This is the second "Profiles" report to examine nonprofit education management organizations (EMOs). This report is modeled after the 11 annual "Profiles" that cover for-profit EMOs. While the number of schools operated by for-profit EMOs grew rapidly in the 1990s and is now leveling off, the number of schools operated by nonprofit EMOs has been…

Education management organizations, or EMOs, emerged in the early 1990s in the context of widespread interest in so-called market-based school reform proposals. Wall Street analysts coined the term EMO as an analogue to health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Proponents of EMOs claim that they bring a much needed dose of entrepreneurial spirit…

In fall 2001, Pennsylvania initiated a "friendly takeover" of the School District of Philadelphia and embarked upon what at the time was characterized as the "largest-scale privatization of public schools ever undertaken." Under the guidance of a School Reform Commission comprising members appointed by the governor and the…

This report details what happened in Philadelphia's middle schools during the Children Achieving reform effort, a comprehensive, one-size-fits-all reform project. Based on research of the program over a 5-year period, the paper explains why reforms fell short of their intended outcomes. The critical levers for change were content standards, the…

In Kentucky, the administrative roles of the superintendent and the principal have received considerable attention from state-level policymakers since the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Although there are comprehensive, ongoing assessment procedures for Kentucky principals and superintendents, there are no state-level…

This paper analyzes changes in decision-making in France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom and tries to identify trends in these countries' reforms. In general, the reforms initiated by these five countries redesigned the loci of decision-making between the government levels, modified the modes of decision at these levels, and…

In many big cities, noneducators are being asked to create rescue strategies for the public schools. In Cleveland (Ohio) and Chicago (Illinois), mayors have taken over the school systems, and in the District of Columbia and Baltimore (Maryland), reform boards have been asked to improve the schools. This book is designed to help these noneducators…