American Indian Public Charter School
Encyclopedia
American Indian Public Charter School or AIPCS is an Oakland, California
charter
middle school
with predominantly low-income, minority students. AIPCS' test scores are superior to almost all public schools in the state. It is a part of the American Indian Model Schools
.
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 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,
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.
AIPCS adheres to the American Indian Model (AIM), the focus of which is excellent student attendance. In keeping with this, originally AIPCS gave cash awards of up to $100 to students who attend every school day for a year and claims yearly attendance rates as high as 99.6%.
The school day at AIPCS begins with three hours of Language Arts and Mathematics, followed by a short lunch period(twenty minutes). Time between classes is intentionally minimal; the school estimates that this adds a week's worth of classroom time per year.
Students are assigned at least 2 hours of homework every night. Students with incomplete work are liable for a detention after school. Struggling students who show little to no improvement over the school year may be retained; one student was held back for earning a "B" in math. All students are required to attend summer school
.
The student dress code is khaki- or navy-colored pants and white, collared shirts. Makeup and jewelry are not permitted.
The school has no lab equipment; science is taught mostly through textbooks. There are also no televisions or computers in the school, as Chavis believed they led to mischief. The school offers music, performance art, study hall and club activities after school.
Andrew J. Coulson, Director of the Center for Educational Freedom, says that AIPCS has the formula for maximizing academic achievement for poor minority students: "[AIPCS] instills in the school environment those cultural characteristics necessary for academic success that are missing in the home".
at AIPCS is offered for forty minutes of the school day, and consists of primarily calisthenics
and running
. Students do not play traditional games such as basketball
, football
or baseball
. According to the AIPCS website, AIPCS students significantly outperform the Oakland Unified School District
average on multiple measures of physical fitness, including aerobic capacity, flexibility, and multiple measures of strength.
Other discipline is more unorthodox. For example, Chavis, with parental permission, shaved the head of a student accused of stealing in front of the entire school, forced a girl to clean the boys' bathroom as punishment, and forced some students to wear embarrassing signs.
Not all AIPCS staff adhere to the methods used by Chavis, and with his departure, some of the more unorthodox disciplinary methods have been eliminated or toned down.
and Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute
. The school claims to be just as intolerant of unions as it is of drug dealers, and prides itself on firing underperforming teachers.
Chavis summed up his beliefs about how liberal thinkers hurt minority students:
The school's 41 8th graders' performance in 2009:
Note: All AIPCS 8th grade students take Algebra I in the 8th grade, while many California students do not take Algebra I until their first year of high school.
For comparison, test scores of nearby schools in
, author of The Bell Curve
, praised AIPCS and said he would send his children there. However, he expressed skepticism towards AIPCS' high test scores, stating that he had never seen an example of a school that produced dramatic score improvements that stood up to scholarly scrutiny. He proposed six questions that should be asked regarding AIPCS' test scores, such as whether the scores had been influenced by the "practice effect," and predicted that test score improvements at AIPCS under Chavis would prove much less impressive once the questions had been answered.
AIPCS has been accused of "cherry-picking" - recruiting students who will do well and getting rid of students who won't. AIPCS denied the allegations, but half the 6th grade students performing poorly in 2007 had left the school before graduation, and only 39 of the 51 students who started in 2006 completed their middle school years with AIPCS. It should be noted, however, that the students who entered below grade level and stayed through the 8th grade all improved. The failure to take into account the attrition of poorly performing students who have dropped out of a school is often the most decisive indicator that a school's evaluation has been inadequate.
Approximately 97% of AIPCS students are "socioeconomically disadvantaged"
The recent demographics represent a shift from earlier years, when the school had a larger American Indian population and smaller Asian population. At AIPCS II, located in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood, 67% of the students are Asian and are recruited almost exclusively from the nearby Lincoln Elementary School
, which also has high test scores and is predominantly Asian.
Critics have suggested that AIPCS success is largely due to this demographic shift and the success of its Asian student population. However, the school's Asian, African-American, and Latino students perform similarly on standardized tests.
