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

[Ghoulish Delight]

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.

"These data provide strong, longitudinal evidence that public schools are at least as effective as private schools in boosting student achievement," said researcher Christopher Lubienski of the University of Illinois.

...

This is important, he said, because many current reforms, such as No Child Left Behind, charter schools and vouchers for private schools, are based on the assumption that private schools offer better education than public schools.

[Alex]

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.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Alex

Well to be honest the study suggests that public schools are as good or slightly better at teaching pre-algebra math as Catholic schools.

Further in the story (FWIW):

Public school students also "rivaled the performance of students in other (non-Catholic) private schools," the researchers wrote.

[Alex]

Whoops, missed that sentence.

[Ghoulish Delight]

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.