School Performance - Which Type Of School Does The Best Job?

Average Mathematics Proficiency of 17-year-olds in Public and Private Schools: 1978 to 1999

Private schools, unencumbered as they are by bureaucracies, unions, and burdensome state rules and regulations, are widely regarded as doing a better job of educating students. Judging by the mathematics proficiency scores shown on the chart above, this would appear to be so.¹ But it is highly motivated and higher-income families that are more likely to send their children to private schools. Can the better achievement of their children be attributable to parental motivation, education, or income?

Private-school students may score higher in mathematics proficiency, but as the chart shows, neither public-school nor private-school students perform at the "proficient" level in mathematics (see Chapter 7).

We saw in the preceding panel that homeschooled children perform best of all on standardized tests; we also saw that homeschooling is not a practical option for most students.

It is difficult to assess student achievement in charter schools because of their newness and because of variations in assessing schools. Overall, charter schools get mixed reviews. Keep in mind that charter schools tend to serve urban minority students whose test scores tend to be lower. Farrell et al. made the point in 1994, and it is still relevant: "The effective instruction of disadvantaged students is not subject to quick fixes."

Does the competition afforded by initiatives such as charter schools improve school performance? Proponents claim that wherever there is a cluster of charter schools, traditional schools have been forced to improve. Will charter schools last, or will they fizzle out in favor of the next school reform novelty? Time will tell. Already there is talk of "cyber charter schools" for the twenty-first century.

Sources: Chart: U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP Trends in Academic Progress, various years, by Educational Testing Service, in Digest of Education Statistics 2000. Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov/ April 19, 2002. Walter C. Farrell, Jr. et al. "Will privatizing schools really help inner-city students of color?" Educational Leadership. September 1994, p. 72. "Selected Readings on School Reform." Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Online. Available: http://www.edrs.com/ April 18, 2002.