After a run of bad press about plummeting stock prices and voided contracts with districts, Edison Schools, Inc., finally seems to be hitting its stride in at least one of the districts it serves. In its third year of a "$30 million, five-year contract to manage six elementary schools and a middle school in disadvantaged areas for the Clark County, Nev. [Las Vegas] School District, [the] elementary schools reported that their math scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills increased by at least six percentile points in every grade, with the fourth-graders making a particularly impressive gain of 12 percentile points." Even better for Edison, "comparable elementary schools in the district with similar student profiles also rose, but at a slower pace." Company spokesman Adam Tucker says he was not surprised. "When you look at Edison schools that have been working with us for an extended period of time - for three, five, or seven years - we're able to show steady and consistent gains." Look for an external evaluation of Edison's effect on student achievement to be released later this year by the RAND Corporation.
"Edison scores a much-needed victory," by Steve Friess, Christian Science Monitor, March 5, 2004