Fwd: [ARN-state] Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>
> Date: Sat Jul 15, 2006  7:02:41 AM US/Pacific
> To: ARN State <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>, ARN Main List 
> <arn-l@interversity.org>, arn2-strategy > <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [ARN-state] Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study
> Reply-To: ARN-state@yahoogroups.com
>
> Leave it to the Bush administration to bury a report that seriously
> undermines the credibility of its attack on public schools.
>
> The report, according to ED, is of "modest utility." Unlike every
> other piece of propaganda that flows out of Spellings' office, this
> one came without a news conference and without any commentary by 
> Maggie.
>
> According to the Times story, "The report cautions, for example,
> against concluding that children do better because of the type of
> school as opposed to unknown factors." Using precisely this logic,
> might it not also be possible -- and logical -- to caution against
> concluding that children do *worse* (on standardized tests, for
> example) not because of the type of school but to other "unknown
> factors" like inadequate healthcare and nutrition, over-crowded
> classrooms, and teachers who are overwhelmed by the task of single-
> handedly closing the achievement gap?
>
> The Times story also notes that the report qualifies its findings by
> saying that "the scores on which its findings are based reflect only
> a snapshot of student performance at a point in time and say nothing
> about individual student progress in different settings." Of course,
> standardized tests under NCLB reflect only a snapshot of student
> performance at a point in time and say nothing about individual
> student progress in different settings. How convenient that the
> argument that is used to condemn NCLB can also be used to support it.
>
> My favorite part of this story: "Joseph McTighe, executive director
> of the Council for American Private Education, an umbrella
> organization that represents 80 percent of private elementary and
> secondary schools, said the statistical analysis had little to do
> with parents’ choices on educating their children."
>
> Here's his quote of the day:
> "In the real world, private school kids outperform public school
> kids," Mr. McTighe said. "That’s the real world, and the way things
> actually are."
>
> How comforting that radical ideologues can cling to their feeble
> notions despite evidence that shows them for what they are.
>
> ---
>
>
> NY Times
> July 15, 2006
>
> Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study
>
> By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
> WASHINGTON, July 14 — The Education Department reported on Friday
> that children in public schools generally performed as well or better
> in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private
> schools. The exception was in eighth-grade reading, where the private
> school counterparts fared better.
>
> The report, which compared fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math
> scores in 2003 from nearly 7,000 public schools and more than 530
> private schools, also found that conservative Christian schools
> lagged significantly behind public schools on eighth-grade math.
>
> The study, carrying the imprimatur of the National Center for
> Education Statistics, part of the Education Department, was
> contracted to the Educational Testing Service and delivered to the
> department last year.
>
> It went through a lengthy peer review and includes an extended
> section of caveats about its limitations and calling such a
> comparison of public and private schools “of modest utility.”
>
> Its release, on a summer Friday, was made with without a news
> conference or comment from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.
>
> Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the
> union for millions of teachers, said the findings showed that public
> schools were “doing an outstanding job” and that if the results had
> been favorable to private schools, “there would have been press
> conferences and glowing statements about private schools.”
>
> “The administration has been giving public schools a beating since
> the beginning” to advance his political agenda, Mr. Weaver said, of
> promoting charter schools and taxpayer-financed vouchers for private
> schools as alternatives to failing traditional public schools.
>
> A spokesman for the Education Department, Chad Colby, offered no
> praise for public schools and said he did not expect the findings to
> influence policy. Mr. Colby emphasized the caveat, “An overall
> comparison of the two types of schools is of modest utility.”
>
> “We’re not just for public schools or private schools,’’ he said.
> “We’re for good schools.”
>
> The report mirrors and expands on similar findings this year by
> Christopher and Sarah Theule Lubienski, a husband-and-wife team at
> the University of Illinois who examined just math scores. The new
> study looked at reading scores, too.
>
> The study, along with one of charter schools, was commissioned by the
> former head of the national Center for Education Statistics, Robert
> Lerner, an appointee of President Bush, at a time preliminary data
> suggested that charter schools, which are given public money but are
> run by private groups, fared no better at educating children than
> traditional public schools.
>
> Proponents of charter schools had said the data did not take into
> account the predominance of children in their schools who had already
> had problems in neighborhood schools.
>
> The two new studies put test scores in context by studying the
> children’s backgrounds and taking into account factors like race,
> ethnicity, income and parents’ educational backgrounds to make the
> comparisons more meaningful. The extended study of charter schools
> has not been released.
>
> Findings favorable to private schools would likely have given a lift
> to administration efforts to offer children in ailing public schools
> the option of attending private schools.
>
> An Education Department official who insisted on anonymity because of
> the climate surrounding the report, said researchers were "extra
> cautious" in reviewing it and were aware of its “political 
> sensitivity.”
>
> The official said the warning against drawing unsupported conclusions
> was expanded somewhat as the report went through in the review.
>
> The report cautions, for example, against concluding that children do
> better because of the type of school as opposed to unknown factors.
> It also warns of great variations of performance among private
> schools, making a blanket comparison of public and private schools
> “of modest utility.” And the scores on which its findings are based
> reflect only a snapshot of student performance at a point in time and
> say nothing about individual student progress in different settings.
>
> Arnold Goldstein of the National Center for Education Statistics said
> that the review was meticulous, but that it was not unusual for the
> center.
>
> Mr. Goldstein said there was no political pressure to alter the
> findings.
>
> Students in private schools typically score higher than those in
> public schools, a finding confirmed in the study. The report then dug
> deeper to compare students of like racial, economic and social
> backgrounds. When it did that, the private school advantage
> disappeared in all areas except eighth-grade reading.
>
> The report separated private schools by type and found that among
> private school students, those in Lutheran schools performed best,
> while those in conservative Christian schools did worst.
>
> In eighth-grade reading, children in conservative Christian schools
> scored no better than comparable children in public schools.
>
> In eighth-grade math, children in Lutheran schools scored
> significantly better than children in public schools, but those in
> conservative Christian schools fared worse.
>
> Joseph McTighe, executive director of the Council for American
> Private Education, an umbrella organization that represents 80
> percent of private elementary and secondary schools, said the
> statistical analysis had little to do with parents’ choices on
> educating their children.
>
> "In the real world, private school kids outperform public school
> kids," Mr. McTighe said. "That’s the real world, and the way things
> actually are."
>
> Two weeks ago, the American Federation of Teachers, on its Web log,
> predicted that the report would be released on a Friday, suggesting
> that the Bush administration saw it as "bad news to be buried at the
> bottom of the news cycle."
>
> The deputy director for administration and policy at the Institute of
> Education Sciences, Sue Betka, said the report was not released so it
> would go unnoticed. Ms. Betka said her office typically gave senior
> officials two weeks’ notice before releasing reports. "The report was
> ready two weeks ago Friday,’’ she said, “and so today was the first
> day, according to longstanding practice, that it could come out."
>
>
>
>
>
>
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