The National Center for Education Statistics recently published new evidence about the performance of private schools, and two things caught my eye: The terminology used to explain the research findings, and the methods used to publicize them. Given the circumstances, the agency earns a show-me-the-evidence rating of only 2 soup cans (on a 1-5 scale). The Center, part of the U.S. Department of Education, published a report Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. According to their web site (the Nation's Report Card), the report examined differences "in reading and mathematics scores between public and private schools when selected characteristics of students and/or schools are taken into account."
Smothered by jargon? The evidence showed that public and private school students tend to perform similarly, once characteristics such as race/ethnicity are factored in. But the Executive Summary says things like "The average private school mean reading score was 14.7 points higher than the average public school mean reading score, corresponding to an effect size of .41 (the ratio of the absolute value of the estimated difference to the standard deviation of the NAEP fourth-grade reading score distribution). After adjusting for selected student characteristics, the difference in means was near zero and not significant." If the report was intended for consumption only by statisticians, this type of terminology might be acceptable. But it's mandated by Congress as a policy tool, so the findings should not be buried within multisyllablic geek-speak. On page 2, the agency explains its purpose in plain ol' English: "The Nation's Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), is a nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas.... NAEP is a congressionally mandated project of the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences...."
Thrown out with the trash? Because it's based on sophisticated analysis of hard data, this report could provide ammo for an evidence-based discussion -- if it reaches the people who are interested. But critics noted it was released on a Friday afternoon, without a news conference. The Friday-afternoon release tactic is what media folks call "taking out the trash." The New York Times evaluated the agency's findings, concluding that public school students "generally performed as well or better... than comparable children in private schools" [July 15, password required].
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