In Ohio about 27,500 students currently attend schools run by for-profit and non-profit school management organizations. That number is likely to grow in coming years, so Wilson’s Learning on the Job has particular relevance to K-12 education in the Buckeye State. Wilson, founder and former CEO of Advantage Schools, puts forth a detailed biography of the individuals and organizations that have built many of America’s largest school management organizations – Edison Schools, Chancellor Beacon Academies, SABIS, National Heritage Academies (NHA), Mosaica Education, Advantage Schools, and the non-profit KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program). All but Advantage continue to operate schools, and Edison, NHA and Mosaica are currently operating schools in Ohio. SABIS operated a school in Cincinnati until 2002.
According to Wilson, the founders of these organizations came into the education business with different business models, different models of education, and different management styles and histories. Yet they shared the belief that they could accelerate student learning and ultimately outperform traditional district schools. These path-breaking organizations also bought into the notion of authority and autonomy in return for accountability. Wilson notes that these operators have had varying degrees of success and have grown acutely aware of the challenges of running high-performing schools in neighborhoods defined by concentrated poverty and myriad social ills. Wilson acknowledges that the experience humbled him and his colleagues at Advantage. He observes that “The first education entrepreneurs were sobered by the difficulty of the task.”
Despite the challenges faced by these organizations – including operating in hostile political environments – they have succeeded in at least four important ways. First, they have shown that it is possible for private enterprise to operate public schools successfully, both as businesses and as places of academic success. The challenge on the academic side—long understood by many district superintendents—is creating success across all schools and not just in isolated instances. Second, they have injected into public education the long-held American values of competition and innovation. Third, they have highlighted one of the central problems facing K-12 education generally – the problem of recruiting, retaining and rewarding high quality school leaders and teachers. Fourth, these operators have helped to demonstrate that academic success in urban schools needs to be measured not just by absolute performance but also by academic gains over time. These are significant contributions to public education, but the really exciting takeaway from Wilson’s book is that this is still a very young industry. As the lessons of these first operators are taken to heart and incorporated by current and future operators, the result should be a steadily improving collection of school models. That would mean better and more educational opportunities for America’s neediest youngsters. To get a copy of Wilson’s book go to: www.hup.harvard.edu