At some point the PR bubble will burst, and the public will realize that school choice solves no problems and that charters and vouchers perform no better and often worse than regular public schools.
Blogger Steve Hinnefeld analyzed Indiana’s growth scores and found that public schools usually showed greater gains than charters or religious schools.
Hinnefeld writes:
“You can download 2012-13 growth scores for all the schools in the state from the Indiana Department of Education website. Sort and rank them, and what do they show?
For Indiana’s 1,400-plus public schools, the median score – the value at which half the scores are higher and half are lower – was at the 51st percentile in math and the 50th in English. That’s about what you’d expect: Most Indiana schools are public schools, so naturally the median score will be in the middle.
For private schools reporting growth scores, median scores were at the 46th percentile in English and only the 40th percentile in math.
For charter schools, median scores were at the 46thpercentile in English and only at the 36th percentile in math.”
This is the great secret of our time: Our public schools are doing a better job than the competition.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
see also the new book The Public School Advantage, reviewed here in the Atlantic:
http://bit.ly/1j6GPRd
Are Private Schools Worth It?
A new book argues that public schools are actually academically superior.
“Sarah Theule Lubienski didn’t set out to compare public schools and private schools. A professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she was studying math instructional techniques when she discovered something surprising: Private schools—long assumed to be educationally superior—were underperforming public schools.
She called her husband, Christopher A. Lubienski, also a professor at the university. “I said, ‘This is a really weird thing,’ and I checked it and double checked it,” she remembers. The couple decided to take on a project that would ultimately disprove decades of assumptions about private and public education.”
This doesn’t really surprise me that much.
Based solely on my personal experiences, I have long harbored a secret hunch that private school students succeed in spite of their institutions, rather than because of them.
I have often seen private school teachers use antiquated and boring teacher-centered instructional strategies, underfunded PD which leads to professional stagnation among staff and funds diverted from instruction to “development”.
I haven’t read this book yet, but I’m guessing the authors make their point using test data. This makes this finding even less surprising, as private schools don’t have to focus on testing like private schools.
There is a saying that rings true for me, “Rich people select their kids’ schools with the same criterion they use to buy houses–better neighbors.”
And given the demographic makeup of so many students, these schools will use “rigorous” curriculum not because they push the kids harder but that so many of these schools are front-loaded with GT kids or precocious kids.
It pays for these schools to screen out the “riffraff.”
In these NCLB.RTTT days where grade level curiculum is etched in high stakes testing stone, some private schools offer a more individualized option. Not all parents have the luxury of having children whose brain development is compatible with what nclb.rttt defines as appropriate. I have a definite preference for public schools. High stakes testing unintended consequences were destroying my child. Escaping to a private school for a few years to escape all the high stakes testing presure kept him from completely giving up hope that he could actually learn something in school.
Some parents bail out of desperation. High stakes testing is brutal on learning disabled students.
Again we say the test is not an indicator of academic achievement, yet we use it when it is to our advantage. Public schools appear bad only because they are forced into a teach to the test mentality and an artificial assessment. Here’s the real scoop http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/accountability-with-honor-and-yes-we.html
We know what makes a great school, and it’s not necessarily good standardized test scores.
But the reform crowd has been using test data to spread the word that the public school system is “failing” to gain support for their own agenda.
Now that enough data has accumulated, we can finally say to the public, in essence, “They convinced you that this was the most important measure of educational success and they said their disruptive innovations would improve this measure but they failed to do even that. So maybe they don’t know everything.
I don’t think using test data to make cases like this is disingenuous. I think it’s a case of “live by the sword (data), die by the sword (data).”
This is just a matter of comparing apples to apples. We all know that we are just teaching kids to take tests. And sure they can spit out facts, figures and information they have committed to memory, but the house of cards starts to crumble when they go to college and can’t apply their knowledge. The point of Steve’s research is that the public schools can perform better given the measures that the reformers are placing on them. So now we have data that compares our apples to the apples of the reformers and we still beat the pants off of them.
Found on Daily KOS…”from one of the many times he (Pat Paulsen) ran for President:
We’ve Upped Our Standards, Now Up Yours!”
Nice
Sent from my iPhone
Dr. Ratvich’s distinction between “evidenced based” reforms and “faith-based reforms” is pertinent to this posting. Those is command of our educational ship —Arnie Duncan, Governors, and the our legislative bodies, have long ago given up on evidence based research —just think of the debate over climate change—and are much more comfortable with faith based reform — the more you believe the more it will succeed. The justification for failed attempts at merit pay, vouchers, charter schools, is a lack of faith. Of course no other profession must succumb to this form of justification. I am sure that those in the educational establishment would seek out a second opinion from a Doctor offering faith based solutions to a life-threatening medical diagnosis. But there are no second opinions allowed in present faith-based reform paradigm.
