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:
“...I have come to make distinctions between what I call the academy and literature, the moral equivalents of church and God. The academy may lie, but literature tries to tell the truth.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)
“The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)
“The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul’s faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue.... Moreover this activity must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)