Saturday, July 12, 2008

Recent Study Shows Public School “As Good As Private School” - at Least in Math…

Originally published here on June 1, 2008.

Live Science carried a story last week about a recent study by Christopher Lubienski of the University of Illinois. The study looked at math scores for about 10,000 students and, by controlling for socio-economic factors (among other things) determined that public school performed significantly better, on average, than private schools in teaching math in the elementary grades.

The study looked at math achievement scores for students in kindergarten and fifth grade.

A Kentucky blogger named Ben said this about the study:
This is at the crux of every education debate ever–Republicans are fans of private education because it introduces market forces, and Democrats scream to protect the public schools from the dangerous school vouchers, which would of course lead to mass desertions. Personally, as a product of a public school, I don’t know if private schools are better...

No Child Left Behind punishes failing schools by requiring that school districts make educational alternatives available to parents when their child's school doesn't make adequate yearly progress. While the federal law confines those alternatives to other public schools at the moment, President Bush campaigned in 1999 for the office of President on the promise of private school vouchers.

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