Education Whims and Woes

James S. Coleman and Choice Theory

And so begins the third part of the book, entitled Signs of Resurrection. From theses concluding chapters, education is back on the uphill climb toward what really matters, the students, the teachers, and the learning. What this chapter focuses upon is James Coleman's third report, Coleman III, that compares public schools to private schools, bringing the debate over school vouchers into play.

If you have read the other posts, you will remember a little bit about James Coleman from the chapter on Martin Luther King and desegregation. In the late 1960s, Coleman had been enlisted to complete a report on the effects of integration on students that was given to the federal government. In 1980, he was asked to continue his work with education by collecting more data on students from public and private schools, over the course of 2-3 years. In the study, a nationally representative sample of high school students were tested as sophomores, then again as seniors, then they were followed into the labor force. The goal of the study was to find out how much students learned between their high schools years, along with the impact of schooling on college and the labor force.

Coleman surveyed 70,000 students from more than 1,000 high schools during the spring of 1980. From his first round of observations he found that sophomores in Catholic schools performed at higher levels than those in pubic schools. One reason given was that the parents of these students supported one another as they attended Mass and participated in religious activities together (194). Similar to his previous studies, Coleman III came under attack. Some of the criticisms could be ignored; however, two were deemed valid (194):

1. Students at private schools cannot be compared to public school students fairly because they come from families that are willing to pay for their child's education; these parents are more involved in their child's education. Going back to the results of Coleman I, family is a primary component in a child's education.
2. Although the study showed that sophomores in private schools performed at a higher level, it did not prove that they actually learned more at the private school.

Taking these criticisms into account, Coleman began his second round of data collection two years later. With this data, Coleman was able to show that private school students had learned more during their two years in school than their public school peers had. The effects of this? School vouchers were brought back into the limelight.

School vouchers are certificates that parents can use to apply towards the tuition of private schools. It was argued in the 1950s that if parents could choose their child's school, then schools would become more competitive and thus raise the academic bar in order to keep these students. The argument was, and still is, that school vouchers would undermine the public school system, resulting in a loss of money for the schools. But, one state in the nation, Wisconsin, has tried a voucher program.

In 1990, Milwaukee began the first urban school voucher program. It began with only 1,500 low-income students and only secular private schools. Six years later the program was increased to include 15,000 students and religious schools were allowed to participate, which caused problems and court battles. Once the courts ruled favorably, the enrollment swelled to 22,500 students. What were some of the results of the voucher system (208)?

• More students graduated from high school of they attended a Catholic or Lutheran school.
• A 2009 study stated that boys, in voucher schools learned more than in public schools -- BUT, girls learned more in public schools! No reason was given for this...ARGH!
• The school board actually got the union to accept changes to seniority provisions so that principals had more control over the teaching force.
• The research suggested that public schools student performance increased when the school faced competition from private schooling.

But these were not enough to get the entire nation moving towards vouchers. I can see the benefit for school vouchers, especially for some students, but I also understand the concern that it would take away the already dwindling public school funds. Ideally, if school vouchers were given to parents, maybe that would jump start all districts to find ways to enhance their schools, i.e., better teachers, more resources, less bureaucracy. What has emerged from this debate is the concept of charter schools. Not quite public, not quite private. Maybe these will help jump start education in a way that vouchers couldn't.

Peterson, Paul E. "James S. Coleman and Choice Theory." Saving Schools: from Horace Mann to Virtual Learning. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2010. Print.