Edison Schools Reports Strong Achievement Gains at Its Schools on the Federal No Child Left Behind Needs Improvement List. Monday, December 23, 2002 NCLB is the demanding new federal law, requiring every K-8 public school in America to bring all of its students to proficient levels in reading and math, within the next twelve years. Often hired by school districts and charter school boards to manage low performing schools, Edison has thirty-seven schools on state NCLB needs improvement lists. The Department of Education estimates that, under NCLB, 8,600 schools are in need of improvement. Edison can report on the academic progress at twenty-two of its NCLB schools, where state reported data and more than baseline scores are now available. These twenty-two NCLB designated schools have improved their academic achievement by an overall average of 6.1 percentage points on criterion-referenced tests and 4.3 national percentiles on norm-referenced tests, on an annualized basis. This means that since Edison began managing them, through their achievement during the 2001-2002 school year, these schools have gained an average of 6.1 percentage points on criterion-referenced tests and 4.3 national percentiles on norm-referenced tests every year, across all grade levels and subjects, on each type of test. Over the same period of time, the districts and states in which these traditionally low-performing schools are located gained 2.3 and -0.1 percentage points, respectively, on criterion-referenced tests and 1.8 and 2.1 national percentiles, respectively, on norm- referenced tests. The importance of improving achievement in the Edison schools subject to No Child Left Behind sanctions cannot be overstated," said John E. Chubb, Edison's Chief Education Officer. Low performing schools, traditionally left many students without the skills needed to succeed. At the pace they are now improving, these Edison schools will have the vast majority of their students academically proficient within the next several yearswell ahead of the ambitious schedule set by No Child Left Behind. Chubb continued, Our NCLB schools are well positioned to respond to the requirements of NCLB. Accountability, assessment, professional development, and technology have always been cornerstones of the Edison design. Edison Schools Inc. will be detailing its progress at its needs improvement No Child Left Behind schools, as well as sharing other measures of academic achievement, in its Fifth Annual Report on Student Achievement, scheduled for publication in late January 2003.
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