Edison Schools
Encyclopedia
EdisonLearning Inc., formerly known as Edison Schools Inc., is a for-profit
education management organization
for public schools in the United States
and the United Kingdom
. It was founded in 1992 as The Edison Project, largely the brainchild of Chris Whittle
. The initial expansion of Edison included the involvement of Tom Ingram (campaign manager and chief of staff to former Tennessee
governor and United States Secretary of Education
from 1991-1993, Lamar Alexander
), Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
, John Chubb (political scientist from the Hoover
and Brookings Institute), and Chester E. Finn, Jr.
(assistant secretary of education to former presidents Reagan
and George H.W. Bush). Originally founded around the idea of school vouchers, Edison primarily contracts with school district
s on the basis of performance partnerships, alliances, and charter school
establishment.
EdisonLearning has its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan
, New York City
.
trend. Edison claimed that it could run public schools for less money than school districts could, and that it would improve student achievement while making a profit for its shareholder
s. Edison attracted ideological support from backers of privatization and school vouchers, including the Wall Street Journal and the Hoover Institution
.
Edison Schools work on the principle of being partners with the school district
concerned. They are divided into three sub-companies: District Partners, Charter, and Alliance. In addition Edison runs afterschool programmes under the Newton brand and extended school year programmes under the Tungsten brand.
Edison has also made some headway in Britain with Edison Schools UK. Colbayns High School in Essex
was the first Edison School in that country, and received praise from OFSTED
for its progress over nine months.
Edison Schools bases its approach on ten fundamentals and various core values. The fundamentals include a better use of time (which means a longer school day and a longer school year—189 days as opposed to 180 in the standard American school) and assessments that provide accountability (including benchmark assessments and a structured portfolio and a quarterly learning contract).
for four years. The company reported only one profitable quarter while it was publicly traded. After reaching a high of close to USD
$40 per share in early 2001, shares fell to 14 cents. Also in 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged that Edison failed to disclose that as much as 41 percent of its revenue that year consisted of money that it never saw: $154 million. By 2002, Edison was courting Roger Milliken
for a possible bailout. The company was eventually taken private in 2003, in a buyout facilitated by Liberty Partners on behalf of the Florida Retirement System, which handles pension investments for the state's public school teachers; The deal valued the company at $180 million or $1.76 per share. The three pension fund trustees at the time that endorsed the deal were: Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist
, Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher
, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush
.
After losing many contracts, Edison diversified away from the management of public schools and into marketing conventional supplemental services such as testing, summer school and tutoring. Most of its new business involves providing such services rather than trying to manage schools.
In 2008, the School District of Philadelphia
, Edison's largest single client with 20 schools (Edison was originally planned to take over the entire district), later announced plans to dismiss the company as a manager, noting that it and other private firms would be eligible to reapply. By June 18 that year, Philadelphia's School Reform Commission voted to seize six schools from outside contractors— four of them run by Edison— citing lack of improvement.
EdisonLearning has not made a profit for the last 4 years and has been relying heavily on Liberty Partners for financial support. Over the last few years, Liberty Partners has replaced the senior leadership in hopes for making the company profitable.
, Ohio
, school system achieved higher gains than Edison's schools when analyzed with the methodology Edison applied to its own schools' achievement.
Edison's methods and processes were mentioned prominently in Alissa Quart's Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers (2003), when some students started a demonstration against an Edison School being built in their area, due to the commercial takeover of their public schools.
Kenneth J. Saltman's The Edison Schools: Corporate Schooling and the Assault on Public Education (Routledge, 2005) examines the efficacy of the company and raises questions about the broader social, political, and cultural implications of public schools being run for profit.
In the period the failure of Edison Schools to revolutionize education became apparent, supporters of privatized education have criticized Whittle's for entering contracts with public school districts rather than setting up completely private schools. Writing in the Wall Street Journal in 2005, James K. Glassman
stated
Profit (economics)
In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...
education management organization
For-Profit School
For-profit education refers to educational institutions operated by private, profit-seeking businesses....
for public schools in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It was founded in 1992 as The Edison Project, largely the brainchild of Chris Whittle
Chris Whittle
H. Christopher "Chris" Whittle is an American media and education entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Avenues: The World School, a planned international system of independent pre-K-12 schools. Avenues will open its first campus in New York City in fall 2012. Whittle founded Edison...
. The initial expansion of Edison included the involvement of Tom Ingram (campaign manager and chief of staff to former Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
governor and United States Secretary of Education
United States Secretary of Education
The United States Secretary of Education is the head of the Department of Education. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet, and 16th in line of United States presidential line of succession...
from 1991-1993, Lamar Alexander
Lamar Alexander
Andrew Lamar Alexander is the senior United States Senator from Tennessee and Conference Chair of the Republican Party. He was previously the 45th Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987, United States Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993 under President George H. W...
), Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
Benno Charles Schmidt, Jr. is the Chairman of Avenues: The World School, a worldwide system of for profit, private K-12 schools. He is a former president of Yale University, where he served from 1986 to 1992 as the university's sixteenth president...
, John Chubb (political scientist from the Hoover
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
and Brookings Institute), and Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Chester Evans Finn, Jr., is a former professor of education, an educational policy analyst, and a former United States Assistant Secretary of Education. He is currently the president of the nonprofit Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Washington, D.C...
