Edison still in the city school race

In less than a month the School Reform Commission will announce which firm -- or firms -- it will hire to help run Philadelphia's ailing public schools.

The commission has already announced which organizations, including Penn, have met their criteria for becoming one of the school system's management consultants.

Included among the firms deemed qualified is Edison Schools, Inc., a private, New York-based company that manages 136 schools nationwide.

The firm, originally hired by former Gov. Tom Ridge in August to develop solutions for the district, has long been believed to be a top choice if any part of the district is ever privatized.

And while Edison is still included as an option to manage some of the city's schools, many local groups remain opposed. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is among the opposition.

"They aren't anything more than the current education fad," said Barbara Goodman, spokeswoman for the PFT, in reference to private companies such as Edison. "They have no track record of success."

Goodman said that the problems facing Philadelphia's schools will be solved by Edison's intervention.

"Philadelphia's public schools have serious problems," Goodman commented. "The schools have the largest class sizes in the nation. You have over-sized classes in aging, crumbling facilities... Edison will do no better, if not worse, than our traditional public schools."

Despite opposition such as this, and a recent report by The New York Times that schools now run by Edison have seen a drop, rather than rise, in student test scores since the company's involvement, some remain confident in Edison's success.

The Detroit-Edison Public School Academy in Michigan is one school in which Edison has a direct hand. The school building had been closed for 20 years when Edison opened the charter school in 1998.

"Edison has been very successful at our school," Principal Stan Wheeler said. "We started from scratch, and now we're a four-star school. For a school to reach that status in three years speaks for itself. There are some schools that have been operating for 50 or 60 years that never obtain that level."

Wheeler was referring to the standards whereby the state of Michigan measures the quality of its schools. The schools are ranked from one to five stars.

But Edison, despite the controversy, Edison is being strongly considered, along with other firms and organizations.

"Right now, [the School Reform Commission] has had meetings with the firms who met the criteria. The proposals are due March 1, and the selection will be March 22," said Heidi Gold of Ross Associates, a spokeswoman for the commission.

At this point, the commission has only asked management consultants to provide their qualifications in specific areas such as staff development, curriculum review, school climate and food services. The commission may choose only one consultant, or several.

Commission staff have reviewed all the responses to the Request for Qualification, and 20 consultants were chosen as qualified candidates. The commission will be meeting with the qualified respondents prior to announcing their final selection in March.

The University of Pennsylvania is one of the organizations vying to provide management services.

While the controversy continues over who will be chosen to manage Philadelphia's schools, the commission has also been focusing their attention on the creation of a Violence and Disruption Task Force.

The task force, which thus far has only included School Reform Commission Chairman James Nevels and member Daniel Whelan, will be focusing on ways to improve the safety and security of the city's schools. The two have reviewed recent studies on school safety and met with school safety officials.

Additional members of the task force will include representatives from educational and city and state governmental organizations.

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