October, 2002

Public Schools: Insufficient Research to Determine Effectiveness of Selected Private Education Companies

Edison, Mosaica, and Chancellor Beacon have programs that consist of both management services, such as personnel, and educational services, which they offer to schools across the nation; in the District, most of the schools managed by these companies have either adopted selected elements of their companies programs or chosen other educational programs. Each company provides services such as curriculum, assessments, parental involvement opportunities, and student and family support. They also offer a variety of organizational options, including smaller class and school sizes, as well as longer school days and school years. All of the companies allow their schools some flexibility in adapting their programs to local circumstances. The extent to which the District schools implemented all the elements of these companies educational programs varied. For example, 6 of the 10 schools managed by these companies had either partially implemented the company's curriculum or had not implemented that curriculum at all. Some schools have opted to customize the company's educational program; other schools have left in place the educational program of a company that formerly managed them. In school year 2001-02, all 10 District schools managed by these companies were charter schools with predominantly poor and minority student populations; most enrolled elementary and middle school students.

Little is known about the effectiveness of these companies programs on student achievement, parental satisfaction, parental involvement, or school climate because few rigorous studies have been conducted. While the companies publish year-to-year comparisons of standardized test scores to indicate that students in schools they manage are making academic gains, they do not present data on comparable students who are not in their programs, a necessary component of a program effectiveness study. An effectiveness study attempts to isolate the effect a program has on specific outcomes by, among other things, comparing outcomes for students in company managed schools with those of a comparable group of traditional public school students, tracking students over time, testing students before and after exposure to the company's program, and controlling for differences between these groups. Of five studies we identified concerning the three companies operating in the District, four focused only on one company. Moreover, of the five studies, one based on one school in Florida was rigorous enough to allow confidence in the findings about the programs effectiveness in that school. This particular study, using two analytical techniques, found no difference between students in the company's program and other students. The remaining studies had methodological limitations that precluded assessments about a company's effect on student achievement, parental satisfaction, parental involvement, and school climate. Additional research on one company's program is planned by an organization with experience in conducting educational evaluations.