Here's the link: http://www.nola.com/education/index..._voucher_students_sco.html#incart_maj-story-2 To summarize....the high stakes test results are in, and students who went to private schools on voucher scored well below the state average....69 percent of public school students scoring at or above grade level, versus just 40 percnet for the voucher recipients. This does not surprise me one bit. (Some will argue; its only been one school year....maybe given 2-3 years, these kids' grades will improve. I doubt it.) My opinion on the voucher program has always been, kids who are taught the value of education by their parents will succeed in school - any school. The parent is at least as important to a child's education as a teacher -- I say this as the 20+ years husband of an absolutely outstanding public school teacher. Handing a parent a voucher and sending them with their child to a private school does not create parental involvement.
I would have a 7th grade double flunky if his mom and I didn't put in so much effort towards him. Teachers can provide the opportunity, but we have to force him to study and go before and after school to take advantage of it. That is the difference in him making A's and B's and failing.
Great post. Sincere question. Were the vouchers given exclusively to "at risk" kids? Reason I ask is that one would tend to think the parents who care enough to get there kids out of underachieving schools, etc. would be on top of things. I can't open the link right now but was wondering something. How did they set up the assessment? I ask because private schools don't give the "High Stakes Tests". Did those kids return to "their home school" during the period the State tests were given?
I can't answer that. I really don't know the procedure, other than the kids have to be coming from a "failing" school. But I have seen my share of parents who "care" about their kid's grades, to the extent that they will come to school and bitch about them. But then they blame the school, and don't acknowledge their role in the process. Its a requirement of accepting the vouchers that the child still has to take the same high stakes test as the public school students.
