Comparisons of Private and Public Schools: What Can We Learn?

Author(s):  
Richard J. Murnane

The previous chapter argues that comparisons of the performance of public and private schools can be misleading. This chapter examines in detail recent research providing such comparisons with the goal of clarifying what lessons can be drawn. The chapter also explains why the recent comparisons have puzzled, and in some cases infuriated, many public school educators. I begin by providing background on the best known of the recent studies. On April 7, 1981, at a conference attended by more than four hundred educators and the press, James Coleman announced the findings of research that he had conducted with Thomas Hoffer and Sally Kilgore on public and private high schools in the United States. Their principal finding was that Catholic schools and non-Catholic private schools are more effective in helping students to acquire cognitive skills than public schools are. Coming at a time of widespread criticism of public education and presidential support for tuition tax credits for families that use private schools, this finding was widely reported in the press and evoked a range of spirited reactions. Critics and supporters responded to Coleman, Hoffer, and Kilgore’s (henceforth CHK) work with articles and editorials with lively titles such as: “Coleman Goes Private (in Public),” “Lessons for the Public Schools,” “Coleman’s Bad Report,” and “Private Schools Win a Public Vote.” Over the succeeding months CHK’s work remained visible as critiques of their research and reanalyses of the data they used appeared in a variety of journals, in some cases accompanied by lengthy responses by CHK. Another wave of interest was sparked by the publication and subsequent reviews of CHK’s High School Achievement: Public, Catholic, and Private Schools Compared, in which they presented their final research findings. As a result of the wide range of responses to CHK’s work and the numerous symposia in which CHK have debated their critics in print, there is now ample material available to any reader interested in forming a judgment about the quality of the research that produced their main conclusion.

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Nevin Gündüz ◽  
Tuğçe Taşpinar ◽  
Nurdan Demiş

The purpose of this research is to determine what the game means from the perspectives of children studying at public and private schools. Four questionnaires were applied to all the third grade parents of four schools; two public and two private schools in Ankara, and questionnaires were completed and sent back by 212 parents. A total of 32 volunteer students from four schools, 4 girls and 4 boys, who were determined according to the results of parents surveys consist of our student research group. Qualitative data were obtained by semi-structured interview technique. Content analysis technique was used for qualitative data and six main themes were created.As a result, children at private and public schools have described as ‘’the meaning of the play’’ theme, as ‘’having fun, being happy, having a good time with friends, ’learning new rules, being healthy and doing sports’’. In the research, they also stated that they play game types such as ’’rope, hide, hide and seek’’ which do not require materials in public schools while they indicated they play games such as ‘’ball, dart, taboo and technological games’’ in private schools. Children indicated that they play at school competitive games prepared by teachers in physical activities lessons. It is concluded that, there is not too much change in the meaning of the game in terms of children who study at private and public schools. Children’s type of game and materials especially change for both girls and boys and schools. Although there are purpose of "enjoy" for both of the two groups, but materials and games that used and played are different.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yazen Mahmood ◽  
◽  
Saif Younis ◽  
Tala Saeed ◽  
◽  
...  

This research aims to Identify the Total Quality Management standards and the ability to implementation theses standards in educational institutes of Kurdistan region (KRG) in Public and Private schools by ask a question : what is the reality of implementation the standards of Total Quality Management (TQM) in educational institutes of (KRG). The study take 100 sample (Sava private school and AL-Khouwa public school) and use the excel program for analysis the data and the result showed there are difference in implementation the standards between the Public schools and Private schools. The study recommended the need of sharing and disseminating concepts of implementation the standards of (TQM) between the workers in the educational sector.


Author(s):  
Mary-Michelle Upson Hirschoff

Not since the 1920s has our society faced so much controversy about public policy toward private elementary and secondary schools. Then, the major issue was whether private schools should be allowed to exist as alternatives to public schools. That issue was resolved in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, in which the Supreme Court upheld the right of parents to choose private schooling, and thus foreclosed a public monopoly. Today, our mixed system of private and public elementary and secondary education confronts increasing pressures for both fiscal and regulatory change. Most prominent in public debate are proposals for tuition tax credits and voucher systems and challenges to government regulation of private school teacher qualifications, curriculum, and admission practices (especially as the latter affect racial segregation). Two major public policy issues have replaced the issue of whether private schooling should exist at all: (1) To what extent should government encourage or discourage the choice of private schooling, that is, what balance between public and private schooling should government try to achieve? (2) What differences between private and public schooling should government promote or prohibit? Despite this change in emphasis, todays debates echo those of the 1920s in many respects. Just as the proponents of the 1920s laws restricting private schools feared that those schools would harm efforts to Americanize the children of immigrants, some argue today that private schools exacerbate social, economic, racial, religious, and ethnic divisions within the society and that aiding private schools will increase such undesirable effects. Now, as then, advocates of private schooling rest their arguments on the rights of parents to direct their children's education and on the benefits to society of diversity in schooling. Most dispute claims that private schools increase social stratification to any greater degree than do the public schools or that they are less effective in creating good citizens. One of the major factors that distinguishes today's debates from those of the 1920s is the greater attention paid to the impact of private schools on the quality of education.


2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-89
Author(s):  
Michelle A. Purdy

The school desegregation narrative often references historically white public schools as sites of massive resistance and historically white private schools as segregationist academies. Yet some historically white elite private schools or independent schools, such as The Westminster Schools (plural in name only), established in 1951 in Atlanta, Georgia, chose to desegregate. Such elite institutions, which have served as one catalyst for the creation and maintenance of social and cultural capital, became more accessible after Brown v. Board of Education through a combination of private and public decisions galvanized by larger social, political, and federal forces. Westminster's 1965 decision to consider all applicants regardless of race was emblematic of the pragmatic desegregation politics of Atlanta's city leaders during the civil rights movement and a national independent school agenda focused on recruiting black students. Drawing on institutional, local, regional, and national archival records and publications, this article examines the import of schools like Westminster to civic and business leaders, to the politics of race and desegregation occurring in large cities, and to the range of educational opportunities available in metropolitan areas. This examination yields an analysis of the leadership and politics of a southern historically white elite private school that black students desegregated in 1961.


