Our education reporter Eileen McClory is working to help with that with her recent analysis comparing private and public school proficiency scores.
5 things to know about her findings:
1. Some background: Private school vouchers now cost the state of Ohio about $1 billion a year.
2. Our analysis: Our reporters spent months gathering and analyzing datasets from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and talking to experts to create the best comparison available to parents of private and public schools. Read about how and why we did our analysis here.
3. Key finding: Of the 17 private schools located in the lowest performing local school districts, all but one private school outscored the public school districtwide average in English Language Arts (ELA) and math.
4. Other key finding: In higher-performing districts — some of which lose a large number of kids to private schools — only one of the nine private schools outscored the public districts in ELA and math.
5. Search the data: Go here to search the data to see proficiency test scores in ELA and math at local private schools and how they compare to the public school district they are in.
The full story: Read the full story here, including caveats on comparing test data from private and public schools, reaction from private and public schools, and input from experts on what studies say about how such schools stack up.
