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.

National Assessment of Educational Progress 1969-1983
National Assessment of Educational Progress 1969-1983

Author: Theodore B. Pratt

Publisher:

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13:

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During its first 14 years of existence, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was located at the Education Commission of the States (ECS). This annotated bibliography of 575 references lists all major publications by or about NAEP published between 1969 and 1983. References are in a classified arrangement, by specific or special assessment. Documents not dealing with a specific assessment are grouped by: Methodological Publications; Special Analyses; and General and Miscellaneous. Materials by NAEP are separated from materials about NAEP done by external organizations. Subject, Personal Author, and Preparing Institution indexes are provided. The compilation is based on materials (documents and journal articles) archived in the database of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), and therefore most documents cited can be obtained through the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). (WTB)

Evaluation of the Achievement Levels for Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress
Evaluation of the Achievement Levels for Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-04-12

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0309438209

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Since 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been providing policymakers, educators, and the public with reports on academic performance and progress of the nation's students. The assessment is given periodically in a variety of subjects: mathematics, reading, writing, science, the arts, civics, economics, geography, U.S. history, and technology and engineering literacy. NAEP is given to representative samples of students across the U.S. to assess the educational progress of the nation as a whole. Since 1992, NAEP results have been reported in relation to three achievement levels: basic, proficient, and advanced. However, the use of achievement levels has provoked controversy and disagreement, and evaluators have identified numerous concerns. This publication evaluates the NAEP student achievement levels in reading and mathematics in grades 4, 8, and 12 to determine whether the achievement levels are reasonable, reliable, valid, and informative to the public, and recommends ways that the setting and use of achievement levels can be improved.

Examining a Decade of Reading and Mathematics Student Achievement Among Primary and Secondary Traditional Public School and Charter School Students
Examining a Decade of Reading and Mathematics Student Achievement Among Primary and Secondary Traditional Public School and Charter School Students

Author: Matthew J. Erickson

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13:

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Over the last decade, the focus on student achievement in America's public schools has dramatically increased. The pressure to perform and show growth in student achievement has been challenging due to increased levels of competition through school choice across the nation. Charter schools are one of the most recent education reform movements designed to increase accountability, innovation, and competition. Since the adoption of the first charter law was passed in Minnesota in 1991, the number of charter schools has grown rapidly across the nation. "Charter schools have recast the definition of public school and have presented the field of education with its greatest challenge" (Murphy & Dunn, 2002, p. 1). According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, there are currently over 5,000 charter schools that operate in 42 states and the District of Columbia, serving more than 1.6 million students ("Charter schools 101:," 2012). Students across the country have the option to attend charter schools or remain in the home school district. Parents and students are challenged to make a choice of which educational avenue is best for their family and must weigh all of the advantages and disadvantages to see which may produce the greatest outcomes and meet the needs of a diverse student population. Parents and students are challenged to make a choice of which educational avenue is best for their family and must weigh all of the advantages and disadvantages to see which may produce the greatest outcomes and meet the needs of a diverse student population. The current investigation synthesizes numerous studies conducted across the nation at the elementary, middle and high school level. Meta-analytic techniques assist parents and educators in making evidence-based decisions while adding to the research supporting educational reform and promoting best practices in both educational models. This study was specifically designed to consider a number of variables in charter schools relative to traditional public schools, including socioeconomic status, English Language Learning, school competition, and eligibility for special education that may impact student mathematics and reading achievement. Analysis revealed that charter schools are producing lower achievement scores in reading and mathematics when compared to traditional public schools.