American Indian Model Schools
Under the leadership of Ben Chavis (Lumbee), a Native American professor, AIPCS students made considerable progress in academic scores from 2000 to 2007, and enrollment increased at the school. The first middle school, AIPCS, received national recognition in 2007. Some of Chavis's disciplinary methods and his treatment of students and teachers generated controversy, and he resigned as principal in 2007. But the board voted to maintain him in an influential executive role at the school and with the model school system. In 2012 Chavis ended his ties with the charter system (although his children remained as students) and returned to his home state of North Carolina.
American Indian Model Schools
Under Chavis, the school system's administration opposed to U.S. liberal philosophies, and it promoted free-market capitalism. Chavis opposed teacher's unions. Landsberg reported that the AIM system schools "sometimes seem like creations of television's "Colbert Report" and that the AIM system schools "mock liberal orthodoxy with such zeal that it can seem like a parody." American conservatives praised Chavis and the AIM Schools. Columnist George Will said he favored the charter school system because its "new paternalism" could close achievement gaps between socioeconomic classes.