A Conversation with Alexandria about Private Schools

Alexandria and her Dad brought up a very good point. Let's say some kids in private schools do better in single sex schools. Does that mean kids in public schools will?? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe kids in private schools do better because their parents push them harder, because they are paying money for them to be in school. Mr. Renault (Stephen right??) brings up a point that someone who is rebutting this argument could use. Let's say I am affirmative and I show evidence that kids in single sex schools do better on tests, but those kids were in private schools, . If you are negative you could say that the reason they did better wasn't because they are in single sex schools but that they are in private schools.

This is going to be true in all the cases involving education research, because it is impossible to not have other variables when you are dealing with humans. So let's say I want the kids in my school to do better and I decide to give them a brand new books in math. And sure enough, my scores improve. But , what if in addition to the new books I also spent 20 more minutes a day during math and I gave different and more homework and I used more technology and I changed the way the kids were sitting. Well, now do we know if the new books were what made the difference?? Maybe it was the 20 more minutes?? But I just want the kids to do better I am not going to not make more changes so someone studying this new book can prove their book is good. No, I am going to do everything I can to help the kids. Well, this is exactly what happens in schools. People decide the kids need to do better and they make lots of changes to make the school better. And then no one knows what the one thing was that made the difference. This is an important issue that we will be debating and need to understand. Thanks Alexandria for bringing it up!!