Sweden adopted this model. Results have dropped like a stone. National government now to nationalize all schools, many private charters also in financial trouble. Total program unmitigated disater.

OECD study of charters and privatization says it improves nothing.

I love that you tried an empirical approach in today’s blog.

The improvement you show is very tiny, a high-performing charter school would expect 20%-30% improvement over either school board.  So I checked if other studies had been done, and what they showed.  There are several studies, and like yours they show only tiny gains for public schools.  I’ve provided two samples below.

Broadly, the studies agree that competition doesn’t work because the public schools simply don’t respond to outside competition.  They lose students, they lose funding, they lose prestige, and they lose the trust of the parents.  But the hoofs go down and the ears go up, they don’t change their ways.

The Effects of Charter School Competition on School District Resource Allocation
http://eaq.sagepub.com/content/48/1/3.short
The authors find no support for the hopeful prediction that competition from charter schools will compel school district leaders to shift resources to achievement-oriented activities.

The Effects of Competition Between Schools on Educational Outcomes: A Review for the United States
http://rer.sagepub.com/content/72/2/279.short
The positive gains from competition are modest in scope with respect to realistic changes in levels of competition. The review also notes several methodological challenges and recommends caution in reasoning from point estimates to public policy.

Chile and Sweden to abandon partial privatization plans due to total failure.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/08/pisa-education-test-scores-meaning

Now Doug there you go again!. Competition will deny control of Ontario’s monolithic schoolboards by teacher unions and open up the system to vast changes. Just think how happy the vast majority of parents will be when they know what a great education their kids are getting.Hearing footsteps old boy….

Not going to happen. The days of school reform are coming to a close as they offer no added value.

What people actually want is high quality, unionized, education owned and delivered only by the state.

Those are the winner systems everywhere in the world. Everywhere you look partially privatized systems are actually making things worse. Systems like Sweden that were fully funded are in financial trouble.  The more Sweden. The more Sweden privatizes, the farther they fall behind Finland, all state, 4% private.

What people actually want is high-quality, responsive education, managed by parents and delivered, in trust, by leaders who respect the values and goals of the participating families.  State-monopolized education, presently populated by self-interested activists crowding out traditional, rigorous academics, runs anathema to the needs and expectations of many families.

I am part of a small “co-op” with another highly-motivated family to share resources in languages arts and science.  No unions, no bureaucracy, no convoluted math methods or unsystematic whole-language practices. 

We know that is what you want. There is no evidence for it.

Ontario flatly rejected John Tory’s plan.

Vouchers have never passed a public referendum.

Nations like Sweden and Chile that HAVE moved in this direction are reversing course and dismantling the system now.

Polls from BC show the population wants to end existing support for private schools.

All of the leading education nations of the world use high quality public unionized sysyems to achieve greatness.

Stocks phrases given by administrators to parents who question the lack of rigour in the Ontario curriculum:  “Oh, well, yours is the first complaint that we’ve heard on this.”  Another one:  “There’s really no evidence for what you’re saying.” 

How do you square the statement, “We know that is what you want,” with the expressed needs and desires of over 2000 parents, in an online petition to Liz Sandals, requesting a return to a more traditional delivery of math curriculum?

Consider the level of frustration expressed in the comments section of the petition.  One of them is from a senior high school math teacher:

“I have been in a math classroom for over 25 years and have seen the standards continuously lowered, especially in the last ten years. It is an appalling state of affairs. The parents of Ontario should unite in a class action suit against the government. We will have a whole generation of young people unable to get good paying jobs due to their lack of skills and knowledge.”

When the delivery of education prompts a teacher-initiated petition (thank you, Teresa Murray) and easily gathers two thousand votes of support, it points to a much-needed dialogue and discussion about school reform in its various manifestations - yes, including school choice.  The latter is the course of action that will begin to dawn on parents when they realize that administrators – beginning with Liz Sandals at the top of the hierarchy – repeatedly choose not to listen to their wishes, and their pockets are emptied from paying for private tutors and learning centres.

I remember 10 years ago when the President of x publisher in Canada read a book and then decided to publish a Math Curriculum that has played great havoc with Canadian children`s lives by crippling their ability to execute math.

It`s not just the Ministry,it`s also business.
My back seizes up when I think of mass marketing to schools and indoctrination of thousands of teachers playing with the lives of millions of students.

Ah competition.

In terms of ecology when critters compete for limited resources the very definition is that there are winners and losers.  Limited resources means some secure them some do not.

So students compete for good schools—- some secure them some do not.  Good schools are not like fast food - they take time to develop with strong leaders and gifted teachers.  There is a limited pool for this sort of talent.  Your understanding how rare this talent is may be your Achilles heal.

You have consistently given administration a pass.  Administration selects teachers, sets timetables, and determines the tone of each school.  In Ouchi`s book, ``making schools work``  there is a measured considered argument for school leadership.

The losers in your competition paradigm will be the children.  Once the `good`schools are full what happens to the rest of the candidates…...

A year in the life of a child…....

Who gets into the good schools- the usual suspects.  The children of what Nancy and Bev refer to as `professional parents``.

in competition for schools the schools do just fine—- the children in the system lose.

Before we get into the `hunger games scenario`` this group needs to seriously address the big idea—- the current system is bereft of sound leadership.

Look up - the critical problem is not in the classroom nor at the union table.  We are bereft of sound leadership. 

that is the fight.  All the best to you.  I am following the good lead of ``x`` and focusing on other matters.