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<DIV><FONT size=4><EM>New York Times<BR clear=all></EM>
<HR align=left SIZE=1>
<DIV class=timestamp>January 28, 2006</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Public-School Students Score Well in
Math in Large-Scale Government Study </NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE type=" "
version="1.0"></NYT_BYLINE>
<DIV class=byline>By <A title="More Articles by Diana Jean Schemo"
href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=DIANA%20JEAN%20SCHEMO&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=DIANA%20JEAN%20SCHEMO&inline=nyt-per">DIANA
JEAN SCHEMO</A></DIV><NYT_TEXT></NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 — A large-scale government-financed study has concluded
that when it comes to math, students in regular public schools do as well as or
significantly better than comparable students in private schools.</P>
<P>The study, by Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski, of the
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, compared fourth- and eighth-grade
math scores of more than 340,000 students in 13,000 regular public, charter and
private schools on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress. The
2003 test was given to 10 times more students than any previous test, giving
researchers a trove of new data.</P>
<P>Though private school students have long scored higher on the national
assessment, commonly referred to as "the nation's report card," the new study
used advanced statistical techniques to adjust for the effects of income, school
and home circumstances. The researchers said they compared math scores, not
reading ones, because math was considered a clearer measure of a school's
overall effectiveness.</P>
<P>The study found that while the raw scores of fourth graders in Roman Catholic
schools, for example, were 14.3 points higher than those in public schools, when
adjustments were made for student backgrounds, those in Catholic schools scored
3.4 points lower than those in public schools. A spokeswoman for the National
Catholic Education Association did not respond to requests for comment.</P>
<P>The exam is scored on a 0-to-500-point scale, with 235 being the average
score at fourth grade, and 278 being the average score at eighth grade. A
10-to-11-point difference in test scores is roughly equivalent to one grade
level.</P>
<P>The study also found that charter schools, privately operated and publicly
financed, did significantly worse than public schools in the fourth grade, once
student populations were taken into account. In the eighth grade, it found,
students in charters did slightly better than those in public schools, though
the sample size was small and the difference was not statistically
significant.</P>
<P>"Over all," it said, "demographic differences between students in public and
private schools more than account for the relatively high raw scores of private
schools. Indeed, after controlling for these differences, the presumably
advantageous private school effect disappears, and even reverses in most cases."
</P>
<P>The findings are likely to bolster critics of policies supporting charter
schools and vouchers as the solution for failing public schools. Under President
Bush's signature No Child Left Behind law, children in poorly performing schools
can switch schools if space is available, and in Washington, D.C., they may
receive federally financed vouchers to attend private schools. </P>
<P>Howard Nelson, a lead researcher at the American Federation of Teachers, said
the new study was based on the most current national data available. The
federation, an opponent of vouchers that has criticized the charter movement,
studied some of the same data in 2004 and reported that charter schools lagged
behind traditional public ones.</P>
<P>"Right now, the studies seem to show that charter schools do no better, and
private schools do worse," Mr. Nelson said. "If private schools are going to get
funding, they need to be held accountable for the results." </P>
<P>Supporters of vouchers and charter schools, however, pointed to the study's
limitations, saying it gave only a snapshot of performance, not a sense of how
students progressed over time. Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for
Education Reform, said other state and local studies showed results more
favorable to charter schools.</P>
<P>Nelson Smith, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools,
said that many students went to charter schools after doing poorly in
traditional public schools, and took time to show improvement. </P>
<P>"Snapshots are always going to be affected by that lag," Mr. Smith said.</P>
<P>Officials at the federal Education Department, which has been a forceful
proponent of vouchers and charter schools, said they did not see this study as
decisive. "We've seen reports on both sides of this issue," said Holly Kuzmich,
deputy assistant secretary for policy. "It just adds one more to the list." </P>
<P>The study was financed with a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences
at the Education Department, but was independent. The federal government is
expected to issue two more studies looking at the same data and using similar
techniques. Those studies are still undergoing peer review, but are expected to
be released in early spring. </P>
<P>The current study found that self-described conservative Christian schools,
the fastest-growing sector of private schools, fared poorest, with their
students falling as much as one year behind their counterparts in public
schools, once socioeconomic factors like income, ethnicity and access to books
and computers at home were considered.</P>
<P>Taylor Smith Jr., vice president for executive support at the Association of
Christian Schools, which represents 5,400 predominantly conservative Christian
schools in the United States, said that many of the group's members did not
participate in the national assessment, which he thought could make it a skewed
sample. Mr. Smith said he did not know how many schools from other Christian
organizations participated.</P>
<P>The report found that among the private schools, Lutheran schools did better
than other private schools. Nevertheless, at the fourth-grade level, a 10.7
point lead in math scores evaporated into a 4.2 point lag behind public schools.
At the eighth-grade level, a 21 point lead, roughly the equivalent of two grade
levels, disappeared after adjusting for differences in student
backgrounds.</P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>