TAYACAJA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Elizabeth Huamán Pastorelli ◽  
Carlos Alberto Choquehuanca Saldarriaga ◽  
Alberto Valenzuela Muñoz

The objective of the article has been to determine the relationship that exists between the environmental literacy of the students and their teachers of fifth and sixth grade of primary of the public and private schools of Metropolitan Lima 2019. A survey was applied to 1,396 primary education students, of whom 645 were in the fifth grade and 751 in the sixth grade and its 33 teachers, previously 11 public schools and 7 private schools were selected from all the UGELs of Metropolitan Lima area. According to the results of the research, it was concluded that there is an average level of literacy for students and teachers of 5th and 6th grade of primary education in Metropolitan Lima and a highly significant relationship between the environmental literacy of these students and their teachers , which leads to consider that, if you want to improve the literacy level of students, you must also improve the literacy level of teachers and the teaching of environmental issues be part of the school curriculum.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Alhassane Toure ◽  
Zuo Guoxin

We are in a changing society through which the equality of boys and girls has become a major scourge. In this study, we demonstrated in the first step, a comparative study between the scores of boys and girls in three different subjects (mathematics, physics and chemistry) at secondary level. The second was to conduct a survey through a questionnaire on the satisfaction of parents on the two types of schools (public and private) and their realization in the exact sciences. The investigation put into account the fact that some high schools are selected randomly in the capital Conakry after their preparatory examinations. The first comparative method used is descriptive and explanatory design based on a sample of 1,400 school students terminal (TSM and TSE) in three schools in the capital. From the results obtained, the level of achievement for girls in exact science is still weak as well as that of students in public schools. Their levels must be improved. To conduct this study, we randomly selected 300 students out of the total population of 1866 students .In addition 400 parents were questioned about the schools, 200 of each type. We chose the Student t-test to test the hypothesis of equality between the two types of comparisons (girls and boys, public and private schools). Indeed, the results of this study show a sign of weakness in the education of girls compared with boys and dominance of private schools over public schools. According Cronbach’s alpha surveys of parental satisfaction is 0.962 and 0.899, respectively (private and public). The equipment used by the researcher for data analysis is SPSS.


1999 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
James A. Opare

This paper presents a report 011 a survey done to compare the academic performance of pupils in public and private junior secondary schools in Ghana. Data for the study were collected from a random sample of 800 pupils, 60 teachers, and 20 headteachers selected from 20 schools in the Accra and Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan areas. The results indicate that pupils in the private schools did far better than those in the public schools. The difference is attributed to the fact that the pupils in the private schools come predominantly from middleclass homes where parents set high academic standards for their children. The more important explanation is that the private schools are better equipped, better managed, and more supported by parents.


1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris Bosworth ◽  
Santiago Cueto

Recent research on drug education has focused on public schools. This study compares public school drug education programs with such efforts in private schools in one midwestern state. All schools in the state were asked to respond to a survey on curricula and training. This study reports on the types of prevention curricula used and at what grades, as well as the number of schools with trained staff. For almost every grade a higher percentage of public schools was found to be implementing drug education programs than private schools. This was manifested in public schools developing their own programs and/or purchasing commercially available drug curricula. Although an equal number of private and public schools have trained staff, less than half of all schools report a trained staff at each grade level. Directions for future research based on these results are suggested.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
Marjan Šimenc ◽  
Mojca Štraus

The article analyses the (third) Coleman Report on private and public schools. The report scrutinises the relationship between private and public schools and shows that private school students show better academic achievement. Coleman concluded that these findings provided a strong argument in favour of public financial support for private schools. However,he identified a number of school characteristics that he believed to be related to student achievement. According to his analysis, these characteristics were not limited to privateschools; public schools exhibiting the same characteristics also had good results. Coleman interpreted the available data in favour of financial aid to private schools, although this was not the only possible interpretation. An alternative conclusion would have been to encourage these characteristics in public schools. Why did Coleman disregard this possibility? Why did he deviate from his usual scientific rigour? The present article suggests that there appear to be two reasons for the narrow interpretation of the relationship between public and private schools in Coleman’s third report. The first lies in Coleman’s notion of contemporary society as a constructed system in which every individual actor holds a place in the structure and requires incentives in order to act to the benefit of society. In the case of education, the goal of the institution is to ensure the high cognitive achievement of students, and the incentive is related to choice and competition. The second reason is related to Coleman’s vision of sociology as a discipline aiding the construction of an effective society.


2018 ◽  
Vol III (I) ◽  
pp. 281-293
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahbaz ◽  
Behzad Anwar ◽  
Muhammad Babar Jamil

This comparative study investigates the learners' attitudes towards learning English from two comparative education systems (private and public sector) of Pakistan. This study is an attempt to measure the cognitive, emotional and behavioral attitudes of these young learners towards English. The research methodology is quantitative in nature. The tool used for data analysis by the researchers is questionnaire. Steal’s (2004) questionnaire has been used to measure the attitude of the learners towards English language. The data has been collected from 100 students of four different schools including two private and two public schools in Gujranwala district. The quantitative analysis of the data is executed by SPSS and the findings reveal that the students of private schools show positive attitude towards English language as compared to the public schools’ students. The researchers also suggest a large-scale study from various parts of the country with larger population to know the reason behind the positive or negative attitude of students.


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