The National Center for Education Statistics released a study Friday comparing private and public schools and factoring for socio-economic differences between the two populations. The study measured fourth grade and eighth grade reading and math achievement using the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which has been testing children for more than thirty years to provide information to policy makers. In summary, the report concludes that after factoring for population differences, there is little difference in achievement for students in public vs. private education settings.
The study is now being referenced widely in discussions of education reform, particularly in the debate over school vouchers and the overall effectiveness of charter and private schools. To its credit, the study cautions against drawing specific conclusions about the two populations due to the heterogenous populations of the schools, sample size, the fact that this is not a randomized experiment and that a student’s prior achievement is not available to determine progress. Let’s take a closer look at this study, to see what conclusions can be made.
After adjusting for socioeconomic factors, the test showed almost no difference between private and public school achievement in fourth grade reading. Eighth grade private school students, however, had a statistically significant advantage over public schooled peers (7.3 points). In math, fourth grade public schooled students outscored their private schooled peers (4.3 points). The difference for eighth graders is not statistically significant.
Without knowing more about the populations and the individual students, it is difficult to make any conclusive interpretations as to what this means. Does it mean, as many are claiming, that the public school is performing as well, and in some cases better, as the private schools? Or does it mean that the longer you spend in the public school setting, the greater the effect it has on your overall performance, leading to a general decline in scores? Combined with research done on vouchers, it would seem that the latter might be the case. Interesting in that it tracks the same children over time is this study of vouchers:
There have been eight random-assignment studies of school voucher programs, and in seven of them, the benefits for voucher recipients were statistically significant. In Milwaukee, for example, a study I conducted with two researchers from Harvard found that students awarded vouchers to attend private schools outperformed a matched control group of students in Milwaukee public schools. After four years, the voucher students had reading scores six percentile points above the control group, and standardized math results 11 percentile points higher. All of the students in this study (which is mirrored by other research) were low-income and Hispanic or African American. — Education Myths
Tom Loveless has pointed out in a paper for the Brookings Institution that the NAEP mathematics test does a poor job of measuring the skills that it is purported to measure. Calculator use is allowed throughout, so it does not measure basic arithmetic ability. More advanced topics such as algebra with fractions, are also all but absent, making it a poor test of these more advanced skills. If there are differences in either of these important areas between the sectors, the NAEP will not pick it up. It is natural for scholars to want to analyze the data they have, but readers should be aware of the shortcomings of those data as a measure of both basic and advanced mathematical ability. — Cato@Liberty
Another factor to consider is the different teaching methodology which exists between public vs. private school. Public schools have long been driven by standardized tests and use them widely as assessment tools. By the fourth grade, the public schooled student has a strong familiarity with this method of assessment. How much of the advantage shown to the public schools in fourth grade could be attributable to the students’ familiarity with the testing format?
In the summary (page iv), the report notes:
For all four analyses, with student characteristics such as gender and race/ethnicity incorporated in the model, the inclusion of school characteristics (e.g., teacher experience, type of school location, school size) had little impact on the estimate of the average difference between the two types of schools.
With all the emphasis on the physical environment of the school, it is interesting to note that it hardly factors into the equation of test performance. Many people assume that private schools have the advantage in this area, but that is not necessarily the case. They do tend toward smaller class sizes, but in other measures of “quality” classrooms, public schools often have the advantage. Consider the following:
The average public school spends $8,287 per student. The average private school spends $4,689 per student.
Public schools place a higher emphasis on teacher certification. The practice varies among private schools, depending largely on whether the school is accredited.
Public school teachers earn 25% to 100% more than private school teachers.
With increasing pressure on the public schools to perform in the reading and math assessments, more class time is being devoted to these subjects, often to the exclusion of other subjects. One common model provides 180 minutes per day for literacy instruction and 90 minutes for math instruction. That is 4.5 hours of the school day before PE, lunch and other interruptions to the school day, leaving little time for any other subject. Private schools manage to teach literacy and math while also teaching science, history, bible (presumably, at least in parochial schools) as well as art and music.
While private school may not offer a panacea for all of our nation’s education woes, it definitely provides a quality, cost-effective education to students from a variety of backgrounds. Increasing the choices available to students through “school choice” or “voucher” programs helps give real educational opportunities to children who otherwise would be stuck in their district.
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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Jim
Jul 18, 2006
Using the report, can you show me any statistically significant “general decline in scores,” controlling for student characteristics, that you claim is present between the 4th and 8th grades? I do not find evidence for this claim in the study. I could be wrong, in which case I would be glad to see reference to the finding you assert is there.
It looks like you’re upset with the report’s lack of concordance with your libertarian ideology, and trying to find holes in it accordingly.
Dana
Jul 18, 2006
I’m not upset about anything other than people saying the report says things that it does not say. First off, I did not claim that there was a general decline in scores. This study does not track the same students over time. What you cite is a question i posited. Look at the statistics the report cites. It is right in the summary at the beginning, and repeated here. In fourth grade reading, there is no statistically significant difference between public and private schooled students. In the eighth grade, there is, with private schooled children scoring on average 7.3 points higher AFTER the adjustments. In math, to reiterate, we see the public school with a 4.3 point advantage in 4th grade, a difference which disappears by eighth grade, with no statistically significant difference in scores. That is directly from the study, and cited above. I read no more into that than what is there and pose a few questions as to what that really means. Taken together with other research which has tracked the same students over time after being pulled from public schools due to failure and placed in a private school, there were statistically significant improvements, as was cited above and at least one other example is given in the link.
