Once upon a time, the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, California, received national attention for its high test scores. In a book by David Whitman, called Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism (2008), the AIPCS was identified as one of the six best no-excuses schools in the nation. (In 2009, Whitman became Arne Duncan’s speech writer.) Its leader, Ben Chavis, was showered with praise by national education writers, TV pundits, and politicians. Based on its stellar data, reformers ranked it the best school in the nation. See here and here , including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Will, and many more.
Critics charged that Chavis got those astonishingly high scores by pushing out the children who were American Indian and replacing them with children of Asian descent.
Chavis’s style of leadership was brutal. He frequently made remarks demeaning racial and ethnic groups, complained about multiculturalism and unions, and punished children for minor infractions. Read here for a few of his more offensive comments.
He got results! Higher test scores.
But a state audit disclosed that $3.8 million went missing. Apparently much of it went to pay rent to the owner of the buildings, which was Chavis. Chavis resigned. He has since moved to North Carolina, where he is “a coveted speaker” on the free market view of capitalism and education.”
Chavis never received any punishment for the money he paid himself and his wife’s businesses.
Just another story of a great charter school.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s Account-Ability …
LikeLike
Privatization is a capital idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I truly do not understand how those Ivy League grads who are so prominent in the reform movement do not immediately question high test scores if a school loses large numbers of students. It’s logic 101 and the first red flag you would look for. If you drop your bottom 25% of 50% you drastically improve your “average”, which is why no legitimate scientific study ever ignores attrition rates. Nor does a scientist say “well lots of patients dropped out of that other drug study where the drug caused serious side effects and helped no one, so as long as the attrition rate of this miracle drug is less than that the drug that didn’t help anyone, we should just pretend lots of patients prefer to remain sick than to be cured.”
No one would believe it. But when it comes to high-performing charter schools, reformers always believe the most outrageous things and no reporter ever calls them on it. “Lots of parents think they like good schools, but once their kid is in there they decide that they actually like failing ones better.” Nonsense. But they get away with it and I do not understand how it is. My guess it is pure racism because the people who defend it always insist that there just happens to be large numbers of (mostly minority and low income) parents are just idiots who hate good schools.
If white college educated parents were leaving top charter schools for failing schools, you better believe that those reformers could not get away with their casual racism.
LikeLike
First many drug studies do almost exactly what you say .
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/27/bad_pharma_drug_research_riddled_with_half_truths_omissions_lies/
So I guess it is a matter of motive and ideology and when research is not funded by uninterested ,independent, parties you get what you are paying for .
LikeLike
You are right – there are always unscrupulous researchers willing to do whatever it takes to enrich themselves and present whatever conclusions will achieve that. I like to think that when it comes to misleading drug studies, they don’t get away with it for very long, but perhaps that is naive. Perhaps many studies promoting an ineffective or dangerous drug as having wonderful success rates are just as corrupt as some of the charter school studies.
LikeLike
Test scores say he is well-qualified to train teachers. Remarkably ugly view of the mission of schools for ethnic groups.
LikeLike
I wish this story was better publicized within the Native American community. There is currently an effort to privatize many of the federal (BIE) schools, which will result in more issues such as the missing funds at AIPCS. Because of the various laws and regulations that apply, this has been a slow-going process, but ED/DOI seems to be moving quickly before the Obama administration ends:
-The Department of the Interior is currently considering regulations to allow leasing of federal school buildings, one of the first steps that allows private operators into public schools.
-DOI is also considering regulations to allow federal employees in BIE schools to solicit donations on behalf of the schools. This is in direct violation of federal ethics rules – why they’re putting these proposed regs out is beyond me.
-DOI has hired Brad Jupp as the system’s “Chief Transformation Officer.” Brad Jupp is known for instituting merit pay in Denver.
-The data department at BIE has been ridden with internal scandal; there is a narrative of failure surrounding the schools, yet the data hasn’t been updated in years and cannot verify “failure.”
-Each year, DOI turns some schools over to tribal control in the name of “tribal self-determination.” Tribal control of tribal schools is important, but I fear it’s being used as a guise for the federal government to shirk its responsibilities to pay for the cost of educating Native children (which costs many millions per year, primarily due to the high cost of building maintenance and transportation in areas where there is little to no infrastructure – we’re talking mud roads). When a school is turned over to tribal control, all of the employees – who are paid on the federal GS scale, at professional rates – are fired and must reapply for their positions.
