or concept. Study Tech emphasizes the principle of "word clearing," an activity in which readers are asked to look up the meaning of words that they do not understand, and in turn look up unfamiliar words within the word's definition. The reader next is instructed to make up sentences of their own which use the word. This is their method of teaching vocabulary. Use in schools According to Applied Scholastics in 1991, there were 150 schools using the Study Tech worldwide. However, a report by the St Petersburg Times said that response has been mixed. One school was forced closed in Germany and another one stopped from opening. Whereas in South Africa where the schools are backed by South African corporations, they reported success among poor black families. The Clearwater Florida schools were unaccredited, and some students reported learning more in the public schools. In the United States, the method has been used in private Scientologist schools such as Delphi Schools, which runs a number of primary, middle, and secondary schools, and the former New Village Academy which was a private school in Calabasas, California. In 1997, the California Department of Education reviewed the five Study Tech books as potential "supplementary texts" and found them to not be overtly religious. They were concerned, however, with the lack of social and gender diversity displayed in the books. The materials were criticized by a number of experts; for example, the practice of "word clearing" was criticized as a means for advancing the Scientologist use of clearing technology, and as inadequate for all levels of reading ability. Experts also criticized the inclusion of religiously-loaded terms such as "mass", "gradient" and "demo kit". Study technology had been used extensively at the Mace-Kingsley Ranch School, a Church of Scientology-affiliated private ranch school for teenagers in a rural ranch environment. There have been several documented complaints of abuse and neglect, including students being lied to about the academic value of Study Tech. The Literacy, Education and Ability Program (LEAP) of Memphis, Tennessee, an Applied Scholastics member organization, received a grant of $250,000 from the U.S. government's Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE) in 2005. In 2012, the Pinellas County School Board revoked the Life Force Arts and Technology Charter School's charter. Teachers blamed new school management's implementation of Study Tech curriculum for poor test results; the curriculum was not approved by the school board, which