American Indian Public Charter School or AIPCS is an Oakland, California charter middle school with predominantly low-income, minority students. It opened in 1996 and struggled over the next few years until a turnaround after 2000 brought up enrollment numbers and test scores.
By 2005, the AIPCS students achieved test scores superior those of most public schools in the state. Its principal, Ben Chavis (Lumbee), a Native American educator, believed that minority students were best served by high expectations for strong attendance and discipline, as well as regular homework and summer school. Chavis was criticized for some of his methods. In 2007, AICPS became the first public school in Oakland to win the National Blue Ribbon Award.Murphy, Katy. "Oakland public school a contender for the National Blue Ribbon." Oakland Tribune. Thursday, 10 December 2009. Retrieved on September 13, 2011. The AICPS attracted an increasingly diverse student body as enrollment increased, with higher proportions of African American, Asian and Latino students than Native Americans. By 2015, its students were overwhelmingly Asian.
The American Indian Model Schools charter system developed from the AIPCS in order to expand the offerings to students. Since 2007, under new management, it has operated three schools in the city, two middle schools (one had grades K-4 added in 2012), and a high school, American Indian Public High School. The charter for the AIMS schools was threatened in 2012 because of discoveries of financial mismanagement and concerns about leadership. Although the Oakland School District voted to revoke the charter, the school system gained a preliminary injunction that allowed it to operate the three schools. With new leaders, it gained a 5-year renewal of its charter in 2013.
Other irregularities were reported in 2012 as the result of a state "extraordinary audit" of the second middle school, AIPCS II. There were allegations of additional mismanagement and fraud. In March 2017 former principal Ben Chavis was indicted by the federal government on six felony counts for money laundering and mail fraud based on his financial activities with the AIMS schools. All financial mismanagement charges against Chavis were dropped in 2019.
History AIPCS was chartered by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in 1996 with the mission of improving the performance of Native American students in the city. As a charter public school, AIPCS was free to students and had considerable autonomy. Once located in a converted church in Oakland's Laurel District, the school moved to 171 12th Street. The high school is located at 746 Grand Avenue.
Since 2007, the charter school district is known as AIMS, American Indian Model Schools. The first school had a predominantly Native American student population at its founding and it focused on Native American culture. Classes included cultural elements such as traditional bead-making and drumming. Martin Waukazoo, one of the founders of the AIPCS, said that he withdrew from the school board because it did not sufficiently emphasize basic educational skills. He said "They were doing too many fuzzy, warm things like bead-making classes and drum classes. Those are good hobbies, but our kids need to learn to read and write. I felt it was doing more harm than good."
By 2001, the school was failing. Enrollment dropped to 34Enrollment was never high in the early years, starting with 42 student and peaking at 68 in 1998-99. In 1999-00 it bottomed out at 18. From 2001 to 2009 it never dipped below 100, settling at around 180 students and test scores were abysmal. That year, educator Ben Chavis (Lumbee from North Carolina) and a former faculty member at San Francisco State University, became the school principal and initiated numerous changes. Chavis, who had experience as a public school principal, was recruited from Arizona, where he was serving as superintendent of schools at the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.
Chavis replaced most of the school's staff, eliminated bilingual education and Native American cultural content from the curriculum,Landsberg, Mitchell. "Spitting in the eye of mainstream education." Los Angeles Times. May 31, 2009. 2. Retrieved on September 8, 2011. and gave away all the school's technology equipment. Chavis focused instruction on the California Content Standards and instituted a number of unorthodox disciplinary policies.Quote: "Most principals are lazy, and when schools aren't performing well, we blame the parents and the kids when we should blame the principal. The principal is the coach," said Ben Chavis.// Chip Johnson, "A charter on success in Oakland", San Francisco Chronicle
In 2005 American Indian Public Charter School had seven teachers. The student teacher ratio was 25 to one. Most of the teachers were in their twenties. During that year, Chavis said that the few teachers who were not credentialed were enrolled in credentialing programs.Sebastian, Simone. "HARD LINE, TOP SCHOOL." San Francisco Chronicle, 16 December 2005. . Retrieved on September 11, 2011.
As of 2005 AIPCS paid each first-year teacher an annual salary of $42,000 and allowed for a $1,500 bonus at the end of the school year. The annual salary of an entry-level teacher in the Oakland Unified School District was $37,000 during that year.
In the years that followed, the school's enrollment increased and test scores dramatically improved, with the school becoming one of the highest achievers in the state. During the same time period, the percentage of students identifying as American Indian at the school decreased to less than 5%, following the general trend in Oakland's public schools. Students included higher numbers of African Americans, Latino, and Asian Americans; by 2012, students in the three schools of the AIM system were 90% Asian American.
