Bad report card: strange study habits at GAO.

• Author: Cavanaugh, Tim
• Position: Citings - General Accounting Office

DOES PRIVATE management of failing public schools make a difference? A recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report looked for a consistent trend, but with little success. Comparing privately managed public schools with similar public schools in Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Phoenix, St. Paul, and San Francisco, the GAO noted significantly higher reading and math scores in some cities, lower scores in others, and no difference in the rest.

The GAOLS results are, predictably, being seized upon by opponents of private school management. "GAO finds no gains in privately run public schools," clucked a report by the National Education Association, the national teachers' union. But can the study really justify such a broad conclusion?

Schools that get handed over to private management are often those with the poorest performance records to begin with. Thus, while it's possible to compare these with similar schools in their regions, the privately managed schools are starting out at a disadvantage. Comparing performance over lime at privately managed schools would be more revealing than comparisons between schools, and here there is more...