|
Other Outlooks
Subscribe to Outlook
News
Contact US
|
 |
December 2000
Private Schools
Above Average on International Tests
American private school students scored significantly above the national
average on tests that measured math and science performance in 38 countries
around the world. The private school scores were so impressive that had
they been the norm for the nation, they would have propelled the U.S.
position in international rankings from 19th to 12th place in math and
from 18th to 6th place in science.
 The
results of the repeat of the Third International Math and Science Study
(TIMSS-R) were released December 5 by the National Center for Education
Statistics. First administered in 1995 to students in grades 4, 8, and
12, and then in 1999 to grade 8 alone, the tests allow for cross-country
and within-country comparisons over two points in time. For example, the
results reveal the relative international standings of U.S. eighth graders
in 1999 and in 1995, and also allow a look at how 1995 U.S. fourth graders
fared four years later.
U.S. students scored above the international average in both mathematics
and science. The U.S. score of 502 in math outpaced the global average
of 487, and in science the country's 515 compared favorably with the 488
worldwide mean. However, according to Dr. Gary Phillips, acting commissioner
of education statistics, between 1995 and 1999, "there was no change"
in eighth-grade performance in either subject, and the international ranking
of U.S. performance in both subjects was "lower for eighth graders
in 1999 than it was for fourth graders four years earlier."
 Unlike
its predecessor, TIMSS-R involved a large enough private school cohort
to permit comparisons with public schools. The report sums up the comparisons
this way: "In both mathematics and science in 1999, the average achievement
score of U.S. eighth-grade nonpublic school students was higher than the
average of their peers in U.S. public schools." Specifically, while
public school students scored 498 in math, private school students scored
526, a number identical to the 12th-ranked Russian Federation. In science,
public school students scored 510 and private school students 548, just
behind the Republic of Korea, which placed fifth.
The report claims that the research literature offers two possible reasons
for the public/private performance differences. One is that "the
two types of schools differ in the quality of the education offered to
students." The other is a possible difference in "the socioeconomic
status of the students." In the end, however, the report eschews
any explanation, settles simply on documenting the achievement differences,
and suggests that in the future a more "thorough analysis of the
data may reveal important insights into possible reasons for the observed
differences."
The complete report, titled Pursuing
Excellence, is available on the NCES Web site.
Top of Page
New Book
Envisions "Structured" School Choice
Seeks to reconcile diverse values and need for national identity
 The
tony community of Bedford, NY, seems an unlikely place for an all-out
clash over Satanism. Yet, in 1995 two religious Catholic women claimed
that the Bedford Central School District promoted pagan and satanic practices
by hosting a fourth-grade club focusing on the fantasy card game Magic.
Their challenge quickly expanded and eventually evolved into a lawsuit
charging the district with undermining the religious beliefs of students.
The complaint's final catalogue of alleged First Amendment offenses by
Bedford public schools included fostering occultism and New Age spirituality,
instructing students to fashion images of a Hindu god, sponsoring earth-worship
rituals, and encouraging superstitious practices (specifically, telling
students to alleviate anxiety by placing "worry dolls" under
their pillows).
Predictably, the case galvanized activists on both sides of this prickly
constitutional issue. Some sided with the plaintiffs, claiming the school
district was undermining their values and beliefs and trampling their
right to direct the upbringing of their children, while others accused
the plaintiffs of trying to censor the curriculum, restrict free speech,
and impose their narrow views on others. In due time, a district court
ruled for the parents in some matters and for the Bedford public schools
in others. The case is currently under appeal and may be headed for the
U.S. Supreme Court.
