What distinguishes Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools from other charter and public schools?
Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools have very high expectations for students in both academics and behavior. Our faculty and staff are dedicated and hard-working, and receive regular professional development and supervision. They function as a team and are committed to ensuring that students succeed. Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools have a small school and small class size.

The following educational innovations will distinguish Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools from other schools:

Integration of technology into curriculum: By using a multi-sensory approach to learning, students will be provided with opportunities to learn through auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic activities. The students are guided through the process of determining which learning style is best suited to their needs at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools.

Online Access: Parents will be able access online student grades, attendance, conduct, discipline reports, and teacher comments at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools.

Strong Reading and Writing Emphasis: English and ESL teachers focus on pronunciation and spelling of vocabulary used in the school, classroom, and home.

Grade Advancement Policy: Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools develop a grade advancement policy for exceptional learners who demonstrate outstanding skills in reading and mathematics.

Performance Assessments: Performance assessments - also known as "alternative" or "authentic" assessments - augment norm-referenced multiple-choice tests in all grade levels at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools.

Parental and Community Involvement: Involving parents in the activities of the classrooms, cafeteria, playground and many other extra-curricular affairs helps both students and parents to become better acquainted with the process of education.

Peer Tutoring, Mentoring and Counseling: Peer partnership is used as a positive tool at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools. High school students will tutor elementary and middle school students in core areas.

Guidance for teaching and support personnel: In-services are the frequent and major part of our staff development Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools.

Teacher Specialization in/after 4th Grade: The elementary school has two parts. The students receive specialized subject teachers as early as in the 4th and 5th grades in mathematics, reading, computer science, foreign language, and science.

Teachers as Homeroom Advisors: Middle school students are assigned a homeroom teacher who acts as an advisor, helper, and immediate guide for the student at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools.

Character Education and Leadership development: The aim of education is to support the growth of pupils' overall personalities.

Family Visits: At Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools, parent-teacher relationship is improved by family visits. Teachers will be urged to visit students at home to inform the parents about the school and student’s progress, while the parents will have an opportunity to provide the teachers with feedback and input.

Career Education: All students attend an annual Career Day at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools and meet professionals from different occupations.

Cross-disciplinary learning: Students work on projects that require cooperative teaching efforts in language arts, fine arts, mathematics, social studies, and science at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools.

Digital Art Program: The Fine Arts program is integrated with technology at Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools. With the growing availability of technologies of interactivity and Internet access, we see new interactive and online platforms.

Participation in Contests: Students in the gifted and talented and the standard program are encouraged to participate in local, statewide, national and international competitions.

Out of State and Europe Trips: Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools organize out-of-state trips as well as those to different countries in Europe every year.

Why does Dove recruit teachers from outside of the United States?
At Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools, we are committed to providing the very best education for our students, and to recruiting the very best teachers. We recruit teachers from within the United States and internationally, when necessary. Today, Oklahoma, as well as our entire country, has a shortage of qualified math and science teachers. This unfortunate situation was highlighted in a January 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Education, which identified specific areas of deficiency (including math and science) and called for the hiring of teachers in those areas as rapidly as possible.
That report follows a 2009 study that found a severe lack of math and science educators in the United States, and suggested that the shortage would grow in coming years; while at the same time new high school graduation requirements were requiring increases in math and science curriculums (Dallas Morning News, Feb. 10, 2009). This critical shortage of math and science teachers has resulted in education experts urging the federal government to become more involved in recruiting underrepresented minority students to science, math, and engineering majors, noting such efforts are critical to increasing the number of Americans working in those fields (The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2009).

Dove only hires international teachers when there are not enough highly qualified math and science teachers in the application pool. As a result of the national shortage of math and science teachers, it becomes a viable option for Dove & Discovery administrators to hire international teachers based primarily on academic professional credentials, regardless of their national origin.

How many H-1B teachers does Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools employ?
Less than 20 percent of Dove and Discovery Public Charter School teachers hold H-1B visas. This employment of H-1B teachers is due to the well-documented critical teacher shortages in the field of math and science. As a result, Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools must recruit both inside and outside of the United States to find teachers qualified to meet the rigorous math and science-centered curriculum that is the foundation of our schools. Initially, a teacher may be issued an H-1B visa for a-three-year term, only after the federal government has determined that no U.S. citizen is qualified for the job being filled. Our goal is that one day, based on our intense focus on math and science, Dove graduates will help fill the nation’s critical need for math and science teachers.

Do the Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools or the Sky Foundation have any ties with any religious movement?
No. Dove and Discovery Public Charter Schools and the Sky Foundation are nonprofit, academic entities founded in the United States for the sole purpose of providing quality public education for children in Oklahoma. The schools are nonsectarian and have no ties of any kind to any religious movement. Dove was established by a group of graduate students at Oklahoma State University, who, after working as after-school tutors, realized the need for advanced math and science education in Oklahoma.