Boston-Based For-Profit School Firm Falls Short on Reform.

Byline: Scott S. Greenberger

May 13--Advantage Schools Inc., a Boston-based company at the forefront of a national effort to run public schools privately, has failed to live up to its promises of academic and financial success in charter schools in at least seven states.

Across the country, Advantage has made bold commitments, vowing to make stellar students of children victimized by the worst of public education. The people behind the company -- among them, the author of Massachusetts' landmark charter school law and several other Weld-Cellucci aides -- say for-profit companies can succeed where bureaucrats have failed.

But while promising to bring higher standards and sharper management of taxpayer dollars, Advantage has misled parents about teacher qualifications, failed to consistently boost scores on high-stakes state tests, and engaged in financial practices that have prompted censure by at least two states, the Globe has found.

A sampling: At Chicago's Octavio Paz Charter School, 30 of the 33 teachers Advantage hired had only substitute certificates, according to a city official. At Jersey City's Golden Door Charter School, class sizes were a third larger than advertised, and Advantage ended up with a $600,000 deficit. And at Albany's New Covenant Charter School, more than 90 percent of the students failed New York State's reading test.

Schools in four cities -- Malden, Chicago, Albany, and Rocky Mount, N.C. -- have ended their relationships with the four-year-old company. And at least another three of the 19 charter schools Advantage has started have been plagued with problems.

Advantage has used its conservative political connections to drum up business in Massachusetts and nationwide. Cofounder Steven Wilson, a former aide to Governor William F. Weld, tapped state Board of Education member Abigail Thernstrom to serve on Advantage's academic advisory board. And businessman and leading MCAS advocate William Edgerly at one time chaired the company's board of directors.

Wilson and Edgerly could not be reached, and Thernstrom said that the advisory board never met and that she was unaware of Advantage's problems.

Advantage, which serves 9,000 students in eight states and the District of Columbia, says many of its problems reflect the…