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Private School Leader Says U.S. Education Stats Skewed


(AgapePress) - The head of a Christian schools organization is highly skeptical of a U.S. Department of Education report, which says public school students generally do as well or better in reading and math as their private school counterparts.

A study conducted for the government by the Educational Testing Service found that private school students were ahead only in eighth-grade reading. The study also found students in conservative Christian schools lagged behind those in public schools in eighth-grade math.

Ken Smitherman, president of the Association of Christian Schools International, believes the findings were essentially based on a computer model of a student and reflected grades of individual students -- not private schoolers as a whole.

"This was a manipulation done supposedly to compare students with certain traits and characteristics, and there's some question as to how that data was achieved, whether that would be a totally accurate approach," Smitherman said. "And what even some analysts have suggested is that by simple tweaking of certain aspects of that model, you can get totally different results."

He suggests the report may be a defense mechanism to refute the presence of failing urban public schools. However, Smitherman acknowledges Christian schools need to make serious improvements in math scores.

"We continue to always be concerned about math proficiency skills. They did not particularly test the areas of science," he said. "We think that those are areas that cannot be ignored and have to be focused on continually. And so we would make no point of dodging or excusing any low scores that would come out of the area of mathematics."

Smitherman says the study is not the customary manner that National Center for Education Statistics has reported out test results in the past.