Private Schools vs. Rural Public Schools: Game Over...

   According to Jonathan Small, President of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (a corporate think tank), it's game over when it comes to comparing student ACT scores of our rural public schools with the private and corporate school competition. Mr. Small writes for The McCarville Report "Scan the academic results of Oklahoma schools (both public and private) especially such indicators as average ACT scores, and you'll notice a worrying trend: the graduates of smaller, rural schools often... rank poorly when compared to their peers in larger, urban and suburban schools." He goes on to opine that it's because smaller, rural schools have fewer "challenging courses" for students than larger schools have, but it's not because rural schools have less money or the parents of students have less money.
   The 2016 average ACT scores for all Oklahoma schools was recently released by the State Department of Education and may be examined at oklahomawatch.org. Oklahoma Watch states that "You can analyze the table (average schools' scores) to see if scores in your county, or the state as a whole, tended to be lower among schools with higher poverty rates, defined as the percentage of students on free or reduced-price lunches."
   We may determine if Mr. Small is correct in assuming that average ACT scores are not related to funding levels, but related to "school excellence" as judged by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA). The "average composite ACT scores" for listed schools in McClain County are as follows: Blanchard - 22.0, free or reduced lunch 42%; Newcastle - 21.6, free or reduced lunch 20%; Washington - 21.3, free or reduced lunch 28.8%; Purcell - 21.2, free or reduced lunch 42.4%; Wayne - 20.8, free or reduced 69.3%; Dibble - 18.7, free or reduced 42.1
The best, most scientific method of examining and analyzing the OCPA's assertions would be to randomly select larger, urban or suburban schools, and compare the average ACT scores and poverty rates with randomly selected smaller, rural schools. However, we won't randomly select schools in either group, but "cherry pick" schools for both groups, since private schools regularly pick students for inclusion. The OCPA also usually "cherry picks" data for analysis, so, in the spirit of cherry picking, we'll select specific private schools to analyze ACT scores and compare to the data above from McClain County public schools.
Casady - 27.3, Bishop Mcguinness - 25.2, Heritage Hall - 24.8, Regent Prep - 29.1, Holland Hall - 27.6, Cascia Hall - 26.6
After comparing the private school ACT scores with the McClain County school ACT scores, it appears that Mr. Small is correct in his assumption that student education in urban and suburban (private) is better than student education in small and/or rural schools. After all, he has the proof - just look at the six private school ACT scores compared to the six McClain County school ACT scores!
   The free or reduced price lunch percentages are not provided by the private schools, but it is assumed that they are 0% free or reduced for all privates. As a matter of fact, if a correlation co-efficient analysis were conducted for all schools represented, it would be a safe bet that the poverty rate for both private and public schools are directly correlated to ACT scores. This means that the wealthier the parents of students are, the higher the school ACT scores. Also, the amount of money  available for schools and spent for students is probably also directly correlated with student performance as ascertained by ACT scores. Mr. Small and his ilk at the OCPA expect the public to believe just the opposite - that ACT scores are directly correlated with a school's performance, and that private schools are just better than public schools. After all, the evidence indicates that private schools are superior to public schools.
   The name of the game for the OCPA and their corporate allies is to prove that private schools are better than public schools, so public schools can be weaned away from public tax dollars and privates can compete for tax dollars... They must convince the public, however, and the Oklahoma public is a little smarter than the OCPA thinks...