Edison Schools’ first-year success will decide future

By Emily Richmond

Monday, April 1, 2002 | 11 a.m.

Back in the good old days, as 11-year-old Donald Jacobson likes to think of them, students at Crestwood Elementary School in Las Vegas would have been outside playing at 3:30 p.m., not indoors working on a travel guide to the original 13 colonies. But since Crestwood was taken over by Edison Schools Inc. last fall, things have changed.

Being an Edison student means a school day that's an hour longer than at regular Clark County schools. It also means monthly meetings between parents and teachers, frequent quizzes and at least 90 minutes of daily reading instruction.

"I don't like the longer day," Donald said, as he colored in a map of Pennsylvania. "But I guess it's better for us."

It's been a year since the Clark County School Board approved a five-year, $30 million contract with Edison Schools Inc. to take over seven at-risk campuses -- Cahlan, Crestwood, Lincoln, Lynch, Park and Ronnow elementary schools, along with West Middle School.

Although Edison's arrival was contentious, the company's first seven months in Clark County have been relatively quiet, School Board President Sheila Moulton said.

"It takes at least a year for any new school to find its groove," she said.

The success of the Edison schools this year could determine their future. If the school board is satisfied with Edison's initial performance, however, the number of schools operated by the firm could expand to 17 by 2005.

The contract was approved despite bitter opposition from area educators, union groups and some lawmakers. Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, and the Clark County Education Association filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to block the contract.

Williams said he has not given up fighting Edison's encroachment.

"The school district should not be relinquishing its responsibilities to a private company that came here to make money," Williams said.

The school district has also sacrificed accountability, Williams said.

"We have no clear instrument for judging these schools," he said. "Even Edison's own numbers only compare their schools against each other, not the general population."

Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, which represents the district's teachers, said she hears an equal number of complaints from teachers at Edison schools and district-supervised campuses.

Edison, which was founded in 1992, operates 136 schools in 23 states, including California, Michigan, Texas and Pennsylvania. All of the schools follow the same curriculum, use the same textbooks, and conform to the same instructional formulas. The daily schedule for Edison students at the same grade level is essentially identical -- whether it's in Las Vegas, San Francisco or Philadelphia.

What's not the same is how much Edison gets from individual school districts to spend on students. The Clark County School District allots the same per-pupil fee to regular schools and Edison campuses -- $5,447. As a condition of its contract, Edison poured $1.4 million into each of the seven schools, adding new computers, upgrading infrastructure and redesigning classrooms.

If the state would increase funding for education, contracts with outside companies such as Edison would not be necessary, Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia said. The school district, facing a $10 million shortfall in its $1.1 billion budget, would be hard pressed to come up with a similar infusion of cash, Garcia said.

Lynch-Edison Elementary School was one of four Clark County schools designated by the state Department of Education as low-performing, but that was based on the results of a basic skills exam given last September, just a month after Edison took over, Moulton said.

Sheila Jones-Mosley, principal of Lynch-Edison, said she fully expects her school's numbers on the Terra Nova Basic Skills test to rise significantly next year.

"By becoming an Edison school we've been able to add some new opportunities for our kids, for which I am very grateful," Jones-Mosley said. "We're going to take our students to the highest level."

Laverne White, regional vice president of Edison Schools, said she is pleased with how her company's seven Las Vegas campuses are progressing.

"It takes time for the teachers and students to learn the new program," White said. "Our curriculum spirals up along with the child, and the test scores should start spiraling up, as well."

Sue Bernheisel, principal of Crestwood-Edison Elementary School for eight years, said this is the first time she has had kindergarteners learn to read. The school's 950 students are about 70 percent Hispanic and, for more than half of them, English is a second language, Bernheisel said.

The difference, she said, has been the extended school day -- most of the district's kindergarten programs are about 2.5 hours, while Edison's is more than twice as long, at 5.5 hours.

"Many of our kindergarteners come to us having never seen the inside of a preschool," Bernheisel said. "We're really starting at square one with many of the children, and that extra time has clearly made a difference."

Moulton said she has heard teachers praise Edison's commitment to professional development, which includes giving staff two free periods each day to work on projects or lesson plans, plus daily team meetings and monthly workshops. Some teachers have said Edison's longer school day and additional job responsibilities merit more than the 4 percent pay increase the union bargained for, Moulton said.

Leah Riedel, a first-year teacher at Crestwood-Edison Elementary School, said having a pre-set curriculum to follow makes it easier for novices such as herself. Weekly quizzes and monthly evaluations help track student performance, Riedel said.

"The support network is amazing," Riedel said. "I wouldn't want to teach any other way."

Having all of a school's teachers following the same lesson plans relieves parents of the pressure to "shop around," said Melanie Spendlove, whose daughter is a first grader at Crestwood-Edison.

"Sometimes what your child learns depends on what the teacher likes to teach," Spendlove said. "But Edison evens out the odds that all the kids will get a balanced curriculum."

But the regimen praised by some teachers and parents is decried by Edison's strongest critics, who say it is impossible to expect every student to learn in the same way.

"It's a flawed concept," said Andrew Hagelshaw, executive director for the Center for Commercial-Free Education in Oakland, Calif. "Edison takes a McDonald's, fast-food approach, one menu for everyone. Why would anyone want their children in that type of environment?'

Hagelshaw's organization, a watchdog group based in Oakland, was created in 1994 largely in response to Channel One -- a cable network that paired educational programs with commercial sponsors. Channel One was created by David Whittle, who later founded Edison Schools Inc.

Edison Schools, based in New York, wins over communities by promising "bells and whistles," Hagelshaw said.

"They come in and say they'll get a computer for every kid," he said. "There's a lot of window dressing, but those little extras are not long-term changes."

Hagelshaw isn't the only one criticizing Edison Schools -- the company has come under fire from nearly all sides in recent months. The American Federation of Teachers has disputed Edison's claims of improved student achievement, and a report last month by Bloomberg News, a financial wire service, questioned Edison's bookkeeping -- specifically, how the company tabulated its revenue.

As a publicly traded company, Edison must disclose quarterly financial reports for its shareholders. In February Edison reported its revenue last quarter at more than $133 million, up 30 percent from a year ago.

Bloomberg News questioned Edison's inclusion of a $30 million contract with the Clark County School District as revenue. Edison actually handles less than $10 million of the funds -- the remainder is paid out directly by the school district for teacher salaries, school buses, utility bills and maintenance.

Edison officials went on the defensive, noting that the company's revenue recognition policy is the only acceptable method under professional guidelines known as the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Walter Rulffes, chief financial officer for the Clark County School District, agreed.

The school district has "no problem" with how Edison tallies its revenue, Rulffes said.

"What they're doing is a completely acceptable practice," Rulffes said.