School Choice or Best Systems_ What Improves Education_ - Margaret C. Wang [33]
The most comprehensive comparison of public and private school achievement shows that private schools excelled at the two grade levels tested in mathematics, reading, science, and writing in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The differences were larger in all subjects in eighth than in fourth grade, which apparently shows the private school advantage grows with additional years of schooling.10 As indicated in Table 4-3, minority students achieved more in private schools than their corresponding groups did in public schools. Students in private schools whose parents had not completed high school had the greatest gains, although private school students at all levels of parent education outscored their public school counterparts.
Table 4-3 PRIVATE SCHOOL PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE FOR FOUR ETHNIC GROUPS AND PARENTS’ HIGHEST LEVELS OF EDUCATION
SOURCE: Adapted from Paul E. Peterson, “Thorough and Efficient Private and Public Schools” in Courting Failure, ed. Erik A. Hanushek (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Education Next Press, 2006), p. 221.
Ethnic Group Private School Advantage in Achievement Score Points
Hispanic 10
Black 5
White 5
Asian 4
Parent education
Less than high school 18
Graduated from high school 15
Some education after high school 11
Graduated from college 16
Catholic vs. Public School Achievement
Because Catholic schools are much more numerous and relatively more homogeneous than other groups of sectarian and independent private schools, several rigorous studies have contrasted them with public schools. James Coleman and Thomas Hoffer, for example, responded to criticism of their earlier work by analyzing student gains and taking student socioeconomic status into better account.11 They again found a significant and positive effect of Catholic schools.
More recently, Anthony Bryk, Valerie Lee, and Paul Holland employed state-of-the-art research methods on achievement gains data and found that Catholic schools significantly outpaced public schools.12 From a detailed analysis of longer-term effects, Derek Neal concluded that Catholic schooling significantly increased high school and college graduation rates and later wages among urban minorities; it offered modest gains to urban whites and had a “negligible” effect on suburban students.13
In a review of many studies, Patrick McEwan14 concluded that Catholic elementary schools have modest positive effects on poor minority students in grades 2-5 and mixed effects on other students and grades. But, “[i]n contrast, the evidence on attainment is strikingly consistent, indicating that Catholic schools increase the probability of high school completion and college attendance, particularly for minorities in urban areas.” Eide, Goldhaber, and Showalter15 extended this conclusion by showing that Catholic school students were more likely to attend selective colleges than were public school students.
The Character of Private Schools
Numerous investigators have observed private schools, and sometimes contrasted them with nearby public schools, to discover why they are more effective and efficient and have greater appeal to parents. As early as the 1970s, Thomas Sowell16 reported case studies of schools located in Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Washington, DC, that educated a long list of black graduates who made outstanding breakthroughs, including a state superintendent of schools, a Supreme Court justice, and a military general. Sowell attributed the success of these schools to strong principals and a social order concentrated on achievement and discipline:
“Respect” was the word most used by those interviewed to describe the attitudes of students and parents toward these schools. “The teacher was always right” was a phrase