The Answer: School Choice
The Bedford story plays a prominent role in Rosemay Salomone's Visions
of Schooling, a fair, thorough, and scholarly work that suggests school
choice is the way to deal with the growing number of conflicts that arise
in a society where consensus on values seems to be unraveling. For Salomone,
a professor of law at St. John's University, Bedford "could be Anytown,
USA," where well-meaning, intelligent people have conflicting views
about the proper content and purpose of public education. In recent decades
in school districts across the country, writes Solomone, disagreements
have erupted over such inflammatory matters as moral absolutes, AIDS awareness,
sex education, school prayer, the distribution of condoms, and the appropriateness
of homosexual activity. Such conflicts, contends Solomone, could be abated,
and religious liberty rights could be protected, if parents were provided
more opportunities to select schools that reflect their deeply held beliefs
and values. "Perhaps the most striking lesson to be learned from
Bedford," she writes, "is that the real devil in such struggles
may be the common school itself, an outdated, one-size-fits-all approach
to compulsory education...."
Myth of the Common School
Solomone systematically explores what Charles Glenn calls the "myth
of the common school" - the notion that public education is value
neutral and its curriculum in accord with the beliefs of most Americans.
She argues that government-operated schools are not the only way for society
to ensure an educated citizenry, and makes the case for a system of educational
governance centered in the family.
The central question for Solomone is this: How can education in a free
and pluralistic society "promote a national identity while at the
same time preserving community and individual interests?" In other
words, how can it make of the many, one, while at the same time maintaining
the rights of the many to freedom of belief? Her answer is "structured
family choice." She argues quite persuasively that providing parents
more choice in education "may offer the most effective means for
balancing the individual, community, and societal interests inherent in
the values debate."
Some State Oversight
Professor Solomone by no means proposes a complete break between schooling
and the state. Her choice plan includes public schools, charter schools,
and tuition subsidies for low-income parents to choose religious schools.
Private schools that elect to participate in the government-subsidized
system would be subject to certain conditions, including "performance
standards and a mechanism for assuring that students are afforded the
skills, character traits, and knowledge that foster democratic citizenship."
Under the latter condition, if a school were ever established that espoused
extreme religious, political, or social views in conflict with America's
core civic values, it would not be eligible for support by the state.
Via Media
Solomone calls structured school choice "a relatively modest [proposal]
that attempts to balance competing demands for family choice and democratic
citizenship." She further describes it as a via media, a middle
way that "respects both the pluribus and the unum in
our civic culture." To be sure, her proposal is a bold plan and not
without risk. But as she puts it in the book's concluding sentence, "This
could be the nation's grand experiment for the new millennium."
Visions of Schooling is available at Amazon.com.
Top of Page
Reports
Tout Choice and Universal Education Credits
Stripped to its essentials, the reasoning in two new reports from the
Cato Institute is easy to follow: Parent involvement in education is good;
school choice promotes parent involvement; universal education tax credits
expand school choice; therefore, universal education tax credits are good.
 More
Than Grades, the first of the two, claims that research conducted
over the past 20 years shows "a clear link between parental involvement
in a child's studies and student achievement." Yet, for the most
part, schools have ignored the research, treating parents as "little
more than monitors for class trips, coordinators of cookie sales, and
boosters of athletic events." A notable exception to the practice
of ignoring parents may be found in school choice programs -- including
charter schools, publicly funded vouchers, and privately funded tuition
grants.
Phillip Vassallo, the report's author, provides considerable evidence
that choice boosts parent involvement. For example, compared with other
parents in Milwaukee, parents participating in the city's voucher program
are significantly more likely to work with their children on homework,
to participate in school activities, to receive information from the school
about their children's performance and behavior, and to initiate contact
with the school. If keeping track of a child's work and lending a helping
hand are important ways for parents to help children grow, then those
who choose their children's schools seem to have an edge. "Parents
in choice programs become empowered in their critical role of supporting
their children's education," writes Vassallo.
His survey of studies of the country's major school choice programs identifies
other advantages for participating parents and children. A striking one
is that parents in choice programs believe their schools are more likely
to reflect the three essential qualities they look for in schools: safety,
discipline, and instructional quality.
The report concludes by calling parental involvement "the key to
educational excellence." Choice works, says the report, because "when
parents have a choice, they take more responsibility for their decisions
and have a greater stake in the success of their children's school."
