THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 14, 1994 TAG: 9407140616
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
A Minnesota company that had bid to run public schools in Portsmouth and across the country has failed the first long-term test of its ability to improve student academic performance - at South Pointe Elementary, its flagship school in Miami Beach, Fla.
The company, Education Alternatives Inc., has cited the South Pointe School as the ``best single example'' of its track record in helping to improve public education and has claimed impressive results. But results of a three-year comparative study show no significant advancement for South Pointe students, Dade County school officials said.
The study tracked the test scores of the students who were in the company's program for three full years and found that they advanced at about the same rate as similar students at a regular elementary school. Attendance was somewhat higher at South Pointe, however.
EAI signed a contract with Dade in 1990 and took over South Pointe, a new building, in 1991. EAI was one of four school-management companies whose proposals were rejected last month by a Portsmouth review committee investigating privatization plans.
Portsmouth is now fine-tuning its original request for proposals - which Superintendent Richard D. Trumble said would include tougher requirements. Trumble, who spearheaded the effort, hopes to have another set of finalists before the School Board by summer's end.
``We are indeed searching for reforms that improve student achievement and when results come back from districts that are doing some of the things we're considering - results that indicate they're not getting the results they hoped for - it's certainly something that has to be considered,'' Trumble said Wednesday, referring to the Dade findings.
Dade schools Superintendent Octavio Visiedo said he likes the company's teaching program, ``but to think that Education Alternatives is the answer to the woes of public education . . . is absolutely ludicrous,'' he said.
Visiedo said the South Pointe results should quiet those who contend that the private approach to education is the answer. The company declined to comment on the findings.
The South Pointe results are among a series of recent setbacks for the company, perhaps the farthest along in managing public schools:
Last month, the company acknowledged that it had falsely reported some test scores in Baltimore, where it manages all or part of the operations of 12 schools.
Later, Baltimore released its own results showing the company had not significantly improved test scores in the first two years of its contract. The city has since delayed plans to expand EAI's role.
State education officials in Maryland last month concluded that Education Alternatives had violated some federal requirements for meeting the needs of learning-impaired students at one of its Baltimore schools.
Then, in Hartford, Conn., officials backed off plans to have Education Alternatives run its entire school system and budget for five years. Instead, they have called for competitive bids from several companies - including Education Alternatives - to serve primarily as a consultant for one year, for no guaranteed fee, with the possibility of increased involvement later.
In Dade County, EAI has raised extra money for South Pointe, trained its teachers and bought computer equipment for the school. But the county actually administers the school.
Superintendent Visiedo praised EAI's teaching program for its solid educational techniques as well as its emphasis on teacher training and parental participation. He attributed its failure at South Pointe to the ``immense'' challenges facing all of public education.
Still, he rejected repeated proposals by the company to actually run one or more schools. He said his managers are as competent as any private managers.
KEYWORDS: SCHOOL
by CNB