Public Education versus Private Education: An Annotated Bibliography - Research Paper Example

August Public Education versus Private Education: An Annotated Bibliography Anand, Priyanka, Mizala, Alejandra, and Andrea Repetto. “Using School Scholarships to Estimate the Effect of Private Education on the Academic Achievement of Low Income Students in Chile.” Education Working Paper Archive (2008): 1-55. Print. Anand, Mizala, and Repetto examine if providing vouchers for low-income students in Chile would have an impact on their academic achievement. They used the standardized test called the SIMCE (Educational Quality Measurement System). Their study included the 2002 SIMCE data, where tests are provided to fourth graders. Findings show that students in fee-charging private voucher schools had slightly higher scores than students in public schools. The difference in standardized test scores accounted for 10 points, a test score gain of 0.2 standard deviations. Furthermore, there was no difference in the academic achievement of students in the private voucher-fee charging treatment group and students in free private voucher schools. This study shows that low-income students had better performance in private schools than their counterparts in public schools. It will be added to the part of the paper, where I discuss World Comparative Studies. Since it is set in Chile, it provides a different perspective than studies done in the U.S. Aslam, Monazza. “The Relative Effectiveness of Government and Private Schools in Pakistan: Are Girls Worse Off?” Education Economics 17.3 (2009): 329-354. Print. Aslam wants to know if Pakistani households spend less on girls through differential school-kind enrollment and if this has implications for the quality of education received by Pakistani women. She used the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey and conducted a school-based survey in Lahore district in Punjab province, Pakistan from 2002 to 2003 to answer her research questions. Findings show that boys are sent more to private schools than girls. Private schools, she assessed, provide better quality education, in terms of mathematics and literacy. She concludes that girls are in the losing team, when household expenditures and quality of schooling are considered. This study is important to Women Studies. It shows the grave disparity in academic performance and access to education between female and male students, because of gender and cultural factors. Bandyopadhyay, Madhumita and Ramya Subrahmanian. “Gender Equity in Education: A Review of Trends and Factors.” CREATE Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 18 (2008). United Kingdom: UK Department for International Development (DFID). Print. Bandyopadhya and Subrahmanian assess the rate of participation of children in elementary education in India, with concentration on the aspect of gender equity. Their findings matched Aslam's study. Bandyopadhya and Subrahmanian observe that girls are sent more to government schools that are perceived as lower quality, while boys are sent more to private schools. Girls also drop out at higher rates and perform more poorly in these public schools than boys in private schools, because of poor gender mainstreaming practices that provide to female needs and concerns, such as security and restroom facilities. Bandyopadhya and Subrahmanian blame the Indian government for its lack of political power in addressing gender gaps in access to quality education. This article is also considered part of Women's Studies. It underscores the importance of culture and government intervention in providing quality public education. Culture affects school-type preferences of households and how women and men “should be” educated. Braunstein, Elissa. “The Feminist Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society: An Investigation of Gender Inequality and Economic Growth.” Journal of Economic Issues (Association for Evolutionary Economics) 42.4 (2008): 959-979. Print. Braunstein uses neoclassical growth literature to show that gender equity impacts economic growth. Her article shows that gender equity in education can directly contribute to social equity, because when more women are educated, they can have better employment and/or livelihood opportunities. Educated women provide productive labor that will promote economic growth. This article is important in defending the importance of gender equity as an educational outcome for public and private education. It will be included in the Women's Studies section of my paper, because it magnifies the contribution of women education to the economic and social development of nations. Brunello, Giorgio and Lorenzo Rocco. “Educational Standards in Private and Public Schools.” Economic Journal 118.533 (2008): 866-1887. Print. Using an economics perspective like Braunstein did, Brunello and Rocco provide evidence that in Italy, private schools are much more heterogeneous, with some providing high-quality education and others giving very poor-quality education. They provide the examples of “Diploma no problem” private schools, which mean that students are given easier exams and curriculum, so that they are assured of their diplomas. They argue that these schools have lower educational standards. They assert that the government or country level impacts educational standards, through influencing curriculum choice, tests and grading standards. They used the sequential Hotelling-type model to test their hypotheses: “(a) the private school sets a higher educational standard than the public school; (b) the private school sets a lower educational standard than the public school” (1868). Findings show that public schools have higher educational standards than private schools, thereby making public education “better” than private education. This is an interesting article that fits the World Comparative Studies. It demonstrates how government role can impact the quality of education through raising educational standards in public education. DiPerna, Paul. “Virginia's Opinion on K-12 Education and School Choice. School Choice Survey in the State.” Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice (2009): 1-36. Print. DiPerna, through the Braun Research, collected a total of 1,203 completed interviews with “likely voters” in the State of Virginia. The interviews sought to to evaluate voter knowledge and attitudes toward public institutions and policies, new ideas, and the state’s K-12 education system. When asked on the kind of education they would prefer, “40% of parents said they would prefer a regular public school for their child,” “39% of K-12 parents say they would like to send their child to a private school,” 11% prefer homeschooling, while 8% prefer a charter school (8). Findings indicate that more citizens (62%) believe that a public education can provide a good or excellent education (DiPerna 9). These findings reflect the confidence of parents in the quality of their public education system. Like Brunello and Rocco, DiPerna's study underlines the value of government investment in public education to enhance public education standards. It seems that in Virginia, parents have high confidence in the quality of public education. This article will be used in Education studies. Kamwendo, Martha. “A Comparison of Students' Achievement in Private and Conventional Public Secondary Schools in Malawi from a Gender Perspective.” Research in Education 83.1 (2010): 17-25. Print. Kamwendo compared student performance in secondary private and public schools in Malawi. She explicitly uses the gender viewpoint in her analysis. She determined trends in student achievement by using statistics from the Malawi National Examinations Board from 1997 onwards. Findings show that both boys and girls have higher pass rates in public than in private schools. Girls, however, do less well than boys in both public and private schools. This is an interesting study, because like in Italian schools studied by Brunello and Rocco, public school students had better academic performance than their counterparts in private schools. However, girls had lower performance, which can be affected by gender and cultural factors. This article will be cited in the Women's Studies section of the paper. Lubienski, Christopher, Crane, Corinna, and Sarah Theule Lubienski. “What Do We Know About School Effectiveness?” Phi Delta Kappan 89.9 (2008): 689-695. Print. Lubienski, Crane, and Lubienski provide evidence that public education can offer a high quality education. They analyzed the data from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The data that has a sampling of 30,000 students in fourth and eighth grades and findings show “public schools to be outperforming private schools in mathematics achievement after student background factors were considered” (689). This article is included in the Education section of the paper. It provides insight on how public education can also provide better education than private schools. Mehrotra, Santosh and Parthasarthi R. Panchamukhi. “Private Provision of Elementary Education in India: Findings of a Survey in Eight States.” Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education 35.4 (2006): 421-442. Print. Mehrotra and Panchamukhi surveyed eight states to compare public and private education in India. Findings show that private and public schools do not both contribute to social and gender equity. They observe that private school teachers are poorly trained, even when private schools have better facilities. Private schools may have process and outcome indicators that are better than public schools, but they also do not generate higher social and gender equity. This article provides startling findings. It seems that private education in India cannot provide high quality education and enhance social and gender equity. This study will be cited in the Women's Studies section of the paper. Morley, Louise. “Gender mainstreaming: myths and measurement in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania.” Compare: A Journal of Comparative & International Education 40.4 (2010): 533-550. Print. Morley examines the concept of gender mainstreaming in Ghana's and Tanzania's higher education system. She stresses that when gender mainstreaming permeates “everyday social relations,” this will enhance the impact of education on social equity (533). She argues for the importance of gender equity as a lived experience that goes beyond access to and representation in the education sector. This study will be cited in the Women's Studies section of the paper. It is an important study, because it examines the phenomenon of gender mainstreaming and its weaknesses in the higher education system. Read More