Ben Chavis (educator)

Benford Chavis is an American educator known for his leadership at the American Indian Public Charter School (AIPCS) in Oakland, California, and its expanded American Indian Model Schools system, serving from 2001 into 2012. He is a national leader in the education reform movement, emphasizing a conservative philosophy of discipline and accountability. From Robeson County, North Carolina, Chavis received a doctorate in education from the University of Arizona, was a tenure-track professor in 1988 at San Francisco State University, and he served as the superintendent of schools at the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona before working in Oakland.

Chavis was appointed as the principal of AIPCS in 2000 when the school was "among the worst middle schools in Oakland, Calif" suffering from "highest dropout rate and lowest attendance and graduation rates of any ethnic group in the city". The school made considerable improvements under Dr. Chavis and was named in 2006 as one of the top 250 schools in the US. In 2008 it ranked fifth among all the 1300 odd middle schools in California in terms of academic performance index. It then moved to the #1 position in 2010. Though the school made remarkable improvements under Chavis, at the same time this success attracted controversy primarily for the methods he used on the students to keep them performing well. In 2012, Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team submitted a report alleging Chavis had been involved in mismanagement of school funds. After seven years of federal investigation, all financial mismanagement charges against Chavis were dropped in 2019.

Chavis was featured in the documentary film Flunked (2008). He is the co-author of Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal's Triumph in the Inner City (2009).