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The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools Paperback – November 7, 2013

by Christopher A. Lubienski (Author), Sarah Theule Lubienski (Author)

4.4 45 ratings

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Nearly the whole of America’s partisan politics centers on a single question: Can markets solve our social problems? And for years this question has played out ferociously in the debates about how we should educate our children. From the growth of vouchers and charter schools to the implementation of No Child Left Behind, policy makers have increasingly turned to market-based models to help improve our schools, believing that private institutions—because they are competitively driven—are better than public ones. With The Public School Advantage, Christopher A. and Sarah Theule Lubienski offer powerful evidence to undercut this belief, showing that public schools in fact outperform private ones.

For decades research showing that students at private schools perform better than students at public ones has been used to promote the benefits of the private sector in education, including vouchers and charter schools—but much of these data are now nearly half a century old. Drawing on two recent, large-scale, and nationally representative databases, the Lubienskis show that any benefit seen in private school performance now is more than explained by demographics. Private schools have higher scores not because they are better institutions but because their students largely come from more privileged backgrounds that offer greater educational support. After correcting for demographics, the Lubienskis go on to show that gains in student achievement at public schools are at least as great and often greater than those at private ones. Even more surprising, they show that the very mechanism that market-based reformers champion—autonomy—may be the crucial factor that prevents private schools from performing better. Alternatively, those practices that these reformers castigate, such as teacher certification and professional reforms of curriculum and instruction, turn out to have a significant effect on school improvement.

Despite our politics, we all agree on the fundamental fact: education deserves our utmost care. The Public School Advantage offers exactly that. By examining schools within the diversity of populations in which they actually operate, it provides not ideologies but facts. And the facts say it clearly: education is better off when provided for the public by the public.

Review

“A powerful blow against the central premise that students at charter and voucher schools get a better education than their public school counterparts.”
-- David Kirp ― Slate

“Public School Advantage is a book to be reckoned with.The calling card of today’s leading voices in educational reform is the charge that our public schools are failing. But failing in comparison to what, the Lubienskis ask? Traditional public schools are not failing to keep pace with charters and private schools, at least in teaching students math, one of the two subjects at the heart of No Child Left Behind and the Common Core. On the contrary, traditional public schools in some cases appear to have advantages over other kinds of schools that are usually perceived as more innovative and rigorous. While more empirical work on the public school advantage needs to be completed―in subjects beyond math and grades beyond elementary school―the Lubienskis have launched a strong salvo in the contentious debate about school effectiveness.”
-- Jeffrey Aaron Snyder ― Boston Review

“The Public School Advantage is a complete and thorough analysis of America’s many different kinds of schools—secular, charter, and public—and should end the arguments about which kind is better. Chris and Sarah Lubienski provide both the data and the clear explanations needed to understand the many false claims made about the superiority of schools that are not public. The result is a ringing endorsement of public school achievement.” -- David Berliner, author of Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America’s Schools

“In The Public School Advantage, Christopher and Sarah Lubienski present studies that challenge assumptions of the market-based argument for education and provide a cogent analytical comparison that evaluates public versus private elementary school performance. While questions remain, they provide an important contribution to a timely topic. This book provides empirically based insight about the school choice debate and is worthy of our attention.” -- William F. Tate, past president of the American Educational Research Association

“Their data-driven argument is a valuable contribution to a vitally important topic.” -- Glenn Altschuler ― Oregonian

“This important book provides clear evidence that the ‘free-market model’ of schooling does not match the hype of the privatization movement. It demonstrates that public education is a valuable and successful institution. It must be protected and strengthened, not privatized.” -- Diane Ravitch, author of Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools

“The author’s conclusions make a strong case for the continued investment in public schools and for resisting market-driven approaches.”
― School Administrator

About the Author

Sarah Theule Lubienski is professor of education and associate dean of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of Chicago Press
Publication date

November 7, 2013
Dimensions

8.99 x 6.1 x 0.66 inches
ISBN-10

022608891X
ISBN-13

978-0226088914
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Illustrated edition (November 7, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 022608891X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226088914
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.03 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.99 x 6.1 x 0.66 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #946,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #97 in Charter Schools
- #830 in Common Core
- #2,024 in Education Administration (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 45 ratings

