The Public School Advantage

The Public School Advantage

Author: Christopher A. Lubienski

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-11-07

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 022608907X

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Nearly the whole of America’s partisan politics centers on a single question: Can markets solve our social problems? And for years this question has played out ferociously in the debates about how we should educate our children. From the growth of vouchers and charter schools to the implementation of No Child Left Behind, policy makers have increasingly turned to market-based models to help improve our schools, believing that private institutions—because they are competitively driven—are better than public ones. With The Public School Advantage, Christopher A. and Sarah Theule Lubienski offer powerful evidence to undercut this belief, showing that public schools in fact outperform private ones. For decades research showing that students at private schools perform better than students at public ones has been used to promote the benefits of the private sector in education, including vouchers and charter schools—but much of these data are now nearly half a century old. Drawing on two recent, large-scale, and nationally representative databases, the Lubienskis show that any benefit seen in private school performance now is more than explained by demographics. Private schools have higher scores not because they are better institutions but because their students largely come from more privileged backgrounds that offer greater educational support. After correcting for demographics, the Lubienskis go on to show that gains in student achievement at public schools are at least as great and often greater than those at private ones. Even more surprising, they show that the very mechanism that market-based reformers champion—autonomy—may be the crucial factor that prevents private schools from performing better. Alternatively, those practices that these reformers castigate, such as teacher certification and professional reforms of curriculum and instruction, turn out to have a significant effect on school improvement. Despite our politics, we all agree on the fundamental fact: education deserves our utmost care. The Public School Advantage offers exactly that. By examining schools within the diversity of populations in which they actually operate, it provides not ideologies but facts. And the facts say it clearly: education is better off when provided for the public by the public.


ILTS School Social Worker (184) Exam Secrets Study Guide

ILTS School Social Worker (184) Exam Secrets Study Guide

Author: Ilts Exam Secrets Test Prep

Publisher: Mometrix Media Llc

Published: 2014-03-31

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9781627330886

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***Includes Practice Test Questions*** ILTS School Social Worker (184) Exam Secrets helps you ace the Illinois Licensure Testing System, without weeks and months of endless studying. Our comprehensive ILTS School Social Worker (184) Exam Secrets study guide is written by our exam experts, who painstakingly researched every topic and concept that you need to know to ace your test. Our original research reveals specific weaknesses that you can exploit to increase your exam score more than you've ever imagined. ILTS School Social Worker (184) Exam Secrets includes: The 5 Secret Keys to ILTS Test Success: Time is Your Greatest Enemy, Guessing is Not Guesswork, Practice Smarter, Not Harder, Prepare, Don't Procrastinate, Test Yourself; Introduction to the ILTS Test Series including: ILTS Assessment Explanation, Two Kinds of ILTS Assessments; A comprehensive General Strategy review including: Make Predictions, Answer the Question, Benchmark, Valid Information, Avoid Fact Traps, Milk the Question, The Trap of Familiarity, Eliminate Answers, Tough Questions, Brainstorm, Read Carefully, Face Value, Prefixes, Hedge Phrases, Switchback Words, New Information, Time Management, Contextual Clues, Don't Panic, Pace Yourself, Answer Selection, Check Your Work, Beware of Directly Quoted Answers, Slang, Extreme Statements, Answer Choice Families; Along with a complete, in-depth study guide for your specific ILTS test, and much more...


Colleges That Change Lives

Colleges That Change Lives

Author: Loren Pope

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-07-25

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1101221348

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Prospective college students and their parents have been relying on Loren Pope's expertise since 1995, when he published the first edition of this indispensable guide. This new edition profiles 41 colleges—all of which outdo the Ivies and research universities in producing performers, not only among A students but also among those who get Bs and Cs. Contents include: Evaluations of each school's program and "personality" Candid assessments by students, professors, and deans Information on the progress of graduates This new edition not only revisits schools listed in previous volumes to give readers a comprehensive assessment, it also addresses such issues as homeschooling, learning disabilities, and single-sex education.