Friday, October 12, 2007

IT'S PARENTS, NOT PRIVATE OR PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Posted at Asbury Park Press Online.

Whether low-income, urban students attend a public or private high school matters less to their academic success than whether their parents take part in their education, earn enough money to offer enriching experiences and have high aspirations for their kids, a study from an education advocacy group suggests.

The findings, released today by the Center on Education Policy (CEP), examine 12 years of data on more than 1,000 young people and find that they didn't get much of an advantage by attending private schools.

Though the SAT scores of students in private schools were higher than the scores of their public-school peers, their overall performance in math, reading, science and history was no better. They were no more likely to go to college or be more satisfied with their job at age 26 … they weren't even more likely to be civic-minded as adults.

"This certainly will challenge people in the presumptions that private schools are superior to public schools,'' says Jack Jennings, the center's president.

However, I would make the claim that on average, parents who are concerned about and take part in their child's education and have high aspirations for their kids are more likely to send their kids to private schools or to homeschool. Therefore, private schools are a better place to send your child if you are a parent who would prefer to try and surround your child with other kids who share the same values and ethics.

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