May 2001
Achievement Gap
Narrower in Private Schools
One of the most stubborn problems in education is the disparity in achievement
scores between minority and majority students. The release last month
of the latest reading scores for 4th grade students on the National Assessment
of Educational Progress (NAEP) highlighted the problem.
Summarizing the NAEP performance gap, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod
Paige reported that "73 percent of white students performed at or
above the basic level, compared with just 42 percent of Hispanic students
and only 37 percent of African American students." As Paige put it,
there are "deep, persistent, and unacceptable gaps in achievement
between poor and minority students and their more advantaged peers."
 But
a breakout of scores by type of school offers some hope for addressing
the persistent disparity in performance. The achievement gaps that exist
in private schools between minority and majority students are significantly
less than the gaps nationwide. For example, while the difference between
the performance of black students and white students nationally is 33
points, it is 26 points in private schools (see chart). Similarly, the
Hispanic/white gap nationally is 29 points, but only 22 points in private
schools.
By way of context, the national average score for 4th grade reading is
217 on a scale that ranges from 0 to 500. For students in private schools,
the average score is 234, a 17 point advantage over the national average.
Mean scores for both black and Hispanic students in private schools are
exactly 20 points higher than the respective national means for each group.
U.S. Education Department officials say that an increase of 10 points
on the NAEP scale is roughly equivalent to an increase of one grade level.
Secretary Paige recently compared the NAEP scores of black students in
Texas with that of their peers across the nation, saying that if the Texas
scores were the national scores, the black/white gap would be reduced
dramatically. Well, if 4th grade black students across the nation had
the same NAEP reading scores as black students in private schools, the
national black/white achievement gap would shrink from 33 points to 13
points, a 60 percent reduction. Applying the same formula to Hispanic
students, the disparity between them and their white peers would move
from 29 points to 9, a drop of nearly 70 percent.
NAEP results are also provided for low-income students, identified by
eligibility for the National School Lunch Program. Again, the difference
between the scale scores of low-income students and their more affluent
counterparts is significantly less in private schools than for the nation
at large (see chart).
 The
NAEP report also provides the percentage of students performing at or
above three achievement levels: basic (partial mastery of fundamental
skills and knowledge), proficient (solid academic performance), and advanced
(superior performance). As detailed in the accompanying chart, there are
significant across-the-board advantages for private schools in the share
of students performing at or above all three levels.
Why the Difference?
The report advises caution in concluding from the results that some types
of schools are more effective than others. Because of socioeconomic and
other factors that help predict student performance, it is difficult to
determine what share of the NAEP performance difference is attributable
to schools themselves. But a number of researchers examining the superior
performance of students in private schools on a variety of measures have
suggested, after controlling for non-school background variables, that
some of the performance difference is the result of school effects.
One possible explanation is the high standards that private schools set
for all students. President Bush has repeatedly denounced what he calls
the "soft bigotry of low expectations." His education reform
proposal includes the establishment of a fund for school choice demonstration
projects to see if they improve the performance of low-income students.
Given the fact that the achievement gap is narrower in private schools
and the possibility that at least some of the difference can be explained
by what goes on within those schools, it seems reasonable to examine more
fully the private school performance phenomenon through the kinds of demonstration
projects proposed by the president.
There seems to be a growing sense that exceptional measures are needed
to close the achievement gap. Secretary Paige recently said the country's
system of education is failing too many children; it is "broken and
repair is needed urgently." The time has come, he continued, "for
a bold and fundamental change."
Click
here to visit the page of the NCES Web site where you can download
the complete NAEP 2000 reading report.
Click here
to visit the page of the NCES Web site where you can access NAEP summary
data tables that meet the parameters you specify.
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Hickok
Promotes School Reform
In one of his first public appearances since being nominated as U.S.
Undersecretary of Education, Eugene Hickok managed to cover a lot of ground.
And he did so in simple and direct language. Speaking last month at the
Cato Institute, a public policy research foundation in Washington, Hickok,
the former secretary of education in Pennsylvania, touched on a chain
of topics, including accountability, school choice, teacher training,
and education spending.
 Defending
the Bush administration's proposal to hold schools accountable by having
states publish annual assessment results, Hickok said parents and the
public need information about how schools are doing. "You can't make
smart decisions," he said, "if you don't have adequate knowledge."
Hickok put that philosophy into practice during his tenure in Pennsylvania.
An online database provides extensive information about any public school
in the state, including curriculum offerings, library holdings, technology
levels, student-teacher ratio, SAT scores, state assessment results, graduation
rates, and dropout rates.
School Choice
Talking about school choice, Hickok described himself as a "strong
supporter." In Pennsylvania he pushed for vouchers, charter schools,
and education tax credits. In an ideal world, society would be more serious
about how to change the nature of education and would move away "from
a monopoly model," he said.
Turning to teacher training, Hickok said there needs to be a change in
the way teachers are educated. "I am a big fan of arguing that teachers,
as they are being prepared for what I consider the most important task
in democracy, get to know the subjects that they are supposed to teach."
It's not that pedagogy doesn't matter, but content matters too, "and
it matters a lot," he said.
Another item on Hickok's agenda was education spending, or as he put
it, "this fixation, this fascination, this obsession" we have
that money alone will solve our education problems. Money matters, he
said, but it is not sufficient. "If you look at how much we have
spent in this nation, and you look at performance levels - on any indicator
- the investment is not returning much." There are local exceptions,
he said. In some places, modest investments are providing tremendous returns.
But in others, "a lot of money is not buying very much."
Hickok concluded his remarks by saying that accountability and testing
are part of a response to an education problem in this country. No single
solution is the "silver bullet," he said. But we need to ask
fundamental questions about results, "and then have the guts to deal
with the answers that we get to those questions."
