Dan Peterson has been a public school teacher, principal, university faculty, researcher, and author of Comparing America’s Public Schools: Lessons from Top Scoring Nations. He has been crunching some numbers regarding a comparison that is rarely discussed.
We often hear that American public schools are bad according to international student test scores, especially in math. We never read that American private schools are the WORST among Western nations. No one ever disaggregates international test scores of American private schools, but I did.
Seventeen states have approved private school vouchers and the federal Department of Education proposes $5 billion of national support for private school vouchers. What a huge mistake! As a public school educator, researcher, and advocate, I strongly oppose this direction!
Only one international student assessment compiles public and private school data among nations—the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA is conducted every three years by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It assesses math, science, and reading results for 15 year-olds. Private schools taking this international test are defined as schools “… managed directly or indirectly by a non-governmental organization.”
I researched the 2018 and 2022 test results, one before COVID and one afterwards. While I have concerns about testing and the excessive weighting of tests, I am using test scores, since they are a focus of public attention and of politicians.
I focused on mathematics scores, since math scores are often utilized as the primary indicator that public schools are bad, implying that private schools are better and justifying vouchers. Where did USA private schools rank in math in 2018 and 2022? The USA private school average scores were 492 (2018) and 473 (2022), illustrating that private school scores are dropping. The average of the 33 participating nations was 510 and 493, far above USA private school scores.
I selected private school math scores for 2018 and 2022 from seven Western nations, nations often compared with the USA. Canada’s scores were 559 and 546, Denmark (529 and 505), England (514 and 493), Finland (532 and 514), France (521 and 495), Japan (516 and 529), and South Korea (538 and 537). Scores were lower in 2022 in many nations most likely due to COVID. However, all these nations scored far above American private schools.
The data is clear. When I expanded the list to the 25 Western nations whose students took the test both years, USA private schools scored the LOWEST among developed nations. Let me state this again. American private schools were dead last! Among all the participating nations, USA private schools only outperformed a few nations both years, such as Costa Rica, Columbia, and Mexico. This data is surprising, isn’t it?
Given this data, since international assessments are often utilized to deny support for public schools, there should be no governmental support for private schools. In this context, critics of public schools should conclude that private schools are bad!
USA private schools should be doing much better. Why aren’t they? In every Western country I studied, most provided funding to private schools, BUT they required that private schools receiving government support hire trained teachers and mandate students take the national assessment. These governments also review the private school curriculum to meet national academic standards, and their funding is monitored and schools held accountable. No private school receiving taxpayer support in all the countries I reviewed may accept funding unless they follow multiple requirements.
It is absolutely shocking that our private schools are scoring so low internationally. They selectively choose their students, provide overall smaller class sizes, serve higher income families than public schools, and enroll fewer high-needs students. Additionally, after analyzing
PISA test results for decades from thousands of students in public and private schools, the OECD states, “Private schools do not outperform public ones once socio-economic factors have been taken into account.”(p.6)
Why provide Americans the choice of a taxpayer-supported private school when, as a group, they score the lowest among private schools in the developed world, and their scores are dropping?
There are other significant reasons not to support private schools with governmental funding or tax credits beyond test scores. As other researchers state, vouchers undermine funding for public schools and violate the separation of church and state. Vouchers also are a subsidy for the rich. School choice is misguided. Private schools are selective through student enrollment policies for each individual private school; thus it is the private school that has choices. Lastly, not one state has approved school vouchers through a vote of the people. Only legislators and governors have done so, often overriding state-wide initiatives against private school vouchers. The public is wise!
If parents want to send their children to private schools, that is there choice, and I support that. Just don’t ask taxpayers to pay for that choice. Plus state and federal governments already providing private school support must institute serious, extensive requirements for any governmental funds, as in other nations, in return for any support provided to them or individual tax credits.
Of course there are many excellent private schools, just as there are thousands of excellent public schools. However, we must stop school vouchers based upon the false narrative that private schools, as group, are better. They are not!