Word: nces
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Scientists will argue for years about this report." So said Sociologist Robert Grain last week at a Washington meeting of 400 educators and lobbyists, called by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to scrutinize "Public and Private Schools," the latest report issued by University of Chicago Sociologist James S. Coleman. Also under review: "Minority Students in Catholic Secondary Schools," a study by Coleman's colleague, Sociologist Andrew Greeley...
Many of the assembled experts challenged the findings, declaring that Coleman had overstated his conclusions. Among the critics were staff members from NCES, the Government agency that sponsored the study. Their main point: some of his performance comparisons are invalid because 70% of private school students are college bound and pursue academic programs, compared with about a third of public school pupils (the rest are in vocational and commercial courses...
...response to NCES criticism, Coleman re-analyzed his data and agreed that pre-collegiate public school seniors, for example, do at least as well on tests as Catholic school seniors. While public and private college-bound programs may yield comparable results, Coleman insists that the school systems on the whole are not equal, if only because public schools channel so many students into nonacademic programs. In that practice and others, public schools can profit by private school experience. Said Columbia University Education Professor Diane Ravitch: "Coleman suggests a model in which the climate of learning is conditioned by good behavior...