Panel: Phila. District Should Question Private Management

Concluding that some privately managed public schools in Philadelphia have not delivered the same rates of improved achievement as those run by the city district, an independent committee is urging local education officials to consider shifting operation of some of the lowest-performing schools back to the district.

The recommendation from the Accountability Review Council, an independent panel established to monitor school improvement in Philadelphia, comes five years after a state takeover turned the city into a national laboratory for outside management of public schools. Its findings are similar to those released earlier last month by the RAND Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank, and Research for Action, a Philadelphia nonprofit organization.

The school district is expected later this month to release its own detailed review of the privately managed schools that will examine factors beyond progress...