The Public School Advantage

The Public School Advantage
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 299
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226089072
ISBN-13 : 022608907X
Rating : 4/5 (07X Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Public School Advantage by : Christopher A. Lubienski

Download or read book The Public School Advantage written by Christopher A. Lubienski and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.


The Public School Advantage Related Books

The Public School Advantage
Language: en
Pages: 299
Authors: Christopher A. Lubienski
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-11-07 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

GET EBOOK

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 ou
America's Public Schools
Language: en
Pages: 378
Authors: William J. Reese
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-04-01 - Publisher: JHU Press

GET EBOOK

In this update to his landmark publication, William J. Reese offers a comprehensive examination of the trends, theories, and practices that have shaped America�
Testing Wars in the Public Schools
Language: en
Pages: 392
Authors: William J. Reese
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-03-11 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

GET EBOOK

Written tests to evaluate students were a radical and controversial innovation when American educators began adopting them in the 1800s. Testing quickly became
Public Schools, Public Menace
Language: en
Pages: 370
Authors: Joel Turtel
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-03 - Publisher: Shawn K. Hall

GET EBOOK

The book explains why public schools are a menace to our children and waste their precious time. The book also shows why public schools are beyond repair, and s
Whose America?
Language: en
Pages: 330
Authors: Jonathan Zimmerman
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-11-30 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

GET EBOOK

What do America's children learn about American history, American values, and human decency? Who decides? In this absorbing book, Jonathan Zimmerman tells the d