AIPCS staff says the school attracts a representative sample of students from local elementary schools, however, California's Office of Charter Schools noted that AIPCS' demographics were out of line with those in the surrounding Oakland Unified School District
's jurisdiction, where Asian students were only 14% of the student population and African American and Latino students each made up 36% of the population, and that these discrepancies could be due to AIPCS recruiting practices.
. AIPCS has also received grants of over $100,000 from the Koret Foundation
and more than $200,000 from the Walton family
.
visited the school at least twice. During a 2006 visit, he said of the school, "... the reason why I’m here at this school specifically is because this is a perfect example. First of all, a perfect example of great leadership, that Dr. Chavis has less money per student than other schools have, and he has raised the test scores in the last five years to make it the best school in Oakland. And this is really an extraordinary accomplishment."
Debra England of the Koret Foundation
, said "They really should be the model for public education in the state of California. What I will never understand is why the world is not beating a path to their door to benchmark them, learn from them and replicate what they are doing."
The mother of an African-American student said it was "evil" for the school to punish her son for staying home to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama
on television, and she stopped sending him to the school. The student later came to visit AIPCS and acknowledged missing the school.
The parent of another student removed her daughter from AIPCS after Chavis demanded the student repeat algebra even though she received a B in the course. She described Chavis "frickin' nasty" and filed a complaint with the AIPCS board, which she said the board never responded to.
Chavis said "I don't care what the critics say, because the critics aren't turning schools around."
Chavis also allegedly pushed a teacher down a flight of stairs while calling her a "fucking bitch", "stupid bitch", as she tried to retrieve her violin after he fired her; allegedly called his own niece a "slut", a "lying bitch" and threatened to kill her; and allegedly asked one of AIPCS female students if a male student "was still trying to suck your titties", which he denied.
Chavis allegedly called a Mills College
graduate student a "a fucking black minority punk" after he showed up fifteen minutes late to a group visit at the school, calling the student "worthless piece of (expletive) people have been making excuses for" Chavis said that he called the grad student a "dumbass minority," and said "he was an embarrassment to his race." and he saw no reason to hold his guests to a different standard than AIPCS students, who receive an hour detention if they arrive a second late. "He came late. White people are on time. What does he think, there's black time? Mexican time? Indian time? The clock is white."
The evening of the incident with the Mills College team, Chavis announced his intention to step down from his position at AIPCS.
to determine entrants. AIPCS has never held a lottery and was denied a petition to open a new school in the fall of 2008, in part because AIPCS was "unable to describe" their selection process. AIPCS staff stated they had never needed to hold a lottery because they had never had more applicants than seats, however, in the same petition, AIPCS stated its primary motivation for opening an additional school was to serve the many families wishing to enroll that the existing schools could not accommodate.
Furthermore, in 2006, an African-American parent filed a complaint stating that AIPCS told her there was no room for her son and refused to place him on the school's waiting list, even while it was accepting applications from white students. Chavis' allegedly told a Caucasian parent that her son would be placed at the top of the school's waiting list because there were too many "darkies" and Asians enrolled in the school. If true, AIPCS violated federal and state laws, which prohibit public schools, including charters, from discriminating by race.
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
charter
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
with predominantly low-income, minority students. AIPCS' test scores are superior to almost all public schools in the state. It is a part of the American Indian Model Schools
American Indian Model Schools
American Indian Model Schools is a charter school system with its headquarters in Oakland, California.It includes American Indian Public Charter School , a 5th grade-8th grade school, American Indian Public Charter School II , a fifth grade through eighth grade school, and American Indian Public...
.
History
AIPCS was chartered by the Oakland Unified School DistrictOakland Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District is a public education school district which operates elementary schools , middle schools , and high schools in Oakland, California.-History:...
in 1996 with the mission of improving the abysmal performance of Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
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
Laurel, Oakland, California
Laurel is one of the many culturally diverse neighborhoods in Oakland, California. It is situated between the foot of the Oakland hills and Mills College. It lies at an elevation of 226 feet . At the heart of the neighborhood lies MacArthur Boulevard, a bustling shopping area with annual festivals...
