Clark County School District drops EdisonLearning contract
After years of mixed performances and three contract extensions, EdisonLearning no longer will be overseeing seven Clark County elementary schools.
Clark County School District officials have decided not to extend the contract again.
“Thirteen years is a long time,” the district’s chief student achievement officer, Mike Barton, said Thursday. “Once we get set up for success, it’s time to look for other possibilities.”
The principals, teachers and support staff at the schools won’t change as the district resumes control of the seven schools, he said. The company probably will be retained for certain services, including assessments, but it won’t manage the schools anymore, Barton said.
“I don’t think the children and community will notice any change at all,” he said.
He said officials will continue running the schools on extended days and draft a plan, to be approved by the Clark County School Board, that will transition the schools back to district management.
In 2001, School District officials hired the New York-based for-profit company, recently bought out by another educational services provider, Catapult Learning, to improve student performance at struggling schools.
The company has been managing Cahlan, Crestwood, Lincoln, Lynch, Park, Ronnow and Elizondo elementary schools for more than a decade.
The company usually returns operations to districts after three or four years, EdisonLearning Chief Operating Officer Thom Jackson said in 2012 when the School Board extended the company’s contract for two years despite lackluster student performance. The contract ends in June.
At the time of the 2012 extension approval, about half of the students on average were at grade level in English skills, according to the Nevada Department of Education. Proficiency rates hovered between 44 percent to 76 percent for mathematics but fell to 18 percent to 44 percent in writing.
Some of the schools posted improvements in recent years. What was 46 percent of Elizondo third-graders testing at grade level in math in 2010-2011 rose to 73 percent in 2012-2013. But Crestwood’s pass rate fell from 80 percent to 58 percent during the same period.
The schools’ principals were consulted before deciding to abandon Edison management, school district spokeswoman Kirsten Searer said.
Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.
