A Public-Private Education Controversy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

A Public-Private Education Controversy - Essay Example t the slight private school advantage discovered by Coleman vanished when differences in pupils’ course preference and family context were considered (Cookson, 1992). John Chubb and Terry Moe are the current sources of ‘impartial evidence’ of the superiority of private school. Numerous policymakers and opinion-editorial writers have reiterated their argument as dogma, and large numbers of people have been convinced of public assistance for private schools on their influence (Hakim et al., 1994). As analytical writers and peer analysts have emphasized, the study of Chubb and Moe of private and public high schools falls short in locating a private school lead when pupils’ course preferences and background attributes are examined. The failure of the investigation of Chubb and Moe to provide them substantiation for their arguments is not that unexpected. The proof they draw upon originates entirely from the ‘High School and Beyond Study’, the infor mation that also botched Coleman’s study (Hakim et al., 1994, 66). Furthermore, in spite of the many pages they used on justifying why their treatment of this information is superior over the methodologies of other researchers, Chubb and Moe disregard almost all that has been taught about how to ethically deal with significantly erroneous, otherwise insignificant, information (Cookson, 1992). Yet, they chose to work unconventionally. Some of their questionable methods are (Hakim et al., 1994, 66): (1) developing a school organization instrument consisting of a large number of factors, making it practically unattainable to isolate the impacts of any one factor; (2) merging private and exclusive private schools alongside Catholic ones in a manner that involuntarily awarded a private school lead in their study; (3) and... School choice could be an exceptional encouragement for schools to strive more to draw the attention of customers but it is no replacement for planning educational motivations where in there are incentives for enhancing academic performance and sanctions for failure. The notion of an accountability mechanism for education institutions that includes incentives and sanctions is contentious and unconventional. The notion of an accountability mechanism founded on private school choice is contentious and unconventional too, and the NAEP and other findings reveal that it would fail. It is quite evident that even though the people refuse to accept private school choice, it will not cope with the existing situation in public education. There are two possibilities: one, there will be a novel form of accountability process in education that the educator and the people can trust, or, second, some unwise accountability program that will only harm education will be enforced.