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.
Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education
Past honorees include: 
CEO of EdX Anant Agarwal; 
superintendent of Miami-Dade school district Alberto M. Carvalho; 
CEO of the Afghan Institute of Learning Sakena Yacoobi;
founder of Khan Academy Sal Khan;
former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley;
former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige; 
James B. Hunt, Jr., former Governor of North Carolina; 
Ellen Moir, co-founder and executive director, New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz;
James P. Comer, M.D., Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University Child Study Center; 
Mary E. Diaz, Ph.D., Dean of Education, Alverno College; 
Christopher Cerf, a key creative force behind Sesame Street;
Dennis Littky, co-founder and co-director of The Big Picture Company, The Met School and College Unbound;
and Barbara Bush, founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and former First Lady.