Students from public schools do better in math than ones from private schools

What I've gathered is that based on the same socioeconomic factors, public schools in well-heeled neighborhoods do just as well if not better than private schools in well-heeled neighborhoods. And now thanks to NCLB they are basing their curriculums around state exams, and some do really well on them!

As a public school alumni, I've seen really poorly run and well run private schools. For most things they stack up equally to public highschools. The difference in parent involvement makes a hell of a difference. When it's your own money on the line it takes on a different aspect than dropping junior off at the gate.

1. The only outcome measurement mentioned was standardized test scores. I don't know about other states, but Ohio's "achievement" tests attempt to measure minimum competency as defined by a State-wide committee. This study's authors have implicitly decided that the proper way to measure a math education is by the percentage of students who have obtained minimum competency. [Unless there were some other tests used which I am unaware of, of course] Most readers here likely have a very different definition of a good math education.

2. Public schools have a huge incentive to optimize upon obtaining good test scores. Because of No Child Left Behind, public schools are under the gun to obtain good test scores at nearly any cost. At least in Ohio, it is optional for private schools to subject their students to standardized testing. My wife and I toured the local Montessori school, and I asked one of the teachers if my son would have to take Ohio's achievement tests. She thought I was concerned that he would not, so she began to tell me that they were optional but the curriculum would adequately prepare my son for them, etc. When I cut her off to tell her how disgusting I found them, she started to complain about how they hurt education and clearly shared my views.

3. Private schools whose purpose is superior education are lumped in with those which exist to protect youth from hearing that the earth might be more than 6000 years old. It might very well be that academically-oriented private schools offer far superior math programs but schools that exist for religious reasons severely drag down the average.

>The end result, however, is students who are “prepared for the tests of 40 years ago and not the tests of today,” she said.

Is test preparation now considered the primary goal of education? I am becoming less and less convinced that I want my children to participate in the machine that is the US school system.