Students do better in private schools, researchers find

Last month's study didn't say anything, pro or con, about the school reform debate, but since others were interpreting it to suit their own ends, it's good to see it discredited.  However, no-one seems to be paying any attention: I checked both the NYT and WSJ web site and -- SURPRISE! -- there's no mention of Peterson's new study.

 

If anyone has a copy of Peterson's study, please email it to me.

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Students do better in private schools, researchers find

Study counters federal report

BY PAUL BASKEN

BLOOMBERG NEWS

August 3, 2006

A Harvard University study concluded that private schools perform better in 11 of 12 categories when compared with public schools, countering an Education Department report last month that suggested parity.

The study, led by Paul Peterson at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, used the original data from the report that the department's National Center for Education Statistics issued July 14 and "an improved methodology" for interpreting the data, Harvard said in a statement.

Peterson and colleague Elena Llaudet "identified a consistent, statistically significant private school advantage," Harvard said.

The Harvard study counters critics of the Bush administration, including teachers unions, who argued that the original study showed that instead of spending public money on private schools -- as supported by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings -- the government should give more money to public schools. Spellings was criticized for not paying more attention to the study.

Spellings "was nowhere to be seen or heard" when the education statistics center issued its findings July 14, Edward McElroy, president of the 1.3 million-member American Federation of Teachers, said in a July 19 statement.

Peterson's study is an attempt by a "full-fledged, unabashed voucher advocate" to undermine the center's conclusions, union spokeswoman Janet Bass said. "Don't be fooled by the Harvard halo," she said.

The center's study found that fourth- and eighth-grade public school students performed comparably with private school students in reading and math when variables such as income and race were factored out. It involved comparisons of 2003 test results from more than 5,000 public schools and more than 500 private schools.

The Harvard researchers, under their interpretation of the center's figures, found private schools performing better in 11 of 12 instances, including in eighth-grade reading and fourth-grade reading.

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Report Ranking Public School Students Above Private School Students Said ‘Flawed'

BY DEBORAH KOLBEN
August 2, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/article/37192

 

A new study by Harvard University is raising questions about a recent federal report that said public school children perform as well or better that their private school peers on national reading and mathematics tests.

 

The Harvard study released yesterday called the earlier report's analysis "flawed" and said that its findings were unreliable because it underreported the number of disadvantaged students in private schools...