"But There are Internal Validity Threats!"

Don't you love learning? Before Monday, I would have had no idea what this meant. However, now I am fully aware due to my wonderful statistics class. Recently, a survey appeared touting the benefits of public school, since when factors like race, socioeconomics, gender, etc are "controlled for" (i.e. evident in the same proportions) in public schools and private schools, public school students perform better on tests.

This appears to underscore the same point as the Education Sector's "Truth about Girls and Boys" report - really, the problems go back to issues of race and class. I wouldn't be shocked if private school students don't perform better than public school; private school teachers often have little to no formal education training (although many actually majored in the subjects they teach.) People are shocked when I tell them this, but in many areas, private schools pay their teachers less than public schools. Benefits aren't as good. Turnover is high; those same young teachers who leave public schools within the first 5 years also leave private schools, and the numbers may be higher because many good, dedicated teachers will go to public schools where the pay and benefits are better.

In case you don't know, I was a private school teacher for 3 years. I loved my kids and my school, and was too lazy to go back and take a year and a half of "how to write a lesson plan" classes, as I saw them. Besides, when I did take that class at Long Island University, they treated me as if I were not a "real" teacher since I taught in an independent school. Jerks. I stayed because I knew I wouldn't be there forever, and I liked the rapport I had with my small classes of (relatively) motivated students.

So what is an internal validity threat and what does it have to do with public vs. private school students? Basically, according to EdWeek, private schools do not survey students for their ethnicity, class, social status, peanut allergy, whatever, in the same way that public schools do. Therefore there's an "internal validity threat" (i.e. the survey data cannot be seen as valid). Paul Peterson, a Harvard government professor, says "Public schools must by law classify people according to whether they are English-language learners, need an individualized education program, are eligible for a free lunch, and whether they are disadvantaged under Title I" of the No Child Left Behind Act... Private school managers have no legal obligation to do any of that, and many object to that' so the students may not in fact be labeled the same way, thus skewing the comparison" (Zehr, M.A. EdWeek July 18, 2006). There ya have it.

Apparently Dr. Peterson is going to run a new survey where the students "self-report," i.e. tell him what their background is. I don't know if it's more accurate or not. I know when I "self-report" on the silly course evaluations we're given at the end of our classes here, I always say I'm a fabulous student. Like, I work so much harder than other students, I'm generally smarter, better dressed, more wonderful, cooler, etc. I think I actually just fill in "5s" down the row. Call it lazy. I am lazy. I've got too much else to do, like gossip with DS about celebrities and her husband. ;)

In any case, I wouldn't be surprised that if you do control for socio-economic status, free lunch, or other such factors, public school students probably do about the same as private school students. Why? People are so shocked when you say that SCHOOL CAN'T DO IT ALONE. School cannot do anything without a home life in which parents encourage their children's intellectual and emotional development. My family was solidly middle class, and I think my mom read to me in the womb. And now I'm a PhD student (wait, I don't know if that proves that I'm smart. If I were smart, I'd be in business school. Anyway). But it does demonstrate that a love of learning can transform the way a child looks at the world. And school can help, but we get there too late. Turn off the tv. Invent a bedtime story with your children. Go for a walk and look at the plants and animals and try to count how many you can name. All of this begins to pave your child's way to a better future.

One of these days I'll tell you about this fun activity I did with kids I babysat that involved inventing stories and going outside to explore. If I don't make a book of it first!