This weblog entry is part of a continuing paragraph by paragraph critique of Jay Greene’s essay about myths in education.

The introduction is here.

Jay Greene’s “Education Myths,” paragraph 25
The myth of insurmountable problems (continued)

In a study I performed of a voucher program in Florida, I found that when chronically failing public schools faced competition from vouchers, they made very impressive gains compared to the performance of all other schools. Similarly low-performing schools whose students were not eligible for the vouchers did not make similar gains. Many other researchers have found that school choice programs increase the performance of public schools. In fact, despite the frequent claims of teachers unions, I am not aware of a single study that has found that a school choice program harmed the academic performance of a public school system.

I assume Greene is referring to his study “An Evaluation of the Florida A-Plus Accountability and School Choice Program.” [1] A review of Greene’s study by Gregory Camilli and Katrina Bulkley of Rutgers University found:

Greene aggregated or combined scores from different tests given at different grades. This obscured differences in outcomes from one grade level to another. Greene also reported the effect sizes based on schools rather than individuals; this leads to significant overestimation of the results of his study compared to results from other educational interventions. [2]

Education research is a sticky business because of the number and complexity of variables. Also, a reform program can take years to show change. Test scores can fluctuate from year to year based on changes in population groups alone. Narrowing what each variable contributed to test scores can be difficult at best.

Public schools want a fair playing field. While Greene touts school choice as the answer, in many cases, the schools offered as choice do not have to play by the same rules, especially when it comes to accountability. People for the American Way provides fact sheets which compile evidence about various issues in education reform. The section on Florida vouchers reports these facts:

While public schools are graded A – F, with students at “F” schools (for two of four years) eligible for vouchers, private schools are not graded-therefore there is no way to assess whether a student is actually entering a private school that is academically superior to the school they would be leaving. In fact, the state senate explicitly rejected an amendment to the governor’s plan that would have graded private voucher schools like public schools. Further, the state refused to release the scores of the first-year voucher students as a group, even though one of the primary arguments made in favor of voucher programs is that competition from private schools will improve public schools. [3]

As you can see, there is a serious accountability problem, but it doesn’t appear to be with public schools. Until the playing field is even it will be impossible to judge public schools against private schools.

Jay Greene’s “Education Myths,” paragraph 26
The myth of insurmountable problems (continued)

Both of these strategies–accountability and choice–have been shown to improve student performance, even in places where lots of kids come to school with lots of problems. Other strategies that focus on the incentives of public schools have also been demonstrated to have positive effects. So schools are hardly helpless in the face of social challenges–we only need to adopt the proper reforms.

To summarize: public schools do not claim to be helpless, but they do need help in dealing with factors outside their control. Accountability does not have to mean high-stakes testing and punishments. If accountability is a great strategy then why doesn’t Florida want their private schools to be held by the same standards as public schools? If public schools are going to be forced into a competition, then let’s make sure it’s a fair one.

Notes & References:

1. Greene, Jay. Febraury 2001. “An Evaluation of the Florida A-Plus Accountability and School Choice Program,” New York: Manhattan Institute.
2. Camilli, Gregory and Katrina Bulkley. 8 March 2001. Document Reviewed: “An Evlauation of the Flordia A-Plus Accountability and School Choice Program.” Center for Education Research, Analysis, and Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI.
3. Original reference notations were removed, but can be seen and researched on PFAW’s website. Staff. Fact sheets: The truth about vouchers. People for the American Way, website.