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In his native Turkey, says Cuneyt Dokmen, the idea of dropping out of school is unheard of. So when he first encountered the phenomenon while teaching science in Oklahoma in 2000 he was nonplussed. Then two years ago, his career in education brought him to Louisiana.

Turns out Oklahoma was just a warmup. His first impression on arriving in post-Katrina New Orleans East two summers ago?

“This is not real,” he recalls. “And it was 110 degrees, 115 degrees,” he adds, smiling at the exaggeration. Only slightly discouraged, Dokmen plunged into his new job as principal of Abramson Science and Technology, and in two years’ time he had more than twice as many students passing their LEAP tests.

Dokmen (whose first name is pronounced “June-eight”) speaks with a speed remarkable in someone for whom English is not the mother tongue. Born in the Black Sea region of Turkey, he got his undergraduate degree in physics from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, where the language of instruction is English. His master’s, from Oklahoma State, is in educational psychology.

Now he hopes to bring his formula for academic success to Kenilworth Science and Technology, which is rising (figuratively) from the ashes of Kenilworth Middle School. KMS was a failing school for four straight years before being taken over by the Pelican Educational Foundation. Pelican partners with Harmony Schools, a charter school system operating more than 20 schools in Texas.

The ideas and practices that set Pelican’s schools apart from the failing schools they replace are small but radical. Teachers make home visits. School on Saturday for those who need it. Ten hours a week in math, 10 in English.

With a gravitas that belies his 32 years, Dokmen explains that not only are students expected to stay in school, they are expected to go to college. He thinks LEAP performance will improve at Kenilworth just as it did at Abramson and has already set his sights on expanding KST down to kindergarten, then up to high school.

The expansion is part of his plan for overall educational reform at KST. “Starting with children in the sixth or seventh grade is very difficult,” he says. “I want to catch them early.”

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