Public School vs Private School

[Anonymous]

Has anyone looked at the report from a few years ago that said that when you control for socioeconomic status, private school students do worse that public school students?

[Anonymous]

You would need to be a little more specific - could you provide perhaps the link/author/more information on the basis for the conclusion and the controls used in the study?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

The research was done by Christopher Lubienski from the University of Illinois. They used NAEP data to come to their conclusions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/15/education/15report.html

[Anonymous]

The study is quite generic and doesn not help in terms of our unique local school choice dilemma here in DC. Obviously, there are many private schools in this country that can choose what they want to teach (reading and math or creationism and astrology). So, yes, if I sent my child to a religious school with a curriculum that had less reading/math in it then I would not expect them to learn as much as they would have in a public school that is required to teach reading/math.

In, DC, we have private schools with very challenging programs to choose between. We also are living in a city where the public school system is a mess (yes, I hope this will change under Fenty and Rhee).

I do not believe that the reading/math scores of the DC public school students at my local ES and MS are higher than those of the 4th/8th graders at Beauvoir/Sidwell/St. Albans, Maret. That is the choice I am faced with.

[Anonymous]

I think that if you separate the children by socioeconomic status, the scores will be close. There are few low and middle income kids at some of these private schools in DC, which are cherry picking students. But this study implies that even if you ignore that selection process, and look at socioeconomics, the scores are similar (actually, lower for private school). Maybe in DC there is an argument to be made, but is it the institution or the student that sets these private schools apart.
My big question, is in the suburbs, are parents being charged a lot of money for no academic difference? Are they actually hurting their children, as this study implies. I have known many children that have left private school in Mont County, and then went to public school and saw no difference, and some were behind academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that if you separate the children by socioeconomic status, the scores will be close. There are few low and middle income kids at some of these private schools in DC, which are cherry picking students. But this study implies that even if you ignore that selection process, and look at socioeconomics, the scores are similar (actually, lower for private school). Maybe in DC there is an argument to be made, but is it the institution or the student that sets these private schools apart.
My big question, is in the suburbs, are parents being charged a lot of money for no academic difference? Are they actually hurting their children, as this study implies. I have known many children that have left private school in Mont County, and then went to public school and saw no difference, and some were behind academically.

Even though we live in an area with excellent public schools, we chose to send our DS to a private school, and we are totally happy with our decision. Our research is limited to the top private schools in DC (Sidwell, St Albans, Maret, GDS, WIS) and a couple in Virginia (St stephens St Agnes and Potomac) and I have not found the scenario you have described to be the case with these schools. Also we are sending our DS to private school for reasons other than just academics which we know are very good in our local publc schools.

With respect to the suburbs, if you are convinced by the article, as you seem to be by the examples you quoted of the people you know that have fared worse in private school, then send your kids to public schools. You have to do what's best for your children

[Anonymous]

My comments are simply related to what are we getting for the tuition. If this study can be duplicated, and there is evidence that private schools are failing kids, that is a concern for consumers.

[Anonymous]

There are many considerations in choosing a school - husband and I both went to Catholic schools and have chosen the same for our kids. We agree there may be a bot of a trade off b/c there are often more opportunities in public schools, but is in any aspect to raising a child, there are many considerations for the parents.

[Anonymous]

Yes, there are many considerations, but I think that looking at only academics, it seems that private schools might not be having great success.

[Anonymous]

I don't think public v. private is the accurate question. I feel that I need to look at the particular choices that I have.
If my kids grow up to be science-oriented and get accepted in to Thomas Jefferson, I can't imagine sending them to private school instead absent some highly unusual situation. I also, however, would not even consider sending my kids to a majority of the private schools in the area, either for academic or social reasons. I think that when people think of "private school," particularly around here, they think largely of the most well-recognized schools, but there are LOTS of private schools that don't even come up on the radar on these discussion boards. I attended both an advanced tracking program at a local public school and one of the well recognized private schools in the area, and there was no comparison in my case. The private school was better for me academically and socially by a long shot. My parents really regret that they relied on living in what was reputed to have been one of the best public school systems in the country and ignored the private school option for so long. I assume that this is not the case everywhere, and I was in school here quite a while ago. As with all of these issues, I think we need to look at all of the facts in our particular situations with our particular kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, there are many considerations, but I think that looking at only academics, it seems that private schools might not be having great success.

I guess the point is that when making such a decision some parents, such as myself, do NOT look at ONLY academics.

[Anonymous]

I have heard of teachers at Primary Day, Landon, Barrie, and Bullis say that they wouldn't send their own children there for academic reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard of teachers at Primary Day, Landon, Barrie, and Bullis say that they wouldn't send their own children there for academic reasons.

Then these teachers are a part of the problem and should be ashamed of themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard of teachers at Primary Day, Landon, Barrie, and Bullis say that they wouldn't send their own children there for academic reasons.

You personally have heard these teachers make those comments? Or have they been repeated to you? What are the academic reasons they're referring to?

[Anonymous]

Yes, they've said this directly to me. At Barrie, it was lack of rigor. At Landon, it was academics not strong, parents don't care. At Primary Day, it was academics not strong, waste of money. At Bullis, it was Churchill is better. DON'T shoot the messenger.