General Accounting Office
October 29, 2002
Simultaneously disappointing critics of for-profit education and deflating education management organizations' (EMOs) claims of remarkable student progress, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has determined that no conclusions can be drawn about the academic performance, parental satisfaction, parental involvement or school climate in charter schools managed by EMOs. Reviewing research on three for-profit EMOs - Edison Schools, Mosaica Education and Chancellor Beacon Academies - the GAO noted that all but one study suffered from methodological problems, such as lack of a proper comparison group, incomplete data, or failure to study results over a sufficient period of time. (The lone methodologically sound study showed no significant difference between student performance at an Edison school in Florida and comparable public schools.) Despite its unsatisfying "conclusion," this report is useful for its summary of the EMOs' programs and curricula. It also highlights several critical points about EMO-managed charters and charter schools in general: more such schools are needed; those that exist must be given time to demonstrate their successes (or failures); and all schools must release data and be open to evaluation. Only then can we have an informed debate about the benefits of school choice and the role of profit-making firms in education. The report (GAO-03-11) is available online at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0311.pdf.
