New forms of governing and managing public schools have proliferated in recent years, spawning the establishment and growth of companies that operate public schools under contract. Among these education management organizations, or EMOs, the largest and most visible is Edison Schools, Inc., with a nationwide network in 2004-2005 of 103 managed schools, including preexisting schools contracted to Edison by districts and charter schools that Edison played a role in starting up. In 2004-2005, Edison served approximately 65,000 students in the schools it managed and tens of thousands of additional students through other initiatives. The entry of EMOs, many of which operate as for-profit companies, into the public education system has generated fierce debate, and Edison has been the focus of much of that debate. To date, however, there has been little empirical evidence regarding EMOs' effects on schools and students. In 2000, Edison asked the RAND Corporation to conduct a comprehensive analysis of its achievement outcomes and its design implementation. RAND designed an evaluation to address the following research questions: (1) What are Edison's strategies for promoting student achievement in the schools it manages? (2) How are Edison's strategies implemented in the schools it manages? (3) How does Edison's management of schools affect student achievement?; and (4) What factors explain differences in achievement trends among Edison schools? The following chapters are included in this document: (1) "Introduction" (Laura S. Hamilton and Brian P. Gill); (2) "A Brief History of Edison Schools and a Review of Existing Literature" (Julie A. Marsh, Ron W. Zimmer, Deanna Hill, and Brian P. Gill); (3) "Inspiration: Edison's Strategies for 'World-Class' Education" (Brian P. Gill, Julie A. Marsh, Deanna Hill, Laura S. Hamilton, and Shana Pribesh); (4) "Perspiration: The Edison Model in the Schools" (Brian P. Gill, Julie A. Marsh, Deanna Hill, Shana Pribesh, Ron W. Zimmer, and Laura S. Hamilton); (5) "Methodology for Examining Academic Achievement in Edison Schools" (J. R. Lockwood, Laura S. Hamilton, Brian P. Gill, and Ron W. Zimmer); (6) "Time: Effects of Edison Management on Academic Achievement" (Laura S. Hamilton, J. R. Lockwood, Brian P. Gill, and Ron W. Zimmer); (7) "Inside the Black Box: Differences in Achievement Among Edison Schools" (Brian P. Gill, Laura S. Hamilton, J. R. Lockwood, and Ron W. Zimmer); and (8) "Conclusions and Implications" (Laura S. Hamilton and Brian P. Gill). Appended are: (1) Causal Inference in the Analysis of Academic Achievement in Edison Schools; (2) Analyses in Which Each Edison School Was Included; (3) Calculating Standard Errors for Estimated Effects; (4) Comparison of Traditional and Rank-Based Z-Scores; (5) Comparison of Gain Score Method to an Alternative Approach Using Predicted Level Scores; (6) Comparison of Schools with Large and Small Enrollment Change Between Y0 and Y1; (7) Changes in Demographic Characteristics of Edison Students through Years Four and Five; (8) Comparison of Results for Philadelphia Schools and Other Schools; (9) Comparison of Recent Change Analyses Using District versus State Comparison Schools; (10) Comparison of Y1 and Y0 Results Using District versus State Comparison Schools; (11) Supplemental Analyses to Explore the Y0 Results; (12) Comparison of Y1 and Y0 Analyses Using a Common Set of Edison Schools; and (13) Differences in Z-Score Changes for Edison Schools That Were Managed by Edison for at Least Four Years. (Contains 15 figures and 37 tables.) [The research described in this report was conducted by RAND Education for Edison Schools, Inc.]