The Boston Globe (12/16, Crawford) reports that University of Illinois education professors Christopher and Sarah Lubienski conducted an “in-depth” study of standardized test data, which found to their surprise that “public schools seemed to be producing better test scores than private” or charter schools. The researchers cited “private-school autonomy” as the reason, arguing that “independence and competition may actually be holding back achievement at private and charter schools.” The researchers, the Globe reports, describe their findings in a new book titled “The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools.”