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.
Native American policy of the Barack Obama administration
The U.S. Department of Education, under the direction of the Obama Administration, and Obama appointee William Mendoza, as executive director of the White House initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, has created policies that seek to address disparities in education that affect Native American and American Indian students. These policies include Executive Order 13592 and the launch of pilot program State-Tribal Education Partnerships (STEP).