Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Study finds school uniforms harm achievement

Mandatory student uniforms in public schools have long been touted by the Far Right as a panacea.

Uniforms are a blight against basic rights and economic populism, as uniforms force cash-strapped families to spend more on school clothes (contrary to supporters' discredited babblings). And most school uniforms are made in abusive overseas sweatshops - a scandal the pop-up media has ignored.

In its attempts to stage-manage the public's attitudes, the media is also ignoring this story: A new study by Ryan Yeung published in Educational Policy (a peer-reviewed journal for educators) says uniforms do not help academic achievement or discipline.

In fact, uniforms appear to be harmful: In reading and math tests, students in private schools that require uniforms scored below those in private schools with no such policy. Among public schools, uniforms also produced no improvement.

Where's the media in reporting this study? As far as I know, none of the major news outlets have covered it at all.

The follows L.A.'s right-wing city council passing a resolution demanding that the city's public schools require uniforms.

America is better off than it was a year ago. Few will dispute that. Except in one very important way, as the media allows the scourge of uniforms to expand in America's slaughterhouse school system and ignores negative stories.

Gee, fighting the right-wing media over their smug, petty crusade to require school uniforms is exactly where I expected to be in life at 36.

(Source: http://miller-mccune.com/news/no-uniform-solution-1624)

2 comments:

  1. I have read so many articles about school uniforms lately. Most of them tried to claim that uniforms improve test scores. I was having a hard time believing that claim. Glad to read something that backed up what I thought.

    ReplyDelete