, 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 and test scores were abysmal. That year, Ben Chavis, a Lumbee
Lumbee
The Lumbee belong to a state recognized Native American tribe in North Carolina. The Lumbee are concentrated in Robeson County and named for the primary waterway traversing the county...
Indian from North Carolina and a former faculty member at San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, 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,
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.
Educational approach
AIPCS employs a "back-to-basics, squared" approach to schooling. Students spend their academic school day in a self-contained classroom with one teacher. In theory, this teacher stays with these students through their three years at AIPCS, but in practice, high teacher turnover makes this impossible.AIPCS adheres to the American Indian Model (AIM), the focus of which is excellent student attendance. In keeping with this, originally AIPCS gave cash awards of up to $100 to students who attend every school day for a year and claims yearly attendance rates as high as 99.6%.
The school day at AIPCS begins with three hours of Language Arts and Mathematics, followed by a short lunch period(twenty minutes). Time between classes is intentionally minimal; the school estimates that this adds a week's worth of classroom time per year.
Students are assigned at least 2 hours of homework every night. Students with incomplete work are liable for a detention after school. Struggling students who show little to no improvement over the school year may be retained; one student was held back for earning a "B" in math. All students are required to attend summer school
Summer school
Summer school is a school, or a program generally sponsored by a school or a school district, that teaches students during the summer vacation....
.
The student dress code is khaki- or navy-colored pants and white, collared shirts. Makeup and jewelry are not permitted.
The school has no lab equipment; science is taught mostly through textbooks. There are also no televisions or computers in the school, as Chavis believed they led to mischief. The school offers music, performance art, study hall and club activities after school.
Andrew J. Coulson, Director of the Center for Educational Freedom, says that AIPCS has the formula for maximizing academic achievement for poor minority students: "[AIPCS] instills in the school environment those cultural characteristics necessary for academic success that are missing in the home".
Physical education
Physical educationPhysical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
at AIPCS is offered for forty minutes of the school day, and consists of primarily calisthenics
Calisthenics
Calisthenics are a form of aerobic exercise consisting of a variety of simple, often rhythmical, movements, generally using multiple equipment or apparatus. They are intended to increase body strength and flexibility with movements such as bending, jumping, swinging, twisting or kicking, using...
and running
Running
Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground...
. Students do not play traditional games such as basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
or baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
. According to the AIPCS website, AIPCS students significantly outperform the Oakland Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District is a public education school district which operates elementary schools , middle schools , and high schools in Oakland, California.-History:...
average on multiple measures of physical fitness, including aerobic capacity, flexibility, and multiple measures of strength.
Discipline
AIPCS disciplinary procedures are in line with the California Education Code. Students who are disruptive, submit incomplete work, or misbehave in other ways are assigned an hour of detention after school. If the student commits a second infraction in the same week, he or she will get an additional hour of detention and four hours of Saturday School.Other discipline is more unorthodox. For example, Chavis, with parental permission, shaved the head of a student accused of stealing in front of the entire school, forced a girl to clean the boys' bathroom as punishment, and forced some students to wear embarrassing signs.
Not all AIPCS staff adhere to the methods used by Chavis, and with his departure, some of the more unorthodox disciplinary methods have been eliminated or toned down.
Conservative philosophy
AIPCS mocks liberal orthodoxy zealously and has been praised by conservatives such as columnist George WillGeorge Will
George Frederick Will is an American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winner best known for his conservative commentary on politics...
and Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
. The school claims to be just as intolerant of unions as it is of drug dealers, and prides itself on firing underperforming teachers.
Chavis summed up his beliefs about how liberal thinkers hurt minority students:
Test scores
In the five years since Chavis arrived, the school's Academic Performance Index (API) had more than doubled. API scores range from a minimum of 200 possible points to a maximum of 1000 possible.- In 2001, AIPCS had an API of 440, near worst among Oakland middle schools.
- In 2006, AIPCS had an API of 967, eighth highest in the state, where the median API is roughly 750, and highest in the state among schools serving mostly low-income children, which typically score around 650 on the measure. In the same year, the federal government named AIPCS one of the top 250 schools in the country.
- In 2010, AIPCS had an API of 988 - making it the highest performing middle school in all of California.
