The school you attend affects you for life

Commentary

As the school year draws to a close, many high school graduates look forward to their first year of post-secondary education in the fall. Everyone knows that some universities are better than others. Therefore, students compete fiercely to be admitted to top universities. A degree from a prestigious institution opens many more doors than the same degree from a lesser-known institution. We cannot pretend that these differences do not exist.

And yet, when it comes to primary education, we often hear that one public school is just as good as another. How else should we interpret the bright opposition from teacher unions to any type of school ranking? As far as unions are concerned, the solution to all public education problems is casting more money in the system. The last thing they want to hear is that some schools are better than others.

However, the idea that all public schools are equally good at educating students is demonstrably false. For example, research by John Hattie, director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, shows that the quality of teachers has an enormous influence on student performance. Schools with high quality teachers produce better results than schools with lower quality teachers.

And now we know that these superior results are not temporary; the effects do not fade over time. In fact, according to new research by Jennifer Manly and Dominika Šeblová of Columbia University, the benefits of attending a better school will last a lifetime.

Manly and Šeblová investigated more than 2,000 adults who attended high school in the 1960s and found that people who attended higher-quality schools (defined primarily as schools with a higher proportion of college-educated teachers) performed better on tests of cognitive ability later in life functioning than those who attended lower quality schools. In other words, the impact of good education can still be seen many decades later.

It is clear that there is much more to a good school than ensuring that teachers have a university education. In a book Review on teacher effectiveness, Rodney Clifton, professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba, notes that effective teachers ensure that curricula are coherent and taught consistently, enforce fair and consistent classroom policies, ensure that students stay on task and are well trained are in the disciplines they teach. The schools with the highest number of effective teachers are most likely to provide quality education to students.

Unfortunately in far too many cases the postal code of a family determines the quality of the school their children attend. The implications are sobering, as we now know that attending a lower quality school can potentially penalize students throughout their lives. Hence the pressure from teachers’ unions to spend more money on public education.

However, before we rush to turn on the spending taps, we should remember that while countries that spend the least on education do improve educational outcomes when spending is increased, the same cannot be said of wealthier countries such as Canada. In fact, when we to compare student performance across provinces, there is no correlation between academic performance and higher spending per student.

In this case, we must keep in mind the main point. Our aim should be to ensure that all pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, can attend quality schools.

Wealthy parents don’t let their children languish in low-quality public schools – they move to another neighborhood or enroll their children in an independent school where they can be assured of a high-quality education.

Unfortunately, poor parents have fewer options, as they often cannot afford to move, and they find it difficult to afford tuition at independent schools – even though many non-elite independent schools have relatively modest tuition fees. As a result, they remain in failing schools and the cycle continues.

It’s time we break the cycle. Counties should allow students to attend the schools of their choice, whether that be a public school, a charter school, or an independent school. In other words, let the money follow the student to virtually any school the parents choose. In this way, parents can ensure that their children receive a good education at a young age.

All parents in Canada, not just those with large bank accounts, should be able to receive a quality education for their children. The benefits of this approach will last a lifetime.

Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.