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All Else Equal: Are Public and Private Schools Different?
Private schools always provide a better education than public schools. Or do they? Inner-city private schools, most of which are Catholic, suffer from the same problems neighboring public schools have including large class sizes, unqualified teachers, outdated curricula, lack of parental involvement and stressful family and community circumstances. Straightforward and authoritative, All Else Equal challenges us to reconsider vital policy decisions and rethink the issues facing our current educational system.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
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June 18, 2020For March’s book share, I wanted to find something that encapsulated the age-old Private vs Public school debate. Over the course of the year I have served in both a private school and a public school, and I thought it would be valuable to supplement my perspective with an overarching and comparative analysis of the two systems. “All Else Equal” proves to be a clear and thorough comparison and raises some new questions on the issue as well.
The book begins by tracing the history of the debate and points out several flaws in many traditional viewpoints. Much of what people have seen as causation, the authors argue, is actually correlation. Plus, many external factors may have a bigger role than advocates for public or private schooling have estimated. For example, the idea of private schools being more effective due to higher scores in secondary school may not necessarily mean the private system is better, but instead could be explained through factors such as one’s family, out of school activities, or geographical location. Ultimately, the book suggests that the traditional modes of evidence are largely inconclusive, as many different forms of explanation often conflict with one another.
The authors continue to examine the intellectual argument of private vs public school through a significant portion of the book before turning to their own findings. They take a refreshing approach by focusing on numbers AND by visiting schools directly. Though their scope is limited (they visited 16 different public and private schools in California), they make several interesting points after interviewing groups of teachers, administrators, and parents. Their main point was striking: private and public schools are more alike than they are different. Through all their research, the authors found that it is not whether a school is private or public that causes the school’s success, but rather the school's location and composition. “The social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of the parents and the community in which the school was located” were much more important factors than a schools public or private status.
At second glance, this conclusion reinforces what I have experienced through my service, thought I would not have thought about in this way until now. This book is a great read for anyone looking for an overarching narrative of the public vs private school debate and raises an interesting point by focusing more on the similarities between the two than the differences.
The book begins by tracing the history of the debate and points out several flaws in many traditional viewpoints. Much of what people have seen as causation, the authors argue, is actually correlation. Plus, many external factors may have a bigger role than advocates for public or private schooling have estimated. For example, the idea of private schools being more effective due to higher scores in secondary school may not necessarily mean the private system is better, but instead could be explained through factors such as one’s family, out of school activities, or geographical location. Ultimately, the book suggests that the traditional modes of evidence are largely inconclusive, as many different forms of explanation often conflict with one another.
The authors continue to examine the intellectual argument of private vs public school through a significant portion of the book before turning to their own findings. They take a refreshing approach by focusing on numbers AND by visiting schools directly. Though their scope is limited (they visited 16 different public and private schools in California), they make several interesting points after interviewing groups of teachers, administrators, and parents. Their main point was striking: private and public schools are more alike than they are different. Through all their research, the authors found that it is not whether a school is private or public that causes the school’s success, but rather the school's location and composition. “The social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of the parents and the community in which the school was located” were much more important factors than a schools public or private status.
At second glance, this conclusion reinforces what I have experienced through my service, thought I would not have thought about in this way until now. This book is a great read for anyone looking for an overarching narrative of the public vs private school debate and raises an interesting point by focusing more on the similarities between the two than the differences.
Displaying 1 of 1 review