U.S. private school students not much better than public school students in math

Hechinger Report by Jill Barshay  /

In the 2012 international test that measures what 15-year-old students know, called PISA, private school students did only a smidgen better than public school students on the math test. Almost seven percent of American 15-year-olds attend private school and they scored an average of 486, only four points more than the average public school student, and still below the international average of 494. Private school students did do a bit better in science at 508, surpassing the international average of 501.

Where private school students shine is in reading, outperforming their public school peers by 22 points. Private school students, if they formed a separate nation, would rank at #10 behind Ireland in this subject. However, if we broke out the private school students for each nation, their scores would be higher too and American private school kids would no longer be among the top 10 readers. Indeed, US private school students would be no better than average.

2012 PISA test scores of public school and private school students
			Reading	Math	Science
Country	Category	%	Mean	Mean	Mean
United States of America	public	93.01	497	482	498
United States of America	private	6.99	519	486	508
OECD Total	public	82.37	490	481	492
OECD Total	private	17.54	519	514	520
OECD Average	public	80.69	491	489	496
OECD Average	private	19.2	527	522	528
OECD Total = OECD Total – (OECD as single entity) – each country contributes in proportion to the number of 15-year-olds enrolled in its schools
OECD Average – (country average) – mean data for all OECD countries – each country contributes equally to the average
Data generated from http://pisa2012.acer.edu.au