A blue-ribbon team led by former Yale president Benno C. Schmidt, Jr., spent two years integrating many of the world's most successful educational practices into a comprehensive school design. The end result was the development of a strong academic program for all students that prepares them for higher education as well as success in the workplace. The curriculum places a special emphasis on ensuring that all students master the fundamentals of reading and mathematics in the primary grades. All students also take instruction in Spanish beginning in Kindergarten. Edison Project schools tailor their instruction to each student's needs and use regular, quantifiable assessments to track student progress.
Class sizes are flexible in size and composition, depending on instructional goals.
Primary classes are predominantly age-graded and fixed. The schools also use a longer school day to provide 7 hours of dedicated learning time for primary students and 8 hours for older students. Additionally, a longer school year provides at least 205 days of instruction annually. As of 1997, the Edison Project was managing 25 public schools across the country, and is hoping to double that number by 1998. About half of these schools are charter schools.