I happen to live in Indiana, and yes, I consult for private schools. Test scores should not be the reason one enrolls in a private or public school, but rather it should be the values, experiences and curricula used in either setting. If you want your child to have super small classes sizes, not be data tracked and have tons of recess time, then choose accordingly. If you want your child to go to a neighborhood school, have access to the latest technology and take multiple test, then you might choose something differently. The choice should be the parent makes, and if they desire a Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Muslim or Jewish education, they should make that with the choice of the finances offered by their family and their school, not the government’s checkbook! There are obvious advantages that the faith-based and secular-private schools offer urban children in my neighborhood; recess and hands-on education. I worked in more than one Indiana public school system that outlawed kindergarten recess. The young 5-and-6 years were reduced to sitting at a desk for more 6 hours, completing worksheets. The faith-based and private-secular, along with the rural and suburban public schools, allow students access to fun-centered based reading and math activities, science centers and technology programs, where these youngsters don’t have to be glued to a seat.
One thing that people really need to think about is the “test scores are driven by money.” The majority of the families with children at faith-based schools don’t have a ton on their bank account, just enough to send their kids to the local Catholic, Baptist or Lutheran school. There are numerous schools around me that provide an education at less than $3,000, which most middle income earners can afford. The truly private schools that were not included in the results, and don’t take vouchers, charge more than $15,000 for kindergarten. And, the later usually pay top-notch for teachers and can afford to find the “best and brightest” teachers.
One local private school for LD students tuition is $24,000/yr.
JED – Parents in Indiana have choices within the public school system if they need them. I work in a suburban school district outside of Indianapolis and we have several parents that bring their kids to our school for a variety of reasons. We have also taken a huge financial hit because of the vouchers. I am glad to see that you don’t believe the taxpayers should pay for private education, but choice is something that parents make when they locate in a particular community. And in Indiana those that feel trapped in a particular school system can go to another without cost. Private schools can offer something for the parent that feels the public school doesn’t offer, but it is time we recognize that they are not the answer for cultural problems such as poverty and inequality. The politicians (well just one – Pence) that are determined to destroy public education will not rest until every kid in Indiana is attending a religious school without licensed teachers, a private/charter school that is run by a meg-corporation where kids sit in cubicles all day or online home schools where parents can rake in thousands to keep their kids at home and neglect their education.
“choice is something that parents make when they locate in a particular community.”
People choose the best community they can afford. Not everyone can afford the community that would give them the schools they want. In this respect, public schools offer no more choice than private schools. I live in Indiana too, and I don’t see any practical choice in education as described by JED in choosing the type of education you want for your child from within the public school system.
In affluent communities there is no choice in public schools, because all the schools have the resources and social capital within their communities to provide the quality services, curriculum, and teaching that being in the right zip code can provide. Whether in suburban Chicago or Indiana or Iowa, the suburban schools will pretty much resemble each other and so will the populations they serve. However, when you enter urban areas where the wealth disparity becomes up close and personal, Mayors have made the decision that the charter concept will somehow remedy the consequences of deep poverty in their cities. The reality of urban charter schools, which a number of readers have pointed out, is the redistribution of different populations, with the charter school having the advantage of selecting (skimming) the populations that will provide them with high test scores (which often are not that high). The effectiveness of public schools will always be wholly dependent on the health of the publics they reside in. There was a time in this country where the distribution of wealth resulted in a fairly even distribution of good schools. But in the last two decades more and more public schools have become victims of an economic system that sees little value in the once valued American value of that common good.
“This is the great secret of our time: Our public schools are doing a better job than the competition.”
If that statement is based on test scores then maybe the conclusion should be that public schools are just better at preparing students for high stakes tests due to the coercive effect of the NCLB and RaTT. And if that’s the case then they are not “doing a better job” but are failing in their primary mission of ensuring that “A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people. . . .” but “training” good obedient test takers.
Duane Swacker: an excellent point. A fine example of why I read all your comments.
😃
I only add that, IMHO, it is useful to couple what you point out with the searing hypocrisy of the leading charterites/privatizers who exalt allegedly hard numbers over everything else—
And by their own standards of success, their own measures of accomplishment, their own most never-to-be questioned Sacred EduMetrics, they are found wanting.
And to satisfy my idle curiosity: for the Broad Academy classes on Massaging Data & Torturing Numbers (subtitle: Managing Your Accountabully Underlings {masking tape and jackboots are optional}), is there a related P.E. class on how to get accustomed to walking and talking whilst one’s foot is planted firmly in mouth?
Or is such Rheeally possible?
On second thought, perhaps I don’t want to know.
Really.
😎
True, and I believe those schools are not taking vouchers. I may be wrong.
Diane Swacker, I think your point is good……it is a mistake to undermine the central point that there is too much trust of the high stakes testing, and the people who profit from them, in an effort to make short term arguments, which do not prove very much of anything. The ones which are succeeding through careful cherry picking and effectiveness of attrition policies are more dangerous in the long run. That trend will tend to feed upon itself, as schools automatically begin resegregating.
Joe,
Please do not confuse this Duane with Diane as she is much better looking, quite a bit more tempered and has a knowledge base way beyond mine. She’s the real thing not the rheal thing (thanks to KTA).
And although Diane grew up in the country of Texas, she’s more of a city girl whereas I’m more of a country bear!
Just the facts. Any budget impact yet`
I agree that all tyupes of schools are having the same problems. Simply changing the name makes no difference. However, when we talk about public schools scoring better, we are simply giving credence to the standardized test. We must quit shooting ourselves in the foot. The test sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!