Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the American Indian Model Schools system established?
American Indian Model Schools (AIM Schools) is a charter school system based in Oakland, California.[2] Started with the American Indian Public Charter School, a middle school in the late 1990s to serve Native American students, in 2007 it expanded to include another middle school and a high school. The main campus is in the Laurel area and includes American Indian Public Charter School (AIPCS), a middle school of grades 5-8, and American Indian Public High School (AIPHS), a high school (9-12). AIPHS students can also take select classes at Merritt College. American Indian Public Charter School II (AIPCS II) has grades K-8 at a second campus located in Oakland's Chinatown. By 2012 the student population of the AIM schools had become 90% Asian American.
Landsberg said that the school system has high performance because it "attracts academically motivated students, relentlessly (and unapologetically) teaches to the test, wrings more seat time out of every school day, hires smart young teachers, demands near-perfect attendance, piles on the homework, refuses to promote struggling students to the next grade and keeps discipline so tight that there are no distractions or disruptions. Summer school is required."[5] Landsberg added "There is no secret to any of this. Portions of the American Indian model resemble methods used by the KIPP charter schools or, for that matter, urban parochial schools."[5]
Ron Smith, the principal of Laurel Elementary School, disclosed the middle school test scores of the 51 students from Laurel who entered the AIM system in 2004, showing their progress in English and mathematics between the 6th and 8th grades. Landsberg said "It's impossible to tell whether the students were academically strong at the start of sixth grade or were brought up to grade level by the rigors of a year at American Indian."[35] Of the students from Laurel who had completed the 6th grade at the AIM system, 39 finished all three years at the AIM system.[35]
In early June 2012, the FCMAT audit was published. Evidence of fraud was listed, with recommendations to forward the audit to the local District Attorney.[18] Michael Stember resigned from the charter school system board between April and June. Jean Martinez was elected as President of the AIPCS Model School governing board.[19] As reported by SF Gate, "The allegations against American Indian charter schools officials include $3.7 million in payments to businesses owned by founder Ben Chavis and his wife, including money for rent, storage fees, construction projects and the administration of summer school programs.”[19]
The history of Haskell Indian Nations University reflects both U.S. Indian policy and self-determination efforts by American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Haskell was founded during an era when the federal government believed that Native Americans needed to assimilate into the majority culture in order to survive. To do this, the US government took Native American children from their families and sent them to Native American boarding schools to be educated. In the late 19th century, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, in Pennsylvania, was seen by many as the epitome of such a school, and so when the United States Congress decreed in 1882 that three new boarding schools should be made in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma (a plan that would cost $150,000), it was the Carlisle school that served as the model for these soon-to-be-constructed institutions, including Haskell. When Haskell opened in 1884, it went by the name United States Indian Industrial Training School. According to many source, living conditions during the 1880s and 1890s were bad, and students were often physically punished if they failed to follow the rules of the institute.
The AIM school system did not disclose the elementary school test scores of its students. Mitchell Landsberg of the Los Angeles Times could not determine whether the students at American Indian middle schools had above average scores in the elementary school grades.[35]
American Indian Public Charter School II, a charter school campus of the American Indian Model Schools system, is located in Chinatown. It caters to students living in the Chinatown and Lake Merritt areas. In 2008 it shared a campus with Oakland Charter Academies (now Amethod Public Schools).