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Christopher Lubienski
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Christopher Lubienski is Professor of education policy at Indiana University. He has previously been named professor at the University of Illinois, Visiting Professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai, Senior Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand, and Sir Walter Murdoch Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University in Western Australia. He has authored both theoretical and empirical journal articles on questions of innovation and achievement in school choice systems, including peer-reviewed articles in the American Journal of Education, the Oxford Review of Education, the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Policy, and the Congressional Quarterly Researcher. His work has been featured in news media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, La Liberacion, Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Times Education Supplement, and Business Week.
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Sarah Theule Lubienski
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4.4 out of 5

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Martha Makowski

Recommend

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2013

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I found The Public School Advantage to be an accessible and informative treatment of recent data on the effects of public school education on mathematics performance, relative to other types of schools. It provides a detailed introduction to the topic, balancing an overview of the issues and debate with data about student performance on mathematics assessments at public and private schools. This balance meant I never felt bogged down in the details, but also got enough information to feel satisfied with the authors' conclusions and believe that as a result of reading this book that I can talk with some authority on the issues surround math education at public and private schools. I found the section in which the authors identified the instuctional factors that differ between public and private schools the most compelling part of their argument and would recommend that chapter, in particular, to anyone interested in public versus private education.

I think the structure of the book is worth noting: it starts with a discussion of the issues, followed by a detailed overview of the evidence, and then draws conclusions. The details of the methodology are left to the (almost 100 page) appendix. While this format might leave a critical reader hanging with questions for a while, the text is also more accessible as a result, and the questions do get answered.

I would recommend this book!

21 people found this helpful

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Joe Adams

Great analysis, fits with other studies.

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

The methodology is exactly as it should be, controlling for a wide variety of factors associated with school performance, particularly race and poverty. The fact that public schools outperform others is no surprise. What was surprising is how poorly specific denominational schools performed. The data used are among the most reliable and widely accepted.

Some reviewers assert that the data or methods are flawed, but provide no specifics and do not appear to understand statistics. They're basically trolls.

This is an outstanding treatment of a very important question and needs to be taken seriously by policymakers and parents. We need more comparative analyses like this, particularly those that take into effect state influences. In some states, these findings may vary, being exaggerated or diminished by state policy (particularly those in the South). That is an issue that needs to be explored in more detail. This book fits well with School Choice and the Question of Accountability: The Milwaukee Experience, Finnish Lessons (few, if any, private schools there), Endangering Prosperity, and Surpassing Shanghai.

We dilly-dally at our own risk.

4 people found this helpful

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ranae beyerlein

education's anti-bash

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book gives a detailed accounting of how the decimation of the public's trust in public education is created by the misinformation available.

4 people found this helpful

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Blaine Wisniewski

Clarity

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is a book that is long overdue. After so much bashing of public schools and attendant vilification of teachers therein, and actual analysis turns that on its head. I hope this book gains some substantial readership in government circles. I don't hold out much hope of that for Republican politicos... because they would actually have to READ it. For the rest of us, pass the word.

7 people found this helpful

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LP

Makes big claims while being overly vague

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is clearly not a peer reviewed journal or article. The overall structure of the book is confusing. It begins by being pro market model and ends being anti market model. It uses terms like better, efficient and effective, while never taking an opportunity to explain what they mean by each of these terms. It appeared to be an opinion piece cloaked in the veil of an academic text. It seemed to be an apples to oranges comparison of previous research and current research, where one focused on 8-12 grade education (past) and this current research focused on k-8. Read it if you have time, but look for other more scholarly articles to fully form an opinion. It was however well written.

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2013

Verified Purchase

Very good research on students' performance data, with technical mastery in statistical methods of measurement. Surprising results: public schools perform better. Neoliberal proposal doesn't hold, particularly the drive to privatization of schools. Privatization of public goods is an American obsession, but there are public goods that we have to handle as "public". Public schools can be good, or even better than private ones.

7 people found this helpful

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jamie lee

Public education

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

Dr. Lubienski and his wife do great research on behalf of the improvement of education for all students. It is beneficial to have the research support the effectiveness of public education because it is the default education for all, including students with disabilities, low socioeconomic, and English learners.

10 people found this helpful

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Phil Parish

It is about time!

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2014

Verified Purchase

Finally, someone supports American public education. These two Illinois professors do it in a scholarly and professional way: with well-documented research.

2 people found this helpful

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