State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia

In 2002, after years of low achievement and budget crises in the School District of Philadelphia, the state of Pennsylvania launched a takeover of the district. Subsequent to the state takeover, the district adopted what is known as the “diverse provider” model, turning over the management of some of the lowest-achieving schools to for-profit and nonprofit organizations and two local universities and providing additional resources to the private managers. Philadelphia became a test case for the private management of public schools and other interventions sanctioned by the No Child Left Behind Act. State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia examines achievement effects in the privately managed schools and in two groups of schools given special support under district management, in the context of districtwide achievement trends. Four years after the state takeover, achievement results across Philadelphia had risen substantially. Within Philadelphia, the schools managed by private providers were doing neither better nor worse than districtwide achievement trends. District-managed schools given additional resources but no specific intervention were likewise doing about as well as other schools in the district. In contrast, district-managed schools given additional resources and a “restructuring” intervention showed larger achievement gains in mathematics.