A very untraditional public school in Oakland

The top-performing middle school in Oakland is the American Indian Public Charter School, a profile of which appears in today's San Francisco Chronicle. His style couldn't be more different from everything I've learned so far at NYU, and is basically the polar opposite of the charter schools I work with. There may be a lot of reasons this school is succeeding, and the back-to-basics and harsh discipline may not be the foremost among them. But it is an interesting article.

Key grafs:

Chavis admitted that he's prompted students to leave, saying that his method isn't for everyone. He said his target demographic is "ghetto, poor kids."

"I don't use that middle-class rhetoric. I don't believe in building self-esteem, fundraising, parent involvement," Chavis said. "My system is not for middle-class, upper-class whites."