County poses challenges for Edison schools

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003 | 8:26 a.m.

More than 100 principals from Edison Schools Inc. campuses across the country met at The Mirage Tuesday for workshops on data management, tips for doing a five-minute school "walk through" and ways to help teachers improve their own classroom skills.

The for-profit school management company hosted two days of workshops as part of its ongoing leadership academy for principals. Now in the third year of a five-year contract, Edison manages seven Clark County campuses -- Lincoln, Crestwood, Lynch, Cahlan, Ronnow and Park elementary schools and West Middle School.

Under the terms of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools must show "adequate yearly progress" by all students or face sanctions. Park and West have been identified as "needing improvement" for posting low test scores for at least two consecutive years. Lynch and Ronnow are in the third straight year of low test scores and are working with consultants from the Nevada Department of Education on school improvement plans.

Edison has contracts in 29 states to manage schools and provide consulting services, but Clark County has posed some unique challenges, said John Chubb, chief education officer for the company, who attended the conference at The Mirage.

Since Edison arrived two and a half years ago, Nevada has switched from using the TerraNova test to the Iowa Test of Basic Skills for measuring student achievement, and has also added a new standards-based exam as required by the federal education reform.

"When the testing system is constantly evolving, it's difficult for administrators to know what to focus on because the target is constantly moving," Chubb said. "That makes it difficult for the principals, the superintendent, the school board and the public to know how things are really going."

Last year's Iowa scores set the new benchmark for Clark County schools. Students took the latest round of the exams earlier this month and scores are expected in December. While the Iowa results aren't counted toward the adequate yearly progress requirement, they are used by both the district and the state to measure progress.

Clark County School District officials have called this year's Iowa scores the "make or break" opportunity for Edison to demonstrate that its programs are working.

"We expect clear improvement," said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the Clark County School District. "If we don't see it, then we'll consider doing what needs to be done."

A panel of teachers, community members and administrators advised the School Board earlier this year to put off discussion of extending Edison's contract until the Iowa results were analyzed.

Chubb said Edison's goals are the same as the district's and that he expects scores to climb at all of the company's Clark County schools. It sometimes takes two to three years for the programs to have an impact on student scores, Chubb said.

There have been obstacles unique to Clark County that have likely hampered the company's effectiveness to at least some degree, Chubb said. Teacher turnover in Clark County is higher than anywhere else in the country that Edison operates, topping 35 percent, Chubb said. The nationwide average in Edison schools is closer to 18 percent, Chubb said.

Edison's programs depend on having a stable teaching staff comfortable with the rigors of the instructional techniques, Chubb said. When principals are faced with continual turnover, it's difficult to build the momentum needed to post gains, Chubb said.

While the Clark County jury is still out on Edison, principals from other states were full of praise for the company at Tuesday's conference.

In the five years Edison McNair Academy began serving fourth through eighth graders in East Palo Alto, Calif., Principal Ben Politzer said he has seen his students go from posting some of the lowest scores in the district to showing the biggest gains of any campus in the state.

Politzer, 31, credited Edison's rigorous curriculum, longer instructional day and the computer programs that allow teachers and administrators to track individual student achievement on a regular basis.

"We're moving in the right direction thanks to all of these tools and a very dedicated, talented teaching staff," said Politzer, who also oversees neighboring Edison Brentwood Academy, offering kindergarten through third grade. "It's about using data effectively so that you know where to put your resources."

The Clark County School District has invested in a similar multimillion-dollar data management system, that officials say will let them evaluate whether individual students are meeting state standards. The system is expected to be up and running by next year.

While Edison has touted academic achievements by its schools and new contracts, the company's fiscal picture has been murky. Edison's stock share price has fluctuated sharply in the last 18 months, dropping from a high of more than $30 to below a dollar, before climbing back up to its current price of about $1.75.

Chris Wittle, founder of Edison, said in August that he plans to return the company to private status by buying back the public stock. Edison announced in September the first quarterly net profit in the history of the 11-year-old company.