

Students from public schools do better in math than ones from private schools - phamiliar
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226093423.htm

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yardie
"the Lubienskis discovered that after holding demographic factors constant,
public school students performed just as well if not better than private
schools students on standardized math tests"

What I've gathered is that based on the same socioeconomic factors, public
schools in well-heeled neighborhoods do just as well if not better than
private schools in well-heeled neighborhoods. And now thanks to NCLB they are
basing their curriculums around state exams, and some do really well on them!

As a public school alumni, I've seen really poorly run and well run private
schools. For most things they stack up equally to public highschools. The
difference in parent involvement makes a hell of a difference. When it's your
own money on the line it takes on a different aspect than dropping junior off
at the gate.

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knightinblue
_When it's your own money on the line it takes on a different aspect than
dropping junior off at the gate_

More so than the fact that it's your own kid? I'd think that _that_ would be
the ultimate motivation for parental involvement...

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ShabbyDoo
How many things are wrong here?

1\. The only outcome measurement mentioned was standardized test scores. I
don't know about other states, but Ohio's "achievement" tests attempt to
measure minimum competency as defined by a State-wide committee. This study's
authors have implicitly decided that the proper way to measure a math
education is by the percentage of students who have obtained minimum
competency. [Unless there were some other tests used which I am unaware of, of
course] Most readers here likely have a very different definition of a good
math education.

2\. Public schools have a huge incentive to optimize upon obtaining good test
scores. Because of No Child Left Behind, public schools are under the gun to
obtain good test scores at nearly any cost. At least in Ohio, it is optional
for private schools to subject their students to standardized testing. My wife
and I toured the local Montessori school, and I asked one of the teachers if
my son would have to take Ohio's achievement tests. She thought I was
concerned that he would not, so she began to tell me that they were optional
but the curriculum would adequately prepare my son for them, etc. When I cut
her off to tell her how disgusting I found them, she started to complain about
how they hurt education and clearly shared my views.

3\. Private schools whose purpose is superior education are lumped in with
those which exist to protect youth from hearing that the earth might be more
than 6000 years old. It might very well be that academically-oriented private
schools offer far superior math programs but schools that exist for religious
reasons severely drag down the average.

>The end result, however, is students who are “prepared for the tests of 40
years ago and not the tests of today,” she said.

Is test preparation now considered the primary goal of education? I am
becoming less and less convinced that I want my children to participate in the
machine that is the US school system.

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ajuc
I wonder if this sugests that teaching in public schools is better, or that
tests are prefering students that graduated public schools.

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gthank
The article makes it rather explicit that the test has changed to be more in
line with modern curricula, at one point saying that private schools prepare
students for the tests of 40 years ago. If you admit up front that the test is
geared toward one or the other, doesn't that invalidate scores on that test as
an objective measure of comparing the two?

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balding_n_tired
It's the American Way. You pay for kids your kids go to school with, and you
have a choice of paying in private school tuition or in mortgage payments and
property tax.

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anamax
> You pay for kids your kids go to school with, and you have a choice of
> paying in private school tuition or in mortgage payments and property tax.

Actually, you almost never have a choice in the US. You "get to" pay property
tax whether or not you have kids. In most cases, tuition for private school is
completely out of pocket, which means that you're paying for a public school
that your kids aren't in AND the private school.

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richardburton
This one will be confusing for anyone in the UK because "public" is "private",
"private" is "private" and "state" is "public". Got to love the English :)

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yardie
This used to get my wife when we were in New York. Passing PS108. "What's the
PS stand for?", "Public School". "I'd never pay money to go there.","That
would be a private school."

