Edison Schools Perform Below Average in Fourteen out of Twenty States

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new report from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) finds that the academic performance of students in schools managed by Edison Schools Inc. lags significantly behind that of students in comparable public schools. In 14 out of 20 states where the company operates, Edison schools performed below average compared to public schools. These findings challenge Edison’s claims last month that its schools outpace similar schools in raising student achievement--an assertion the company made without releasing substantiating data.

Edison’s management has found that improving low achievement is an uphill struggle, said Nancy Van Meter, director of the AFT Center on Privatization. "But Edison is losing that struggle compared to regular public schools with similar students.

Edison’s Jan. 16, 2003, press release trumpets "just how superlative [Edison’s] performance is versus the norm," and promises that "more details and complete data ... [will] be reported in Edison’s Fifth Annual Report on School Performance scheduled for publication later [in January]." A month later, Edison’s report has yet to be released.

The company has a history of announcing substantial achievement gains without releasing data to verify its assertions. Edison had promised its next student performance report would for the first time include data on comparable students not in its program. Because Edison has not provided supporting information, there is no way to gauge whether its comparisons are reliable.

"This reminds me of when the Raelians recently claimed to have cloned a baby and said they would produce evidence -- eventually," Van Meter said. "Well, there’s been no delivery of evidence and no evidence of delivery."  

AFT’s findings echo numerous independent evaluations of Edison schools.  School district evaluations in Dallas, Minneapolis, and Dade County, Fla. found achievement results that were substantially lower than those reported by the company itself.  In 2001, the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University reported that Edison schools "fail to make the educational gains Edison administrators claim."  And a 2002 study by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) reports that Edison fails to include data on comparable students not in the Edison program, making it impossible for the GAO to evaluate Edison’s claims about its own performance.

The AFT report compares student performance on state assessments in 2000-01 (the most recent publicly available data) in each Edison-run school to similar schools in the state (usually 40 schools including the Edison school).  The study examines 80 Edison-run schools and approximately 3,500 comparison schools.

The average math and reading score of each Edison school in the AFT report is ranked among the comparison schools, with "1" being the lowest possible and "10" being the highest possible ranking  (by definition, the average rank of other public schools in the comparison is always "5.5").  Averaged across all states, the typical Edison school--even the company’s longer-running schools--performed below average.

• Edison schools that opened during 2000-01 averaged "3.6" in math and "3.5" in reading, well below the "5.5" average for other schools in the comparison group.

• Schools opened before 1998-99 had an average rank of "4.3" in both math and reading.  The typical Edison school improves modestly after poor first-year student achievement, but not enough to reach the average for its peer group.

• The majority of Edison schools ranked below average when student achievement was matched with comparable schools in California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

• Edison schools in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Texas ranked about average. The majority of Edison schools in Colorado ranked above average among similar schools.

Edison’s fortunes have flagged recently.  The company has lost contracts to operate 30 of 64 schools in districts that contracted with Edison in the company’s first four years.  Its stock price plummeted to 5 per cent of its historic high, prompting NASDAQ to threaten to delist Edison’s stock.   Nevertheless, Edison remains the largest private manager of U.S. public schools.  Several states have approved the company as a provider of supplemental educational services to low-performing schools under the No Child Left Behind Act.

"Edison gives itself high marks for managing schools," said Van Meter.  "Independent evaluations tell a different story and are crucial to securing accountability among private managers of public schools."

Contact the AFT national office at 202/879-4400 for a copy of the full report.