It’s a sad state of affairs overall. 😦
LikeLike
This is like fiction! Chavez throws Native American Indians out of this school! Gets away with it! Nobody comes to the aid of the NAI’s! Replaced them with Asian children ! He’s abusive to the children ! Steals $$$ Gets away with it!!!! $ went to wife’s businesses & probably other things! He’s a bigot racist toward NAI’s gets away with it! So, the losers here r the NAI children! But, their well acquainted with injustice ! Hope he gets what he gave=KARMA
LikeLike
Feel free to fill out this survey recently put out by the CDE on ESSA. You don’t have to be a teacher to do so. I let it rip on charter schools in CA in the second box whether it was appropriate or not. They asked for my opinion…….
http://surveys2.cde.ca.gov/s.asp?k=146490360304
LikeLike
A “coveted speaker”? Yeesh to that atrocity….
LikeLike
Once Upon a Time? This is no fairy tale. AIPHS, our high school, is STILL considered the number two high school in the state according to the Washington Post and the number one high school in the state according to U.S. News and World report. All of our seniors were accepted into 4 year colleges or universities for the second straight year. How do we do it? Our motto is “A School At Work.” AIMS students get 7 hours of instruction a day. Preceded and followed by an hour’s worth of study hall. The students are EARNING the success we’re having. And unlike the Chavis days, AIMS students participate in Talent and Art Shows, we hold assemblies and invite in music artists, and chessmasters. Earlier this month, the seniors organized and put on AIMS’ first prom! The one thing that hasn’t changed is the economic station of our students; 75% of whom qualify for Title I. Our new superintendent has brought life and new dimensions to the Dickensian conditions that once existed. The bottom line, this school is still succeeding AND it is succeeding without Chavis’ “brutal” leadership. It is succeeding with a superintendent who encourages creativity and exploration, freedom of thought and freedom of speech. There is a reason Arnold Schwarzenegger, and George Will, don’t come around or mention American Indian anymore; AIMS no longer fits their philosophy. We’re only trying to do one thing; fulfill our own mission and commitment to the students. (www.aimschools.org)
LikeLike
And what percentage of your school is Native American? How much outreach is being done for Native American communities? What percentage of your school is Asian? What has been done to get the $3.8 million back that was stolen from your schools and from California taxpayers?
LikeLike
We are planning an renewed outreach to the Native American community. We realize that mission was not a priority under the old leadership. And for as long as those funds have allegedly been missing, it’s been state and federal authorities who have been responsible for those investigations, and not AIMS.
LikeLike
Will the new leadership support the current efforts of AIMS teachers to organize a union or continue to deny them recognition?
LikeLike
I am currently writing about accountability, and need a no BS explanation of how/why some charters call themselves “public” charters. I would like to know the explanation a reformer would give to “sell” it, and what a critic would say. My feeling is that the word “public” is used because technically any member of the public is free to “choose” the school for their child, but in truth the child may not be a good fit if they aren’t easily adapted to the charter’s model, requirements, lack of more intense support services…and that students like this are treated like “no shirt, no shoes, no service”…and shown the door as gently as possible-or maybe less kindly.
Inform me if you would, either her or through my handle at gmail.
LikeLike
dmax, charter schools call themselves “public” to legitimize taking public funding. The money is the only thing “public” about them. I discuss this in Reign of Error
LikeLike
Thank you Diane. What would someone trying to legitimize it say? Eva doesn’t say “My school is a PUBLIC charter because I take public money.” Is it about loose requirements to serve “X” students with IEPs, “Y”students from low SES families? Understand that I am a skeptic of much-promoted charters, but wonder why media isn’t all over the “public” in name only thing.
LikeLike
Charter advocates label charters as public schools because it helps their marketing campaign. Choice is “the civil rights issue of our time,” as segregationists always said
If charters sold themselves as “the private sector does it better,” no one would believe them.
When sued, charters’ defense is that they are private contractors, not state actors.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing
LikeLike
P.S. I have a signed copy! I will go back to it.
LikeLike
Interesting enough. I couldn’t find any State or National Rankings in US News for American Indian Public High School.
It actually looks like Oakland Charter High has higher SBAC scores than AIPHS.
What percentage of the students at AIPHS received passing scores on their AP tests?
I find the decline of the Great American Indian Model Schools interesting.
Can someone send me a link to the most recent State and National rankings?
LikeLike
https://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2016/list/california-schools/
Actually, I made a mistake. The WashPo has AIPHS is number one in the state of CA, not number two. U.S. doesn’t have us listed this year because the College Board, the source of U.S. News’ information, got confused about the NCES ID numbers between American Indian Public HS and American Indian Public Charter. The result was that U.S. News didnt get the info they needed and didn’t calculate for us.
LikeLike