Characteristics of Public and Private Elementary and Secondary School Principals in the United States

Characteristics of Public and Private Elementary and Secondary School Principals in the United States PDF

Author: Amy Bitterman

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 57

ISBN-13:

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This report presents selected findings from the Public School Principal and Private School Principal Data Files of the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public and private K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. School districts associated with public schools and library media centers in public schools are also part of SASS. The purpose of SASS is to collect information that can provide a detailed picture of U.S. elementary and secondary schools and their staff. This information is collected through the following surveys: district, school, principal, teacher, and library media center. The 2011-12 SASS uses a school-based sample of public and private schools. Because SASS uses a school-based sample design, districts, principals, and library media centers associated with public schools were included, as were principals associated with private schools. Teachers associated with a selected school were sampled from a teacher list provided by the school or district. The selected samples include about 11,000 traditional and charter public schools, public school principals, and public school library media centers; 5,800 public school districts; 51,100 public school teachers; 3,000 private schools and their principals; and 7,100 private school teachers. The samples were drawn to support estimates by geography, grade span, and charter school status for public schools, and by geography, grade span, and affiliation group for private schools for a wide range of topics. The data were collected via mailed questionnaires with telephone and in-person field follow-up. The purpose of this First Look is to introduce new data through the presentation of tables containing descriptive information. Selected findings chosen for this report demonstrate the range of information available on the 2011-12 SASS Public School Principal and Private School Principal Data Files. The selected findings do not represent a complete review of all observed differences in the data and are not meant to emphasize any particular issue. This First Look report highlights findings from the SASS public and private principal surveys. The tables in this report contain counts and percentages demonstrating bivariate relationships. All of the results have been weighted to reflect the sample design and to account for nonresponse and other adjustments. The following are appended: (1) Standard Error Tables; (2) Methodology and Technical Notes; (3) Description of Data Files; and (4) Description of Variables. (Contains 21 tables and 17 footnotes.).

Can Public Schools Learn from Private Schools?

Can Public Schools Learn from Private Schools? PDF

Author: Richard Rothstein

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13:

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This book examines case studies of eight public and eight private schools that investigated different identifiable and transferable private school practices that public schools could adopt to improve student outcomes. Data came from interviews with administrators, teachers, parents, and students from diverse schools. Chapter 1, "Accountability to Parents," discusses resistance to parents, structural limits to parent accountability, managing participation at parochial schools, lower-income parent participation, cases of formal accountability to parents, and observations about accountability to parents. Chapter 2, "Clarity of Goals and Expectations," discusses the religious character of parochial schools, broader educational goals versus testable outcomes, anchoring expectations in scripture, and clarity of goals. Chapter 3, "Behavioral and Value Objectives," discusses different approaches to discipline and the teaching of ethical and religious values in public and private schools. Chapter 4, "Clear Standards for Teacher Selection and Retention," includes faculty collegiality, hiring standards and teacher quality, formal and informal teacher evaluation, teacher retention and dismissal, and observations on selection and retention. Chapter 5, "Similarity of Curriculum Materials," discusses formal curricular similarities. Chapter 6 discusses "Competitive Improvements." Chapter 7, "Conclusions," suggests that similarities between public and private schools and the problems they face outweigh the differences. Differences are determined mainly by parent socioeconomic and cultural factors. Case study descriptions are appended. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)

The Public School Advantage

The Public School Advantage PDF

Author: Christopher A. Lubienski

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-11-07

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 022608907X

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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.

Private Schools in the United States

Private Schools in the United States PDF

Author: Donald Hatch McLaughlin

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13:

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This report is based on the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) of 1987-88 and 1990-91 and is designed to provide a broad picture of private schools in the United States. The SASS collects data on only a sample of private schools, but collects a much richer picture of each participating school than does the Private School Universe Survey, a supplement to the Common Core of Data. In 1990-91, the SASS found that there were approximately 24,690 private elementary and secondary schools in the United States, serving an estimated 4,673,878 students in kindergarten through grade 12. This suggests that nearly one-quarter of the schools in the nation are private, and that 1 out of every 10 students are in private schools. Findings from the SASS are presented in sections on: (1) characteristics of private schools as units; (2) characteristics of students; (3) characteristics of teachers and principals; (4) educational goals of teachers and principals, their perceptions of school climate, and rates of graduation and college attendance; and (5) descriptive profiles by religious or other affiliation. Ten figures and 44 figures present survey findings. Two appendixes contain tables of standard errors and technical notes. (Contains 31 references.) (SLD)

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