- Joined
- 3 January 2007
- Posts
- 10
- Reactions
- 0
I have found an article related to this topic. See last few sentences below.
(Article by Ross Gittins, The Age, 24/11/2004)
Various studies have shown that, on average, students from private schools gain higher tertiary entrance ranks (ENTERs) than students from government schools. According to one study, the average ENTER was 5.9 percentage points higher for independent schools and 5 percentage points higher for Catholic systemic schools.
But two new studies by Paul Miller, professor of economics at the University of Western Australia, have put that result in a new light. One study, with Rosemary Win, looked at the academic performance of students completing first year at UWA. The other, with Elisa Rose Birch, looked at the performance of students completing first year at another, anonymous large university.
Miller and Win found that, at the end of first year, the order had been reversed. Taking students with the same ENTER, those from government schools out-performed those from Catholic schools, with the Catholic kids out-performing those from independent schools.
How is this reversal explained? Here, of course, we move from hard statistical facts to the more arguable interpretation of facts.
Researchers argue that private school students tend to have higher ENTERs because they enjoy a higher level of confidence in their own ability, because the school environment is more conducive to learning and because their parents have higher aspirations for them.
It seems, however, that the superior resources and more attentive coaching of non-government schools serve to artificially inflate students' ENTERs relative to their raw abilities. The private schools' "value-added" is short-lived.
It may be that students from non-government schools have difficulty adjusting to the greater freedom and reduced supervision of uni life.
You discover another reversal when you look at the types of schools students attended. Many studies have demonstrated that, in general, students do better in single-sex schools than coeducational schools. But Miller and Win found that students from co-ed schools tended to get better university grades than those from single-sex schools.
Why? Perhaps because they're less kerflummoxed by getting to uni and discovering the opposite sex.
(Article by Ross Gittins, The Age, 24/11/2004)
Various studies have shown that, on average, students from private schools gain higher tertiary entrance ranks (ENTERs) than students from government schools. According to one study, the average ENTER was 5.9 percentage points higher for independent schools and 5 percentage points higher for Catholic systemic schools.
But two new studies by Paul Miller, professor of economics at the University of Western Australia, have put that result in a new light. One study, with Rosemary Win, looked at the academic performance of students completing first year at UWA. The other, with Elisa Rose Birch, looked at the performance of students completing first year at another, anonymous large university.
Miller and Win found that, at the end of first year, the order had been reversed. Taking students with the same ENTER, those from government schools out-performed those from Catholic schools, with the Catholic kids out-performing those from independent schools.
How is this reversal explained? Here, of course, we move from hard statistical facts to the more arguable interpretation of facts.
Researchers argue that private school students tend to have higher ENTERs because they enjoy a higher level of confidence in their own ability, because the school environment is more conducive to learning and because their parents have higher aspirations for them.
It seems, however, that the superior resources and more attentive coaching of non-government schools serve to artificially inflate students' ENTERs relative to their raw abilities. The private schools' "value-added" is short-lived.
It may be that students from non-government schools have difficulty adjusting to the greater freedom and reduced supervision of uni life.
You discover another reversal when you look at the types of schools students attended. Many studies have demonstrated that, in general, students do better in single-sex schools than coeducational schools. But Miller and Win found that students from co-ed schools tended to get better university grades than those from single-sex schools.
Why? Perhaps because they're less kerflummoxed by getting to uni and discovering the opposite sex.
