Georgia’s Education Landscape
By Jennifer Maciejewski
Whether you’re relocating to the area as the result of a job transfer or a desire to live near family, one thing is certain if you have children and you are looking for a new home: schools matter. But with so many variables to consider, from test scores to the average class size, figuring out what qualities make up the best schools is often more challenging than it appears.
Beyond the Numbers
When choosing a school for their children, parents typically first turn to test scores for guidance; however, statistics often tell only part of the story. For instance, on the surface, a recent study released by the National Center for Education Statistics appears to confirm the commonly held assumption that students in private schools score higher than their public school counterparts. After all, based on the average mean reading and math scores alone, fourth and eighth grade private school students scored between 7.8-18.1 points higher than those in public school. But when the report’s authors took a closer look at the numbers and compared students with similar racial, economic and social backgrounds, the private school advantage disappeared in all areas except eighth grade reading, with fourth grade public school students outperforming their private school peers in math.
“Data is a very powerful tool, and it is important for parents to fully understand what it means,” says Kathy Cox, state superintendent of schools. “If a school did not make Adequate Yearly Progress [according to No Child Left Behind], parents must figure out why. It may be the performance of one subgroup of students on one test. I would urge families to learn the whole picture before making judgments about the success of a school or school system based on a number.”
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