Public schools as good as, if not better than, private
 

A study of math performance shows that public school students do no worse, and by some measure better, than public school students in math.

The study focused only on math because it's generally accepted that math is a subject that is learned largely at school and is less dependent on influence from home life than other subjects such as literacy.

Well to be honest the study suggests that public schools are as good or slightly better at teaching pre-algebra math as Catholic schools. While Catholic schools may make up a large population of private schools I don't think you can make that generalization of the results (which I know was in the source headline).

I'd be interested to see if the same results continue beyond pre-algabra mathematics (simple arithmetic) into mathematical subjects that are even less likely to be reinforced at home and in daily life (my mom drilled me in basic math but I don't recall ever getting a home explanation of why y=x^2 has two values of x for each value of y.

Interesting result, though.

Further in the story (FWIW):

Whoops, missed that sentence.

And on my part, whoops, somehow my mind glossed over the Catholic School restriction. Interesting.

To me what this essentially shows is pretty much what I've assumed all along: Each model has its own strength. What public schools lack in small, individualized learning environment is made up for by having curriculum that's based on and accountable to tried and tested methods of education. And vice-versa, where private schools lack the rigor of accountably effective education methods, they gain in the ability to cater to more individual needs.