Re: PHYS-L Digest - 28 Feb 2000 to 29 Feb 2000 (#2000-68)

["Richard W. Tarara" <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Ward" <dward@BUSTER.UU.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
> 2) I confess that my child is enrolled in private school. With far fewer
> funds and facilities
> than the local public schools, the standardized test scores at my son's
> school are far beyond
> the public school's scores.

> Why hasn't Federal largesse resulted in better public school >performance?


> (BTW, I am adamantly opposed to school vouchers- I fervently
> believe the government
> ultimately will ruin many fine private schools- not to mention their
> pricing!- should the government
> get involved. As a rule, the government- particularly the Federal
> government- ruins any social
> institution it touches.) As fast as a new private school opens here it
> fills up, as parents willingly
> sacrifice financially in order to flee the failing governmental education
> system.

I think you answer your own question here.  As more and more parents who
really care about and participate in their children's education remove their
children from public education, then what is left for the teachers and
administrators to work with?  The kids with little or no parental support!
Couple this with other factors like:

a) very inhomogeneous populations both social/economic and ethnic in the
public schools (much more homogenous in the private)
b) classrooms that include both EH and MH students who often end up
disruptive since they cannot properly participate in the work.
c)  the PC reluctance to track students hence having classrooms with the
broadest ranges of abilities.
d)  the 'legal' restrictions that tie the hands of teachers and
administrator in terms of getting disruptive children out of the classrooms
where they are preventing the others from learning.

etc., etc., etc.  (I have lots of stories--my wife is a public school,
elementary principal.)

Considering all this, there is little mystery as to why the public schools
are unable to match private school performance.

Rick

*********************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Associate Professor of Physics
Department of Chemistry & Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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