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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 brought up enrollment numbers and test scores. The American Indian Model Schools charter system developed out of AIPCS and now operates several schools. AIPCS' test scores are superior to almost all public schools in the state. 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, December 10, 2009. Retrieved on September 13, 2011.〕 ==History== AIPCS was chartered by the Oakland Unified School District in 1996 with the mission of improving the abysmal performance of Native American students in the Oakland schools. As a charter school, AIPCS is free to students and has significant autonomy. The school, located in a converted church in Oakland's Laurel District, originally had a predominantly Native American student population and focused on Native American culture; students had classes in bead-making and drumming and had smoking breaks.〔 〕 By 2001, the school was failing. Enrollment dropped to 34〔Enrollment 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, Ben Chavis, a Lumbee Indian from North Carolina and a former faculty member at San Francisco State University, became school principal and made a series of changes. Though he had no previous affiliation with the school, Chavis, who had experience as a public school principal, volunteered for the job. Chavis, who believes principals need to be held more accountable for their schools' performance,〔"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," Ben Chavis, ''A charter on success in Oakland'', Chip Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle〕 replaced most of the school's staff, eliminated bilingual education and Native American cultural content from the curriculum, 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. In the years that followed, the school's enrollment grew〔 and test scores made dramatic improvements, becoming one of the highest 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. In 2007, AIPCS opened a second campus, AIPCS II, and a high school, American Indian Public High School (AIPHS). In the same year, Chavis retired after a string of controversies.〔 He remains involved with the school as advisor emeritus. On March 20, 2013, the Oakland School Board in a 4 - 3 vote decided to revoke the three school's charters, including the elementary school where Chavis' own children attend.〔http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_22851989/oaklands-american-indian-model-schools-seek-new-charter〕 On July 15, 2013, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo granted the school a preliminary injunction, allowing all three campuses to remain open. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「American Indian Public Charter School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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