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Bill Bennett
Touts Internet-Based Education
Instructional technology is getting a bad rap these days. Once seen as
the antidote to a host of education ills, its promise seems to have burst
faster than the dot-com bubble.
Anticipated as a great educational equalizer, technology has instead
established a new benchmark of inequality called the digital divide. Heralded
as a way to improve student performance, the evidence connecting technology
to achievement remains thin. And although computers were supposed to help
students explore bright new vistas of knowledge, for too many youngsters
they are the doors to discovering the dark and violent world of video
games.
 But
out of technology's chorus of critics a convert has emerged. Former U.S.
Secretary of Education William Bennett, once a skeptic about the value
of classroom computers, has announced the establishment of K12, an Internet-based
school that will offer, in Bennett's words, an education "as good
as that received in the best public and private schools in the country."
Speaking last month at a conference on technology sponsored by the Education
Leaders Council, an organization of reform-minded state education officials,
Bennett, the chairman of K12, said curriculum will be the core of the
company. Traditional academic content will include phonics-based reading,
math, language arts, science, history, fine arts, and the great books.
"If a child passes through the curriculum, he or she will be well
educated," he said.
For Bennett, technology is a tool, a means for helping youngsters master
the curriculum. It does not change the aims of education, he said, "but
it can help us achieve them." The help will be in the form of lessons
designed by master teachers -- 700 lessons in first grade alone. Each
lesson will provide step-by-step instructions for parents or classroom
teachers to guide students through the subject matter.
Students who use the program will not stay glued to the computer all
day, Bennett said. Indeed, for much of the time youngsters will work off-line,
engaged with real books, practice sheets, and other hands-on materials.
But the computer will provide high-tech enhancement. For example, after
completing a lesson about a particular country in social studies, students
might embark on an online tour of the country.
The computer will also serve as a powerful assessment tool. In fact,
it will provide "the most frequent of assessments," according
to Bennett: daily, weekly, and monthly. Every lesson will conclude with
a series of questions to gauge student mastery of the subject matter.
If performance is substandard, the system will recommend a backup lesson
until mastery is attained. Feedback will also alert lesson designers when
too many students aren't getting a critical skill or concept, allowing
for lesson plan refinement and improvement.
Bennett said some officials at K12 think the program might revive the
"little red schoolhouse." A multi-age classroom could be established
every few blocks in a neighborhood, with children simultaneously and independently
pursuing, at their own pace, very different subjects under the guidance
of a single teacher. Computers in such classrooms would play an important
role: providing sequenced activities, assessing progress, and recording
results. But they wouldn't be the program's totality. For Bennett, technology
is important, but not everything. Curriculum is what counts most.
K12 plans to market its services to all kinds of schools: public, private,
and home. A full program for grades K-2 is expected by fall, with clusters
of grades to be added in subsequent years.
For more information, visit the K12 Web
site.
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Where Do
Wealthy Children Go to School?
 The
U.S. Census Bureau just released a report on the social and economic characteristics
of students enrolled in the nation's schools in 1999. It turns out that
of the 49.5 million youngsters in grades K-12, 9.3 million (19 percent)
came from families with annual incomes of $75,000 or more. Of the 9.3
million, 7.7 million children, or 83 percent, attended public schools,
and 1.6 million, or 17 percent, attended private schools.
Click
here to visit the page on the U.S. Census Bureau Web site from which
you can download the report School Enrollment-Social and Economic Characteristics
of Students: October 1999.
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CAPENotes
• A new study out of New York University's Program on Education
and Civil Society compares the performance of Catholic school students
and public school students in New York City on state language arts and
math tests in grades 4 and 8. Two key findings:
- Average scores are higher in Catholic schools.
- The student achievement gaps by race and family income are narrower
in Catholic schools.
On the public policy front, the report boldly asserts: "There can
be no doubt that some public school students who are now trapped in failing
public schools would benefit from a publicly subsidized transfer to the
local Catholic school.Those who wish to hold the line against tuition
vouchers or tax credits need to own up to the very real human cost of
that opposition."
As for the poor and minority families whose children are already enrolled
in the city's Catholic schools, the study says "a reasonable case"
can be made for taxpayer assistance to those families. Citing the public
benefit the schools provide, the report concludes, "The City of New
York and its poor and working class families cannot afford to lose these
Catholic schools."
Catholic Schools in New York City is available on the NYU
Web site.
• Dan VanderArk, CAPE board member and executive director of Christian
Schools International, suggests five simple rules for the U.S. Secretary
of Education to follow. Among them: "All parents should have a choice
in the education of their children." VanderArk's advice was published
in the April 28 edition of World Magazine, a special edition on
education that includes pieces by William Bennett, Marvin Olasky, and
Florida's Lieutenant Governor Frank Brogan. Click
here to visit the Web site of World Magazine.
• CAPE continues to grow. Our two newest national members are
the Jewish Community Day School Network and the National Christian School
Association. Our newest state affiliate is the Hawaii Council of Private
Schools. That brings the number of national members of CAPE to 17 and
the number of state affiliates to 31. CAPE's member organizations currently
represent 80 percent of the nation's elementary and secondary private
school enrollment.
• The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a nonprofit,
nonpartisan research institute, issued a study last month saying school
choice programs improve student performance. As the report puts it: "Evidence
is mounting that allowing parents to choose a child's school improves
the child's test scores. Evidence is also mounting that when public schools
are challenged by the prospect of losing students because of the availability
of school choice, the academic performance of both the students who leave
and those who remain in the public schools improves."
The NCPA report, School Choice v. School Choice is available on
the NCPA Web site.
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