(assistant secretary of education to former presidents Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and George H.W. Bush). Originally founded around the idea of school vouchers, Edison primarily contracts with school district
School district
School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.-United States:...
s on the basis of performance partnerships, alliances, and charter school
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
establishment.
EdisonLearning has its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Approach to Sex Education
Edison Schools was widely hailed at the beginning of the 21st century as the leader in what "school reformers" saw as the promising new privatizationPrivatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
trend. Edison claimed that it could run public schools for less money than school districts could, and that it would improve student achievement while making a profit for its shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
s. Edison attracted ideological support from backers of privatization and school vouchers, including the Wall Street Journal and the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
.
Edison Schools work on the principle of being partners with the school district
School district
School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.-United States:...
concerned. They are divided into three sub-companies: District Partners, Charter, and Alliance. In addition Edison runs afterschool programmes under the Newton brand and extended school year programmes under the Tungsten brand.
Edison has also made some headway in Britain with Edison Schools UK. Colbayns High School in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
was the first Edison School in that country, and received praise from OFSTED
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....
for its progress over nine months.
Edison Schools bases its approach on ten fundamentals and various core values. The fundamentals include a better use of time (which means a longer school day and a longer school year—189 days as opposed to 180 in the standard American school) and assessments that provide accountability (including benchmark assessments and a structured portfolio and a quarterly learning contract).
Expansion and contraction
Edison's stock was publicly traded on the NASDAQNASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
for four years. The company reported only one profitable quarter while it was publicly traded. After reaching a high of close to USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$40 per share in early 2001, shares fell to 14 cents. Also in 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged that Edison failed to disclose that as much as 41 percent of its revenue that year consisted of money that it never saw: $154 million. By 2002, Edison was courting Roger Milliken
Roger Milliken
Roger Milliken was a U.S. textile heir and businessman. He served as President and then CEO of his family's company, Milliken & Company, from 1947 until 2005...
for a possible bailout. The company was eventually taken private in 2003, in a buyout facilitated by Liberty Partners on behalf of the Florida Retirement System, which handles pension investments for the state's public school teachers; The deal valued the company at $180 million or $1.76 per share. The three pension fund trustees at the time that endorsed the deal were: Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist
Charlie Crist
Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General...
, Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher
Tom Gallagher
Tom Gallagher is an American politician from the U.S. state of Florida and a member of the Republican Party. Gallagher, a three-time candidate for Governor of Florida, holds the distinction of having served more years as an elected state official than any other individual in Florida history.-Early...
, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush; the younger brother of former President George W...
.
After losing many contracts, Edison diversified away from the management of public schools and into marketing conventional supplemental services such as testing, summer school and tutoring. Most of its new business involves providing such services rather than trying to manage schools.
In 2008, the School District of Philadelphia
School District of Philadelphia
The School District of Philadelphia is a school district based in the School District of Philadelphia Education Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that includes all public schools in the city of Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the eighth largest school district in the nation.The School...
, Edison's largest single client with 20 schools (Edison was originally planned to take over the entire district), later announced plans to dismiss the company as a manager, noting that it and other private firms would be eligible to reapply. By June 18 that year, Philadelphia's School Reform Commission voted to seize six schools from outside contractors— four of them run by Edison— citing lack of improvement.
EdisonLearning has not made a profit for the last 4 years and has been relying heavily on Liberty Partners for financial support. Over the last few years, Liberty Partners has replaced the senior leadership in hopes for making the company profitable.
Criticism
Edison's educational and financial performance has been the subject of criticism. Despite initial promises of costs reductions client districts reported higher costs for their Edison schools. Edison's claims about academic improvement failed to live up to the company's promises. A July 2002 New York Times analysis of Edison's claims found that the troubled ClevelandCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, school system achieved higher gains than Edison's schools when analyzed with the methodology Edison applied to its own schools' achievement.
Edison's methods and processes were mentioned prominently in Alissa Quart's Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers (2003), when some students started a demonstration against an Edison School being built in their area, due to the commercial takeover of their public schools.
Kenneth J. Saltman's The Edison Schools: Corporate Schooling and the Assault on Public Education (Routledge, 2005) examines the efficacy of the company and raises questions about the broader social, political, and cultural implications of public schools being run for profit.
In the period the failure of Edison Schools to revolutionize education became apparent, supporters of privatized education have criticized Whittle's for entering contracts with public school districts rather than setting up completely private schools. Writing in the Wall Street Journal in 2005, James K. Glassman
James K. Glassman
James K. Glassman is an American conservative editorialist, journalist, diplomat and author. He is currently the host of the television program Ideas in Action, which airs on PBS member stations across the country. On December 11, 2007 Glassman was nominated by President George W...
stated
Today, instead of owning 1,000 private schools, Edison merely manages 157 public ones.
What happened? Edison had nowhere near the funding to construct such a gigantic enterprise so quickly, and Mr. Whittle and Mr. Schmidt lacked management skills and patience. After early setbacks in starting his private schools, Mr. Whittle decided to switch focus entirely and sought management contracts from urban school boards. With no experience dealing with big-city unions and politicians, Edison blundered into disaster after disaster. "Too often," writes Mr. Whittle, "what rules schools is politics, not grades." He should have recognized that fact earlier and stuck to creating his own low-cost schools.
See also
- Annenberg FoundationAnnenberg FoundationThe Annenberg Foundation is a private foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world...
- Mark Schweiker