“Edison is pleased that the schools in which we work are leading contributors to the district’s own impressive progress—and of course we are very proud of the principals, teachers, students, and families who worked so hard to bring about these gains,” commented John Chubb, Edison’s Chief Education Officer. “There is always more to do, and we continue to work to improve achievement. But, the past 24 months have been successful ones at 6 of our 7 Dallas schools.”

The gains in 2002 build on the progress that was made last year at the Edison-managed schools. In the two years Edison has been working at the schools, student performance has improved an average of 10.5 percentage points in reading, 16.5 points in math, and 13.0 points in writing. By comparison, DISD, also with impressive gains over the past two years, improved 10.0 points in reading, 13.6 points in math and 2.4 points in writing.

“We are encouraged that our schools have sustained improvements over two years,” said Chubb.

Six of the seven schools managed by Edison—all serving high percentages of disadvantaged students and with long histories of falling onto the state’s “low-performing schools list”—posted gains this year and are substantially ahead of where they were two years ago. Several schools are up by large amounts over two years: Edison-Medrano is up an average of 43 points across the three subjects; Edison-Maple Lawn is up an average of 18 points; and Edison Henderson is up 17 points. The latter remains “low performing” despite its gains because of a small shortfall by one subgroup in one subject. Another school, Edison-Blair, has improved 10 points in reading and 19 points in math over two years, but because of a weak writing performance also is “low performing.” Only one low performing school, Edison-Hernandez has not improved over two years.

“While it is important to have helped six schools advance by significant margins, we will not be satisfied until the improvements enable every student at every school to achieve proficiency or better,” Chubb continued.

The gains across the Edison-managed schools are important to Edison’s partnership with DISD. When the partnership began, the company vowed that students would improve at rates greater than comparable students at comparable schools—a vow that was reiterated in negotiations last year. The progress at Edison-managed schools would appear to have delivered on that promise.

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