Education Department Report: Public v. Private Schools

The SF Chronicle recently carried a NY Times article by Diana Jean Schemo on public v. private schools:

The federal Education Department reported Friday that, in reading and math, children attending public schools generally do as well as or better than comparable children in private schools.

Full Article, July 15, 2006.

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This prompted the following letter to the SF Chronicle, and other papers:


Dear Editor,

Your article, "Little separates public, private schools", on the federal Education Department's report, misses the point.

What the Education Department looked at is the performance of children on standardized tests. If the role of private schools is to march in lockstep with the federal mandate of, "No Standardized Test Left Behind", then perhaps the study has merit.

However, if the role of schools is to give the next generation tools that allow them to think creatively, and empower them for a world that will require new and creative answers that their elders have been unable to provide, then the output of an assembly line is being compared with that of artists. As with artists, not all private schools provide the same quality of output. Thus the generalizations provided by the Education Department, in comparing the substantially homogenized public school system with private schools of diverse quality, and then using as the yardstick for comparison examinations that measure student's test-taking abilities, are of nominal if any value.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark