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.
David E. Osborne
Off and on since 1990, Osborne has served as a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) in Washington, D.C. In late 2014, Osborne was appointed director of a PPI project on Reinventing America’s Schools, which focuses on reforming the public school system to treat every public school like a charter school. The project is financially supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and the Arnold Foundation.
As director of this project, Osborne authors reports and articles about education reform and hosts conferences and forums. His writing on education for PPI is available at the Progressive Policy Institute’s website, www.progressivepolicy.org, and at his blog at U.S. News. On Sept. 5, 2017, his book on education reform -- "Reinventing America's Schools: Creating a 21st Century Education System --" will be published by Bloomsbury Publishing.