The school's 41 8th graders' performance in 2009:
Note: All AIPCS 8th grade students take Algebra I in the 8th grade, while many California students do not take Algebra I until their first year of high school.
For comparison, test scores of nearby schools in
- Edna Brewer Middle School had an API of 782 and proficiency levels of English 51%, Math 53%, Science 67% and History/Social Science 50%
- Westlake Middle School had an API of 680 and proficiency levels of English 30%, Math 34%, Science 46%, and History/Social Science 23%
- Piedmont Middle SchoolPiedmont Middle SchoolPiedmont Middle School, also known as PMS, is part of the Piedmont Unified School District in Piedmont, California.-Background:Piedmont Middle School provides education for students grades six through eight in the city. Piedmont students come from Frank C. Havens Elementary School, Wildwood...
, with few low-income students, had an API of 918 and 8th-grade proficiency levels of English 83%, Math 88%, Science 81% and History/Social Science 80%
High school scores
AIPHS students have also performed very well on standardized tests. Roughly 90% of AIPHS students score at proficient or advanced levels on most subjects, with lower scores in Chemistry and Earth Science. In 2009, AIPHS graduated its first senior class. All eighteen graduating seniors were accepted to four-year colleges, including Cornell, MIT and UC Berkeley.Skepticism
IQ expert Charles MurrayCharles Murray (author)
Charles Alan Murray is an American libertarian political scientist, author, columnist, and pundit working as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC...
, author of The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve is a best-selling and controversial 1994 book by the Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray...
, praised AIPCS and said he would send his children there. However, he expressed skepticism towards AIPCS' high test scores, stating that he had never seen an example of a school that produced dramatic score improvements that stood up to scholarly scrutiny. He proposed six questions that should be asked regarding AIPCS' test scores, such as whether the scores had been influenced by the "practice effect," and predicted that test score improvements at AIPCS under Chavis would prove much less impressive once the questions had been answered.
AIPCS has been accused of "cherry-picking" - recruiting students who will do well and getting rid of students who won't. AIPCS denied the allegations, but half the 6th grade students performing poorly in 2007 had left the school before graduation, and only 39 of the 51 students who started in 2006 completed their middle school years with AIPCS. It should be noted, however, that the students who entered below grade level and stayed through the 8th grade all improved. The failure to take into account the attrition of poorly performing students who have dropped out of a school is often the most decisive indicator that a school's evaluation has been inadequate.
Demographics
For 2007-2008, the AIPCS student body of approximately 180 students represents the following ethnic groups:- 46% Asian
- 23% African-American
- 22% Latino
- 3% American Indian/Alaskan Native
- < 2% Caucasian, Pacific Islander, Filipino
Approximately 97% of AIPCS students are "socioeconomically disadvantaged"
The recent demographics represent a shift from earlier years, when the school had a larger American Indian population and smaller Asian population. At AIPCS II, located in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood, 67% of the students are Asian and are recruited almost exclusively from the nearby Lincoln Elementary School
Lincoln Elementary School (Oakland, California)
Lincoln Elementary School is part of the Oakland Unified School District. It is located in Oakland Chinatown, in walking distance of Lake Merritt. Most of the students speak a foreign language at home, including Cantonese, Mandarin, and Mongolian...
, which also has high test scores and is predominantly Asian.
Critics have suggested that AIPCS success is largely due to this demographic shift and the success of its Asian student population. However, the school's Asian, African-American, and Latino students perform similarly on standardized tests.
AIPCS staff says the school attracts a representative sample of students from local elementary schools, however, California's Office of Charter Schools noted that AIPCS' demographics were out of line with those in the surrounding Oakland Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District is a public education school district which operates elementary schools , middle schools , and high schools in Oakland, California.-History:...
's jurisdiction, where Asian students were only 14% of the student population and African American and Latino students each made up 36% of the population, and that these discrepancies could be due to AIPCS recruiting practices.
Finances
From 2001 to 2008, AIPCS spent under $8,000 per student-year, which was less than half as much per student-year as the surrounding Oakland Unified School DistrictOakland Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District is a public education school district which operates elementary schools , middle schools , and high schools in Oakland, California.-History:...
