Profiles of For-Profit Education Management Organizations: Twelfth Annual Report, 2009-2010

The 2009-2010 school year marked another year of relatively slow growth in the for-profit education management industry. The greatest increase in profiled companies occurred in the category of small EMOs (education management organizations) (i.e., EMOs that manage three or fewer schools). The authors believe their key finding from the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 report, i.e., that the growth of the EMO sector is slowing, still holds true for the 2009-2010 academic year overall. While the number of new schools under for-profit EMO management has slowed, the enrollments in these schools continue to grow at a more rapid pace. This "Profiles" report shows that generally large for-profit EMOs are managing fewer schools, and that small and medium for-profit EMOs are growing. While past annual "Profiles" reports have focused on descriptive data related to the number of EMOs and schools under EMO management, this year's report adds new variables on school performance as measured by federal or state rating systems. Appendices include: (1) Reader's Guide; (2) State Resources Table; (3) EMO Responses; (4) No Longer Profiled Companies; and (5) Methods for Compiling School Profiles. (Contains 6 tables, 8 figures, and 2 footnotes.) [This paper was produced with the Study Group on Education Management Organizations.]