families, and students to develop in every learner the knowledge, skill, and character to excel in college, career, and life.

Our responsibility is to ensure every child has great teachers and great school leaders. The first of these goals is to increase the paid staff, and in the latter to increase our commitment to developing interns. In order to continue our tailored instruction to meet the individual needs of every student, we are:

•Strengthening teaching and school leadership •Replicating success and turning around low- performing

students.•Deepening partnerships with parents, students and the

community. •Adopting individual public schools and establishing programs

to address the students needs.

Philadelphia laid off thousands of school employees last week after the State of Pennsylvania continued its austerity measures against public schools. And while the state is essentially destroying Philadelphia public schools through under-funding (claiming budgetary concerns), it somehow found enough money to build a $400 million prison just outside of the city.

Al-Maun Education Center is committed to eliminating access and achievement gaps so that all children are performing at high levels and achieving proficiency. Specifically, the school is committed to closing achievement gaps that exist and persist among students through the following:

•Races and ethnicities•Educational programs (regular education, special education

and programs for English Language Learners)•Socio-economic backgrounds•Genders

Every member of the organization, students, parents, teachers, principals, central and school staff, partners and others - is expected to share:

•An awareness of these gaps•A belief that these gaps can be closed•A personal commitment to closing them.

Eliminating Achievement Gaps;Building Self Esteem

GROWTH

•To educate the student academically in such a way that they have an opportunity to reach their full academic potential, while becoming an ethical human being as well.

•With a program of directed studies emanating from extensive reading, the students are offered an expanded world view.

•This expanded view will included broader definitions in history and geography, but also in the personal understanding of ethics and character.

• In this, they will realize that their character is who they really are, while their reputation is merely what others think that they are.

•We want to expand the current resources in order to make this educational model available to more student and their families.

The LENDING LIBRARY

 

When it was decided to create a library and resource center, in addition to the school, it was an expansion of the work that Al-Maun had been pursuing for many years in Las Vegas. This work with a 20 year history, consisted of looking for ways to serve the public.

The library now advances the possibility of both public service and influence, for it can be employed to rise consciousness not only of the religious community, but as a center of learning.

Beginning from scratch, the library has grown in size and usage. It has grown in the potential of what it can produce.

The Library

Twenty-First-Century Academic Library Defined

• Al Maun Lending Library defines the technological research library of the 21st century.• It is seen as the “gathering place” that cultivates “students’ intellectual inquiry,” develops their “critical thinking skills, promotes academic discourse, and fosters lifelong learning.• It is also a tool for the enhancement of knowledge. • The Lending Library is viewed as integral to the retention and overall success of Al-Maun Education Center students.• For faculty and researchers, the Library’s priority is to enrich their teaching, research and learning, and contribute to their knowledge advancement and research output by providing resources and services that meet their needs.

Al Maun Tech Library Strategic Plan 2015-2020

• In the public library use of computers is available at several District branches. However, the hours of availability are increasingly limited.

• The computer lab at Al-Maun Education Center, which is supported by a lending library and is a component of a school, K-8, expands on the service provided by the public library system.

• Our computer lab and lending library serves as an extension to S.E.E.D. and is available for students to increase basic skills in English, mathematics, history, social studies, the sciences, and keyboarding.

• In addition, to further solidify the student’s technical skills we also offer the Khan Academy coding courses.

• This familiarization and training is of paramount importance as there are no longer any careers that do not use this technology extensively. There are no high schools or universities that will not expect that a competent student have extensive computer and social networking skills. By the time these young people face graduation and their college careers or the job market this situation will be even more acute.

The Scholar's Corner

THE SCHOLARS CORNER PROGRAM

Dr. Sherman Jackson is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture, and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC). He was formerly the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).

Dr. Owens-Kane joined the school in 2000. Dr. Owens-Kane's teaching interests include gerontological social work education, cross-cultural practice, and human behavior in the social environment. Dr. Owens-Kane conducts research in the areas of minority mental health, formal and informal care giving of the elderly, organizational culture and change, and child welfare.

Congressman Keith Ellison represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. He made history in 2006, as the first Muslim to be elected to Congress. In his home district, he has hosted several Iranian-American roundtables with Iranian-American constituents and participated as a volunteer in NIAC’s 2014 Annual Day of Service. A champion for diplomacy between the US and Iran, Congressman Ellison has taken numerous public actions to support renewed ties, including jointly sponsoring a pro-diplomacy letter with Rep. Walter Jones, signed by 35 Congressional colleagues, to President Obama.

André D. Carson (born October 16, 1974) is the U.S. Representative for Indiana's 7th congressional district, serving since the special election in 2008. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

He is the grandson of his predecessor, former U.S. Representative Julia Carson (1938–2007).[1][2] Carson is the second Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, following Keith Ellison in 2006

The goal of the Scholars Corner Program (SCP) is to expose our young students and the community at large to the ideas and insights of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars. It is intended that this effort will promote the exchange of ideas, encourage research, and bring about mutual enrichment, with the additional benefit of creating linkages between research and academic institutions in the United States and foreign countries. We will provide lectures and critique of pop culture, analyzing secular trends, the media, and Western worldviews. This view of Contemporary Culture through the eyes of scholars will aid our community to a better assessment of the rapidly changing ideas now emerging and in many cases challenging faith, especially among our young.

THE SCHOLARS CORNER PROGRAM

Included in the circle of scholars, will be glimpses of the Islamic past as experienced by the senior members of the Islamic community. These videoed interviews will be made in the interest of prosperity, but will be available now. Beginning with those seniors born in America, it is hoped, insha’Allah, to expand rapidly to include among those that Allah has granted long life, from around the world.

THE COMPUTER LAB

Today's students appear to be technologically proficient—IMing constantly, e-mailing photos from their cell phones, and socializing on the Internet. Although this isn't a negative generalization, it masks the reality for a significant percentage of the student body:

those who don't own their own personal computers. According to the 2005 EDUCAUSE Core Data survey, 72 percent of all college and university students own their own computers. At public institutions, which enroll the majority of students in higher education, 36 percent of students do not own their own computers. Students at research universities are far more likely to own computers than are students at community colleges, where ownership averages 38.5 percent.

Many students simply cannot afford the technology or the software applications. Only in rare cases does this expense fall into the calculations for financial aid. Thus, there is still an obligation for campuses to provide adequate public computers for those students who cannot afford to own the technology. Even if students do have their own computers, those living off-campus may not have broadband access for sharing large data sets and images or for getting rapid Web response—all of which can limit educational success. Although eliminating public computer labs may be seen as a way for an institution to reduce costs, the more significant impact may be on equity of technology access—and ultimately educational opportunity.

Owning a computer isn't enough.

The computer must be sufficient for the task, in terms of both speed and software. In a course that requires advanced applications, such as 3D rendering or animation, a personal computer may not have enough power or network throughput or may not have the right applications to do the work. When faced with insufficient computer resources, students have nowhere to turn other than a computer lab. In addition, faculty are reluctant to depend on student-owned computers for classroom exercises because of the variability among computers. Finally, many students do not like to carry their computers from class to class, due to problems with the weight, battery life, and network availability.

AL MAUN EDUCATION CENTER