In 2007, the AIPCS board expanded its operation, and founded the American Indian Model Schools system (see related article.) It opened a second middle school campus, AIPCS II, and a high school, the American Indian Public High School (AIPHS). In the same year, Chavis resigned as head of school after several controversies, but he was retained by the board in an executive role until January 2012.
On March 20, 2013, the Oakland School Board in a 4 - 3 vote decided to revoke the three schools' charters. This included the charter for the AIPCS elementary school attended by Chavis' own children. On July 15, 2013, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo granted the school system a preliminary injunction, allowing all three campuses to remain open.
Educational approach AIPCS employs a "back-to-basics, squared" approach to schooling. Students spend their academic school day in a self-contained classroom with one teacher. In theory, this teacher stays with these students through their three years at AIPCS, but in practice, high teacher turnover makes this impossible.
AIPCS adheres to the American Indian Model (AIM), the focus of which is excellent student attendance.American Indian Model school's mission statement In keeping with this, originally AIPCS gave cash awards of up to $100 to students who attend every school day for a year and claims yearly attendance rates as high as 99.6%.StraightTalk with Kathy Weppner, WBEN, March 5, 2006
The school day at AIPCS begins with three hours of Language Arts and Mathematics, followed by a short lunch period (twenty minutes). Time between classes is intentionally minimal; the school estimates that this adds a week's worth of classroom time per year.
Students are assigned at least 2 hours of homework every night. Students with incomplete work are liable for a detention after school. Struggling students who show little to no improvement over the school year may be retained; one student was held back for earning a "B" in math. All students are required to attend summer school.
The student dress code is khaki- or navy-colored pants and white, collared shirts. Makeup and jewelry are not permitted.
The school had minimal lab equipment in 2012, and science was taught mostly through textbooks. Under Chavis, the school had no televisions, as he believed they led to mischief. The school offers music, performance art, study hall, and club activities after school.
Andrew J. Coulson, Director of the Center for Educational Freedom, says that AIPCS has the formula for maximizing academic achievement for poor minority students: [AIPCS] "instills in the school environment those cultural characteristics necessary for academic success that are missing in the home".
Physical education Physical education at AIPCS was offered for forty minutes each school day, and consists of primarily calisthenics and running. Students do not play traditional games such as basketball, football or baseball. According to the AIPCS website, its students in 2007-2008 significantly outperform the Oakland Unified School District average on multiple measures of physical fitness, including aerobic capacity, flexibility, and multiple measures of strength.AIPCS Physical Fitness Results, 2007-2008
Discipline AIPCS disciplinary procedures are in line with the California Education Code. Students who are disruptive, submit incomplete work, or misbehave in other ways are assigned an hour of detention after school. Students committing a second infraction in the same week will get an additional hour of detention and four hours of Saturday School.
Other discipline is more unorthodox. For example, Chavis, with parental permission, shaved the head of a student who was accused of stealing, in front of the entire school. In other cases, he punished a girl by making her clean the boys' bathroom, and forced some students to wear embarrassing signs.
Not all AIPCS staff adhere to the methods used by Chavis. Following his departure in 2012, the school administrators eliminated or toned down some of the more unorthodox disciplinary methods.
Chavis' conservative philosophy
Chavis summed up his beliefs in 2007 that liberal thinkers hurt minority students:
Test scores From 2000 to 2006, the school's Academic Performance Index (API) more than doubled. (API scores range from a minimum of 200 possible points to a maximum of 1000 possible.) In 2001, AIPCS had an API of 440, near worst among Oakland middle schools. In 2006, AIPCS had an API of 967. This was the eighth-highest in the state, where the median API is roughly 750, and highest in the state among those schools serving mostly low-income children, which typically score around 650 on the measure. In the same year, the federal government named AIPCS one of the top 250 schools in the country. In 2010, AIPCS had an API of 988 - making it the highest-performing middle school in California.
In 2009, the school's 41 8th graders' had the following scores:
Note: All AIPCS 8th grade students take Algebra I in the 8th grade, while many California students do not take Algebra I until their first year of high school.
For comparison, test scores of nearby schools were: Edna Brewer Middle School students had an API of 782, and proficiency levels of English 51%, Math 53%, Science 67% and History/Social Science 50% Westlake Middle School had an API of 680, and proficiency levels of English 30%, Math 34%, Science 46%, and History/Social Science 23% Piedmont Middle School, with few low-income students, had an API of 918 and 8th-grade proficiency levels of English 83%, Math 88%, Science 81% and History/Social Science 80%Piedmont Middle School Accountability Report Card for 2007-2008
High school scores As of 2009 AIPHS students have also performed very well on standardized tests. Roughly 90% of AIPHS students score at proficient or advanced levels on most subjects, with lower scores in Chemistry and Earth Science. In 2009, AIPHS graduated its first senior class. All 18 graduating seniors were accepted to good four-year colleges for that fall.
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