Janet Roberts, a former teacher, succeeded Chavis that year as the head of the school system. Roberts said that Chavis's resignation appeared to quiet criticisms of the school. As reported by Katy Murphy of the Oakland Tribune, Roberts said, "Many assumed that the academic success of the American Indian schools was personality-driven[...] but the program didn't lose its edge after Chavis left."[12]
As of 2017, the system includes three schools, American Indian Public Charter School (AICPS), middle school with grades 5-8;[23][24] American Indian Public Charter School II (AIPCS II), K-8;[25] and American Indian Public High School (AIPHS), a high school (9-12).[26]
Native American boarding schools, also known as Indian Residential Schools were established in the United States during the late 19th and mid 20th centuries with a primary objective of assimilating Native American children and youth into Euro-American culture, while at the same time providing a basic education in Euro-American subject matters. These boarding schools were first established by Christian missionaries of various denominations, who often started schools on reservations, especially in the lightly populated areas of the West. The government paid religious orders to provide basic education to Native American children on reservations. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) founded additional boarding schools based on the assimilation model of the off-reservation Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
As the model of boarding schools was adopted more widely by the US government, many Native American children were separated from their families and tribes when they were sent or sometimes taken to boarding schools far from their home reservations. These schools ranged from those similar to the federal Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which became a model for BIA-run schools, to the many schools sponsored by religious denominations.
In 2004 Jorge Lopez took control of the school. At the time its Academic Performance Index (API) was 650. Lopez received guidance from Ben Chavis, head of the American Indian Model Schools, and established a system similar to the system of American Indian Public Charter School at Oakland Charter Academy. In late September 2007 the Oakland Charter Academy became the second public school in Oakland to win the National Blue Ribbon award. Oakland Charter High School opened in 2007.
The American Indian Model Schools charter system developed from the AIPCS in order to expand the offerings to students. Since 2007, under new management, it has operated three schools in the city, two middle schools (one had grades K-4 added in 2012), and a high school, American Indian Public High School. The charter for the AIMS schools was threatened in 2012 because of discoveries of financial mismanagement and concerns about leadership. Although the Oakland School District voted to revoke the charter, the school system gained a preliminary injunction that allowed it to operate the three schools. With new leaders, it gained a 5-year renewal of its charter in 2013.
Lorelei De Cora, along with Madonna, founded and established, the 'We Will Remember Survival School,' a place where American Indian youth whose parents were facing federal charges or who had dropped out of the secondary education system. Specifically, the school was founded for the children of participants who were defendants in the Wounded Knee trials which followed the American Indian Movement occupation of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This alternative model was a component of the National Federation of Native-Controlled Survival Schools that was established during the movement.
Along with Lorelei De Cora, she founded and established the 'We Will Remember Survival School,' meant to provide a safe place for American Indian youth whose parents were facing federal charges or who had dropped out of the secondary education system. Specifically, the school was founded for the children of defendants in the Wounded Knee trials which followed the American Indian Movement occupation of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This alternative model was a component of the National Federation of Native-Controlled Survival Schools that was established during the movement.
Chavis and Roberts said in 2009 that the American Indian system attracts representative samples of students from various public elementary schools in Oakland. Ron Smith, the principal of Laurel Elementary School and a parent of two AIM system children, said that of the children who went from Laurel to the AIM system, "I'd say 70% are academically strong, and 30% are a cross-section. . . . They have kids who I know could go anyplace in the state and succeed."[35]
For a period, the charter system's charter from the OUSD was at risk, but the school gained a court injunction in 2012 to allow it to continue to operate. With the change in management and in view of the students' achievements in academic scores, the Model School system's charter was renewed in 2013 for a 5-year term. This included an expansion to serve grades K-4 at AIPCS II.[4]
By 2002 the school's enrollment tripled, and its test scores were increasing.[8] For the school year 2006-2007, Chavis and his board founded the American Indian Model School system, adding the American Indian Charter High School with the beginning of the school year in September 2006.[8]
In the fall 1993 the school opened as Jingletown Charter School. It was the first charter school in Oakland and one of the first in California. Originally it had the test scores amongst the lowest in the state. In 2004, Jorge Lopez took control of the school. At the time, its Academic Performance Index (API) was 650. Lopez received guidance from Ben Chavis, head of the American Indian Model Schools, and established a system similar to the system of American Indian Public Charter School. In late September 2007 Oakland Charter Academy became the second public school in Oakland to win the National Blue Ribbon award. In spring 2008, the Oakland Charter Academy received an API of 902. Its student body was mostly Hispanic, and the API was over 200 points higher than the average API of Hispanic/Latino middle school students in California. The Oakland Charter Academy API was also over 200 points above the overall scores of all of the middle schools in Oakland.
