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.

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.

[4][5] In 2012, Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team submitted a report alleging Chavis had been involved in mismanagement of school funds.

[10][11] Born Benford Chavis, the eldest of six children in a poor Lumbee family in Robeson County, North Carolina, he was soon called "Ben," a nickname he has used all his life.

[13] Chavis zealously mocked liberal orthodoxy and was praised by conservatives such as columnist George Will and Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute.

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called Chavis's results an “education miracle.”[15] Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said during his visit to Chavis's school in March 2006, "I have taken the tour [of American Indian Public Charter School], and I have to tell you from what I've seen I was really impressed.

"[16][15] "Ben Chavis, the most politically incorrect person on the planet, is also, not coincidentally, one of the people most correct about inner-city education."

Jay Mathews of The Washington Post has commented, "[Chavis] has many of the habits of some of the best educators I know - a wicked sense of humor, a weakness for shocking the conventionally wise, and a deep love of children, particularly those who have had difficult lives."

These comments were made in relation to the release of the 2009 book Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal's Triumph in the Inner City by Dr. Ben Chavis with Carey Blakely.

[20][21][22][23][24] Chavis resigned all ties at the school system in January 2012 and returned to North Carolina, where he had been resident again for some time.

[25] Following the results of the audit and other investigations of Chavis related to treatment of students and faculty, in February 2013, OUSD revoked the school's charter.

It gained a preliminary injunction from the Superior Court of Alameda County allowing it to continue to operate the three system schools.

During the next 2+1⁄2 years, the charter school system paid Chavis an additional $8.6 million to lease buildings which he owned in Oakland, because it was unable to find other spaces for its operations.

He said he had encouraged the firing of Superintendent Tommy Lowray of the Public Schools of Robeson County and the effort by six board members to hire Virginia-based educator Thomas Graves.