American Indian Charter School in Oakland, California

In the spring of 2014, the Los Angeles Unified School District decided to close two high-performing charter schools serving low-income Hispanic students. The reason was that the charters had opted not to use the district's own special education services. Instead, they chose an independent service provider that was already working with 300 other schools- something they had every right to do under California law.So why did the district want to shut them down? According to county school board member Douglas Boyd, the district has been trying to blackmail charter schools into using its own special education services, shutting them down if they refuse, because it wants the money that the state attaches to each special needs child.

Fortunately for these two charter schools and the children they serve, the county school board overturned the district's decision, but no one expects the district to stop trying to get what it wants.One of the most striking cases of a district voting to shut-down high-performing charter schools played out in Oakland, California. As a whole, students here perform far below their peers in the rest of the state. And the district has its own armed police force. But, over the course of a decade, one of Oakland's worst schools was gradually turned into the highest-scoring school in California. It's called the American Indian Public Charter School. For the past 6 years, it has ranked among the top middle schools in California.

And it's part of a small network that includes a second middle-school and a high school - both of which are also in Oakland and also among the top-performers in the state. And that's not because of their demographics: Every racial, ethnic and socioeconomic subgroup of students at these schools easily outperforms its statewide peers. And all of them beat the average for wealthier white students. The high school has topped the Washington Post's list of the nation's best. All of its students take Advanced Placement courses and they score remarkably well on the year-end tests administered by the College Board. How do they do it? The fact that the high school classes, and the 8th grade classes, too, can be so productive... that's entirely predicated on what happens in 6th grade. That's where it's the roughest adjustment. So we get kids from neighboring elementary schools. They come in and I think it's a shock to them, their first three weeks, maybe month, month-and-a-half.

And it's about acclimation and it's about 'This is how you conduct yourself at this school.' There's a student contract, there's a code of conduct for students and the parents and students are required to review it and sign it prior to applying.And it helps because the students know exactly what's expected.

When I came here in the 7th grade I was failing. So, yeah, it was really hard for me to get used to it. It was just a really big transition. Because the school that I went to, they actually gave me a text book and put us in the back of the classroom to learn and teach ourselves. I've actually experienced some of this. I'm a tutor at the downtown campus, and I usually do one-on-one sessions with some of the students that are struggling. And most of the students that I've tutored actually are just transferring from different schools. Some of them are at a 4th or 5th grade level when they should be at a 9th or 10th grade level.I was nervous going into the 7th grade because I knew I was going to be getting new students. You know...there's just a lot to catch up to in terms of, like, the workload, just the school culture, and then just, yeah, behavioral adjustments. But, because the core group of students that I'd had since the beginning of 6th grade was so well-behaved...new students just kind of adjust.In some schools, children may not try adjusting because the teachers don't try. If they don't do a couple of assignments the teacher won't mind, because that's just one less for the teacher to grade. But I think at this school it's more- they're not, like, attacking you but they're more 'on' you in what you do. When it comes to, like, catching them up on academic stuff, I'll take on that extra work if it means that that student makes the progress. So, after-school tutoring, in-school tutoring, before school tutoring, you know, taking them aside during class time and working with them one-on-one- because that's the other good thing about having really well-behaved classes is that the students can work independently. And that really does free the teacher up to work one-on-one with the students who do need help.