The Academy for Academic Excellence (AAE) is a K-12 public charter school located in Apple Valley, California. The school was first chartered in 1997 by the Apple Valley Unified School District. The AAE is a direct-funded charter school operating as its own Local Educational Agency (LEA). The school currently operates three sites, a K-1 site (Thunderbird Campus), a 2-4 site (Corwin Campus), and a 5-12 site (Mojave River Campus) located on 150 acres (0.61 km2) adjoining the Mojave River. The current student population stands at over 1300 students. Although started as an independent study school, the Academy for Academic Excellence has become a full-time school that operates as most traditional schools do.
The Academy for Academic Excellence is run by the Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The CEO of the Lewis Center is Rick Piercy, a former kindergarten teacher with Apple Valley Unified. The principal of the Academy for Academic Excellence is Gordon Soholt. The AAE has a full-time teaching staff of 44 members.
The AAE has demonstrated a significant increase in state testing results each year. The AAE is also the only public charter school in the state of California with a AFJROTC program, instructed by Colonel Armstrong(ret). By 2009, one third of AAE high school students were enrolled in the AFJROTC program. The AAE is also received a full-term accreditation from WASC in 2005, and received a California Distinguished School Award in 2007. Most recently, the AAE was named a Certified Charter School by the California Charter Schools Association. Only 39 charter schools in California have received this recognition.
Famous quotes containing the words academy, academic and/or excellence:
“When the State wishes to endow an academy or university, it grants it a tract of forest land: one saw represents an academy, a gang, a university.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I was so grateful to be independent of the academic establishment. I thought, how awful it would be to have my future hinge on such people and such decisions.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)