After a year of stunning academic gains, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission has expanded its historic partnership with Edison Schools. Edison has been asked to operate two additional schools, Huey Elementary School, a K-6 school in the Southwest region, and Hartranft Elementary School, a K-8 school in the Central region. The company will now operate 22 schools in partnership with the District, with responsibility for serving approximately 12,500 District students.

"We've had the great fortune of working with incredibly talented and dedicated educators in our existing 20 partnership schools, and we're excited to welcome the Huey and Hartranft school communities into what has become a very close-knit team and high-functioning network of schools focused on student achievement, said Richard Barth, president of Edison's District Partnerships division.

Philadelphia's education reform is turning heads nationally. Its multi-pronged approach with a focus on managed instruction includes adoption of a "diverse provider model," partnering at unprecedented levels with private companies, universities and strong community groups, in an effort to increase student achievement in low-performing schools.

Philadelphia's implementation of the diverse provider model encouraged positive, non-adversarial competition under strong management by District CEO, Paul Vallas, and School Reform Commission Chair, James Nevels. And it has generated a dramatic turnaround for partnership schools. When Philadelphia launched the partnerships in 2002-2003, turning over 45 schools to outside groups to operate in partnership with the District, its proposal was highly controversial, and its decision to make Edison Schools the largest of its partners was met with protests in the streets and widespread predictions that the partnership would fail. The results, however, have been impressive. The protests have stopped, replaced by goodwill and cooperation. And student achievement is up dramatically across the board. Edison Schools contributed substantially to those gains, producing average gains of 10 points last year in both reading and math. On the whole, district-wide gains were among the largest of the nation's 50 largest school systems, according to the Council of Great City Schools.

Barth noted that, in the 20 schools Edison operates with the District, student achievement was increasing less than 1 percentage point a year in the three years preceding the partnership. Last year, achievement in those same schools was up 10 percentage points - nearly a 20-fold gain.

"Philadelphia's results show that smart city leadership and experienced school providers can make a difference," said Paul T. Hill, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

Said Barth: "We are proud to be a District partner contributing so positively to their historic progress. Philadelphia truly is leading the nation in innovative public-education improvement. We thank Chairman Nevels, the SRC and CEO Vallas for their confidence in our work, and Gov. Rendell, Speaker Perzel, Majority Leader Brightbill and all of the General Assembly, for their ongoing commitment and for providing funding for this historic endeavor."

Barth said his team's top priority this spring and summer will be to begin working with school administrators, teachers and staff, and parents and community members to prepare both schools for a successful opening in September. "We are committed to building an environment of trust and collaboration with our two new partnership schools, and working together to raise student achievement," Barth said.

Carol Martin, principal of Waring Elementary School, an Edison partnership school since 2002, said the expansion is "well deserved."

"Edison is a great organization, and the two new schools will benefit from their partnership just as we all have," said Martin, who was a longtime Philadelphia principal before joining Edison.

Its exciting to see the Edison family growing, added Dr. Don Anticoli, principal of Penn Treaty Middle School, also one of the existing 20 Edison partnership schools. "The guidance and assistance we receive from Edison is tremendous, and is well coordinated with the support structure that's effectively in place through our regional office."