By Tali Woodward

Student performance on standardized tests was a major marketing point when Edison Schools, the publicly traded corporation that aimed to single-handedly remake American education, won its pitch to take over a troubled Noe Valley elementary school in 1998. And promises to increase scores were a common refrain when free-market types rallied to support Edison in the face of public doubt.

What a difference a few years make.

According to scores released by the state Aug. 16, the San Francisco Unified School District posted overall gains on standardized tests this year.

But among the schools that actually fared worse was that same Noe Valley school: Edison Charter Academy. When averaged, the scores in all subjects were either stagnant or slightly lower, and certain grades showed precipitous drops.

For instance, only 16 percent of third graders received a score of "proficient" or better in math, whereas 40 percent did last year. In reading, only 16 percent tested at grade level, compared to 28 percent last year. The school – now starting its seventh year under for-profit management – remains one of the lowest-scoring in San Francisco.

The new batch of California scores came out just as national news organizations published reports that charter schools of both the for-profit and nonprofit variety tend to underperform traditional public schools. The data, which Bush's Department of Education released without announcement, was later analyzed by researchers for the American Federation of Teachers.

Edison Charter Academy might be just another struggling charter – if it hadn't also been at the center of heated national debate.

When the San Francisco school board moved in 2001 to cancel the company's charter based on evidence that teachers and students were fleeing the school, its members were widely ridiculed for being ideologically motivated. Publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and even Salon.com condemned San Francisco for seeking to expel the company, which they said offered real academic opportunity to long-neglected students. (Some of them also printed inaccurate test scores that had been provided by Edison.)

The state Board of Education then swept in and offered to sponsor the company's charter.

Today the school operates quietly as its parent company, once the darling of the right, sinks into obscurity. After several high-profile blunders, including a failed bid to manage all Philadelphia's schools and a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Edison saw its stock plummet to less than $1 a share. In 2002 the company converted itself into a privately held firm.

Edison Schools didn't return calls for comment, but in an April press release it touted improvements in scores at its schools across the country.

Even most of the conservative groups that championed Edison now admit for-profit management is unlikely to remake public schooling anytime soon. But that doesn't mean they lack an agenda – and at the very top of it is more standardized testing.

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