The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) granted the charter to the school system and oversees it. The American Indian Model School system has its own school board and internal policies.[3]
In May 2009, American Indian Public Charter School had an Academic Performance Index (API) of 967. Mitchell Landsberg said that the other two AIM schools "are not far behind."[5] The state API target is 800. The state average of public middle and high schools is 750. The state average of schools with underprivileged students is 650. Of the public schools in California, during that year four middle schools and three high schools had higher API scores than AIPCS; none of them had student bodies of mostly underprivileged students. Mitchell Landsberg of the Los Angeles Times stated that while critics of the school often said that the high number of Asian American students causes the test scores to be high, the African American and Hispanic students "do roughly as well -- in fact, better on some tests" so "[t]hat makes American Indian a rarity in American education, defying the axiom that poor black and Latino children will lag behind others in school."[5] In 2008, Janet Roberts, the head of the AIM system, said that the speculation that the increased numbers of Asian students caused test scores to go higher demonstrated that the educational establishment has low expectations of low-income African American, Hispanic and Latino, and Native American children.[12]
Changes to the system of the Indian Boarding School took place over the 20th and 21st century. The school system reformed to its current iteration. In the 1920s, Hubert Work, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, authorized an investigation on the conditions of Indian Boarding Schools; the group reported their findings in the Meriam Report that highlighted the failures of the boarding school system. In the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a shift in Federal Native American policy began when President Roosevelt established the Indian New Deal with the purpose of protecting the Native population residing within the United States. The cornerstone of the Indian New Deal was the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. This act allowed for the Native Americans to construct their own constitutions and govern themselves. In the same year, the Johnson O'Malley Act was passed to fund Native American education. In the year 1966, the Rough Rock Demonstration School was opened. The school was on Navajo land, and was the first boarding school controlled by the Indians. Seeing the success of the Rough Rock Demonstration School, a report was filed in 1969 entitled "Indian Education: A National Tragedy, A National Challenge", which stated that the U.S government's assimilation policy "has had disastrous effects on the education of Indian children". Following this report, the Indian Education Act of 1972 established the Office of Indian Education. The Indian Self Determination and Educational Assistance Act, established in 1975, gave the American Indians the opportunity to legislate "self-determination through community-based schooling". In 1990, the Native American Languages Act granted language rights to Native Americans. The Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act was established in 2006, which created programs for Native American Language immersion. These changes brought reform the Indian Boarding Schools needed.
In 2007, the AIPCS board expanded its operation, and founded the American Indian Model Schools system (see related article.) It opened a second middle school campus, AIPCS II, and a high school, the American Indian Public High School (AIPHS). In the same year, Chavis resigned as head of school after several controversies, but he was retained by the board in an executive role until January 2012.
On March 20, 2013, the Oakland School Board in a 4 - 3 vote decided to revoke the three schools' charters. This included the charter for the AIPCS elementary school attended by Chavis' own children. On July 15, 2013, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo granted the school system a preliminary injunction, allowing all three campuses to remain open.
On July 15, 2013, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo granted the Model Schools system a preliminary injunction, allowing all three campuses to continue to operate.[22] Since that time, in consideration of student scores and a change in management of the board and charter system, the AIMS charter was renewed for five years.
American Indian Public High School is a charter school in Oakland, California (USA) and is part of the American Indian Model Schools charter school system. In 2011, the school ranked fourth in California in the Academic Performance Index (API). American Indian Public High School ranked first on a "Washington Post" list of the most challenging high schools in the United States. Approximately 77 percent of the school's students are from low-income households. It was ranked the 9th best charter school in the U.S. and the 38th best public high school in the U.S. by "U.S. News & World Report" in 2013.