Because parents are "squarely at the forefront of education reform,"
state lawmakers should "return control of education to parents through
mechanisms like tax cuts and universal tuition tax credits." Such
measures would "transform American schooling by increasing parental
involvement and providing for children the education they deserve."
And that provides a smooth transition to the second Cato report, Reclaiming
Our Schools. Darcy Ann Olsen from Cato and Matthew Brouillette from
the Mackinac Center for Public Policy offer a bold plan for expanding
parental control of schools through universal education tax credits. Under
their proposal, a parent, individual, or corporation would receive a "dollar-for-dollar
reduction in tax liability for money spent on tuition." A per-child
credit would be available for up to one-half the state's average per-pupil
expenditure, and the total amount of the credit would not exceed the taxpayer's
or company's tax liability.
 The
authors claim that low-income parents with little or no tax liability
would benefit from corporate or individual contributions to a tuition
pool. "Given the choice of paying taxes for general services or directing
some of those taxes to scholarships, many people will prefer to assist
students." They cite the success of the Arizona scholarship tax credit
program, which in 1999 raised nearly $14 million from about 32,000 individual
donors. Arizona allows tax credits of up to $500 for contributions to
tuition scholarship programs (see chart), which then distribute the funds
to individual students. Taxpayers are even allowed to earmark the money
for particular children, as long as the children are not their own.
Olsen and Brouillette believe that universal education credits are less
likely than vouchers to trigger additional government control of private
schools. "Because parents pay tuition with their own money rather
than public funds, legislators should have no more incentive to regulate
independent schools than they do currently." And they say the benefits
of tax credits don't end there. Empowering parents, reducing the costs
of private education, spurring school improvement, and raising scholarship
money for needy children are among the proposal's pluses.
Reclaiming Our Schools concludes that because American education
limits parental choice in education, it ultimately fails "to provide
children with the education they deserve." One sentence in the final
paragraph is particularly poignant: "It is time to drag America's
19th-century education system...into the 21st century, where decentralization,
parental responsibility, and flexibility can create unprecedented opportunities
for learning." Whether America is ready to achieve that end through
universal education credits is yet to be seen.
The two policy papers are available on the Cato
Web site.
Top of Page
CAPENotes
• The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to hear the case of
a blind child with cerebral palsy who was denied on-site state-provided
special education services because he attended a religious school. The
high court let stand a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which
found no legal or constitutional fault with an Oregon regulation that
required a school district electing to provide special education and related
services to a specific child attending a private school to do so in a
religiously neutral setting. The Reedsport School District was willing
to provide certain services to the student at a neutral site, and the
circuit court found that neither the U.S. Constitution nor the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) required the district to do otherwise.
A positive postscript is that the state school board voted December 7
to repeal the regulation in question.
• A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics
shows that children who attend private kindergartens score higher on tests
of reading and math than children who attend public kindergartens. The
higher scores are recorded on tests administered both in the fall (before
the school has had much chance to affect performance) and the spring.
The Kindergarten Year presents findings from the Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study of the kindergarten class of 199899. The report
examines the gains children make in skills and knowledge between the fall
and spring of kindergarten year and attempts to determine whether those
gains are related to a host of child, family, and program variables. About
15 percent of the 22,000 children in the study attended kindergarten in
private schools.
The full report is available on the NCES
Web site.
•  On
December 7, The Heritage Foundation gathered some high-powered school
choice advocates to discuss the movement's future. Despite the ballot
setbacks in California and Michigan, participants were optimistic, justifying
their optimism by citing court successes, comprehensive ad campaigns,
growing support within the mainstream media, and the formation of the
Black Alliance for Educational Options.
Terry Moe, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the main lesson
from the state initiative defeats is, "Don't do initiatives."
He said the research on statewide ballot measures shows that proposals
that the polls indicate to be initially popular tend to lose support during
the campaign. The reason? Strong, vocal opponents merely have to raise
doubts about the measure. When in doubt, people tend to play it safe,
voting against change and for the status quo.
Top of Page
|
|