Can you show me conclusive evidence from this study which answers my questions regarding what it actually means? My “libertarian ideology” has nothing to do with the raw differences in the scores and I wonder how you missed that if you did indeed read the study.
Nikhil Rao
Jul 18, 2006
Even if it’s a wash, the fact that public school spends 40-50% more per child as private school indicates to me that all things really aren’t equal.
Private schools are more efficient with their money, perhaps because they do have to compete for it. If they had as much to spend per student as public school, who knows how much better they’d be.
Dana
Jul 18, 2006
I agree. And who knows how much more efficient public schools would be if they had to disclose their spending and had to compete for their money.
J. Bruno
Jul 18, 2006
I don’t know guys, I never really had a problem with public schools… except for that your house gets taken away if you refuse to subsidize them, regardless of whether or not you have kids. Oh, and the forceful expropriation of the first eighteen years of my life.
That’s just the libertarian juice talking, though! I’m so drunk on it, I can no longer be trusted to obediently ignore the guns pointed at my head!
Michael Hampton
Jul 18, 2006
Once you take the red pill, there’s no turning back.
Dana
Jul 19, 2006
I don’t have a major problem with public schools, either…ok, I do in some regards, but that is a completely separate issue. It really depends on what your goal in educaation is. Overall, however, I think some of the complaints about school performance is more about trying to convince tax payers to spend more money, but that is nothing more than an opinion at this point and I don’t pretend to have heaps of research to prove that. We lag behind the world in these tests, but how much does that really mean? We test all our kids, and many of those countries do not. It isn’t a fair comparison, but the results are used to qualify NCLB and our supposed need to form an edge in the global economy we already have despite years and years of these lagging scores?
And we choose to mimic our reforms off of Germany who is suffering a pretty major recession and years of staggering unemployment? How “stupid” is that, if an improved workforce is indeed our goal?
Tony
Oct 22, 2006
I came from a public school and I couldn’t figure out how to get the study to either show
or save. I am a statistic by myself!
Dana
Oct 24, 2006
It may have something to do with your browser or something else with your computer. I sometimes have difficulty loading pdf files, but it usually freezes my computer. The link above takes you to a page with summary information which includes a link to the report and also contact information to order it.
Actually, I just checked it, and my computer won’t load it, either. It froze…but as stated I frequently have that problem. I think I have issues with adobe.
Michael Hampton
Oct 24, 2006
I thought I had a problem with loading up PDF files, turned out Acrobat was broken. Once I fixed that, all was well.
Dec 21, 2006
Two years of Homeland Stupidity - Homeland Stupidity
Jerry Hill
Apr 04, 2007
One thing that has not been mentioned is the fact that public schools must educate all children to the level of proficiency. This means special needs children (10-20 percent of the school age population) and children who speak little or no English as well as many students who do not wish to be in school, but are nevertheless commanded to be there. These special populations eat up manpower, facility, and technological dollars far out of proportion to their numbers and they are, logically, the most difficult to educate. When you wonder why public schools cost more, this is your basic answer. When you remove special education students, non-English students and non-student students, you have a private school!
Dan
Oct 23, 2007
This study did nothing but confirm what many of us have known for years. As a private school grad I choose to send my kids to public schools because they really are better. At my private school we had little extras compatred to what is available for my children.
As a college teacher I can see no difference in preformance.
Heather
Oct 25, 2007
It is funny to read the blogs. I went to Catholic school and we had nothing extra. Because our school could not afford it. I choose to send my children to high energy suburban public schools and it is shocking at the extra activities that are available. When we go to schience fair there are never any private schools, at the flower show none, state band comptition out of 40 finalists there was one Lutheran school. Just yesterday was out Fine Arts Fair and there were 30 different art organizations from ice sculputure to ballet – we never got this in private school.
Jennifer
Nov 18, 2007
I have to disagree that education received in public school is equal to private school. I myself went to public school, and did not receive the high quality of education that is offered in private schools. I was taught just enough to get by in life and am paying for it now. My children all go to a private Lutheran school, and receive an education that far surpasses that of any public school in our area! I would never consider sending them to a public school. If we moved and there was not a private school to send my children to, I would either home school them, or move to another town. My children take standardized tests every year and their school is far above the national average, let alone the local average. My children in elementary school are learning what the public schools in our area are learning in High School. What does that say for the public school systems? Not alot!
Ann
Dec 14, 2007
I agree with you Jennifer! After having my 2 older children in public (both dropped out before graduation) and having my two younger children in private…well there is no comparison! One of my younger children started out in public, they put him in title 1 in grades 2 and 3, and he was failing all subjects! When I approached the teacher about holding him back she said “we don’t do that anymore because it is too detrimental to the child”…uhh…isn’t that setting them up for further failure?? I had him tested for private school and they determined that he did not need title 1 for reading(as in public school) but that he needed help with math instead. Today, 3 years later, this child has adjusted very well and even made it to the regional spelling bee! His math scores have increased also and he is right where he is supposed to be for his grade level. And yes, they are tested in this school. Our town does provide extra curricular activities (because the school can not afford them) in the form of sports (year round), art and music. I am very happy with private school and would not consider putting my children back in public. I regret that I did not pull my older children out sooner and put them in private…maybe they would have had a better chance of graduating.