How Public Schools Have the Edge Over Private Schools
By Tim Walker
The fuel that drives much of the pro-market education reform agenda is the belief that public institutions are inherently inferior. Therefore, all that ails the nation’s schools, according to so-called “reformers,” can only be addressed by injecting market-based remedies into the system, or basically taking the “public” out of public education. But evidence is beginning to mount that the core assumptions behind these policies are, to say the least, unsound.A few years ago, Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski, both professors at the College of Education at the University of Illinois, analyzed two national data tests – the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – and reached a conclusion that took them by surprise.
In their new book, “The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools,” the Lubienskis explain how, after you account for the socioeconomic factors that benefit private schools, public elementary schools are, on average, more effective at teaching mathematics. Chris and Sarah Lubienski recently spoke with NEA Today about their findings, the impact of “autonomy” in private schools, and educational equity.
Your conclusions challenge the basic underpinnings of the reform movement. What’s been the reaction mark as read
How Public Schools Have the Edge Over Private Schools
By Tim Walker The fuel that drives much of the pro-market education reform agenda is the belief that public institutions are inherently inferior. Therefore, all that ails the nation’s schools, according to so-called “reformers,” can only be addressed by injecting market-based remedies into the system, or basically taking the “public” out of public education. But evidence is beginning to mount that the core assumptions behind these policies are, to say the least, unsound. A few years ago, Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski, both professors at the College of Education at the Univer
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