This Washington Post article looks at the results from Philly turning over management of 45 failing schools to private management. Overall, Edison’s 20 schools in Philadelphia averaged a gain of 10 percentage points in the portion of proficient students last year, compared with an average annual gain of less than half a percentage point in the previous seven years before Edison took over, company officials said. Other schools managed by what Philadelphia officials call educational management organizations also have showed gains on standardized tests. Twenty-three of them made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law, up from seven last year. Of course, all is not wine and roses, the article looks at different perspecitves on what has happened. And my colleage Lisa Snell’s analysis points out that Competition between public and privately managed schools in Philadelphia over the past two years has allowed all public school students to benefit from best practices and has led to overall achievement gains for Philadelphia students that are dramatically above the state average.