. AIPCS has also received grants of over $100,000 from the Koret Foundation
Koret Foundation
The Koret Foundation, along with the Koret Fund, is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was organized in 1978 by Joseph and Stephanie Koret, along with Tad Taube, their family friend and Chief Executive Officer of their women's sportswear company, Korett of...
and more than $200,000 from the Walton family
Walton family
The Walton Family is one of the richest families in the world, their wealth inherited from Bud and Sam Walton, founders of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. The five most prominent members The Walton Family is one of the richest families in the world, their wealth inherited from Bud and Sam...
.
Opinions
California governor Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
visited the school at least twice. During a 2006 visit, he said of the school, "... the reason why I’m here at this school specifically is because this is a perfect example. First of all, a perfect example of great leadership, that Dr. Chavis has less money per student than other schools have, and he has raised the test scores in the last five years to make it the best school in Oakland. And this is really an extraordinary accomplishment."
Debra England of the Koret Foundation
Koret Foundation
The Koret Foundation, along with the Koret Fund, is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was organized in 1978 by Joseph and Stephanie Koret, along with Tad Taube, their family friend and Chief Executive Officer of their women's sportswear company, Korett of...
, said "They really should be the model for public education in the state of California. What I will never understand is why the world is not beating a path to their door to benchmark them, learn from them and replicate what they are doing."
The mother of an African-American student said it was "evil" for the school to punish her son for staying home to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
on television, and she stopped sending him to the school. The student later came to visit AIPCS and acknowledged missing the school.
The parent of another student removed her daughter from AIPCS after Chavis demanded the student repeat algebra even though she received a B in the course. She described Chavis "frickin' nasty" and filed a complaint with the AIPCS board, which she said the board never responded to.
Chavis said "I don't care what the critics say, because the critics aren't turning schools around."
Chavis-era controversies
During Chavis' tenure, AIPCS and Chavis were involved in a number of controversies.Racially and sexually-charged statements
Chavis tended to call all non-Caucasian students, including African Americans, "darkies." Chavis explained "I use 'darkie' every day, I use it in the context that I'm Indian and I'm black. I'm a darkie." "I tell the students, if you don't do your work, people are going to call you a lazy Mexican. You're black, they expect you to be an idiot," said Chavis, who is Native American. "I use it to motivate the kids.".Chavis also allegedly pushed a teacher down a flight of stairs while calling her a "fucking bitch", "stupid bitch", as she tried to retrieve her violin after he fired her; allegedly called his own niece a "slut", a "lying bitch" and threatened to kill her; and allegedly asked one of AIPCS female students if a male student "was still trying to suck your titties", which he denied.
Chavis allegedly called a Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
graduate student a "a fucking black minority punk" after he showed up fifteen minutes late to a group visit at the school, calling the student "worthless piece of (expletive) people have been making excuses for" Chavis said that he called the grad student a "dumbass minority," and said "he was an embarrassment to his race." and he saw no reason to hold his guests to a different standard than AIPCS students, who receive an hour detention if they arrive a second late. "He came late. White people are on time. What does he think, there's black time? Mexican time? Indian time? The clock is white."
The evening of the incident with the Mills College team, Chavis announced his intention to step down from his position at AIPCS.
Admissions controversies
California Charter schools are required to either accept all applicants, or, if they have more applicants than capacity, to hold a lotteryLottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
to determine entrants. AIPCS has never held a lottery and was denied a petition to open a new school in the fall of 2008, in part because AIPCS was "unable to describe" their selection process. AIPCS staff stated they had never needed to hold a lottery because they had never had more applicants than seats, however, in the same petition, AIPCS stated its primary motivation for opening an additional school was to serve the many families wishing to enroll that the existing schools could not accommodate.
Furthermore, in 2006, an African-American parent filed a complaint stating that AIPCS told her there was no room for her son and refused to place him on the school's waiting list, even while it was accepting applications from white students. Chavis' allegedly told a Caucasian parent that her son would be placed at the top of the school's waiting list because there were too many "darkies" and Asians enrolled in the school. If true, AIPCS violated federal and state laws, which prohibit public schools, including charters, from discriminating by race.