School choice or best systems: what improves education? by Margaret C. Wang; Herbert J. Walberg

Author:Margaret C. Wang; Herbert J. Walberg
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: School choice - United States, Education, Finance, Philosophy & Social Aspects, Aims & Objectives, General, United States, School improvement programs - United States, Case studies, School choice, Educational change, Educational change - United States, Educational Policy & Reform, School improvement programs
ISBN: 9780805834864
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2001-03-01T08:56:18.843035+00:00

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 that was used again and again to describe the attitude of the black parents of a generation or more ago. . . . Even today, in those few instances where schools have the confidence of black parents, a wise student maintains a discrete silence at home about his difficulties with teachers, and hopes that the teachers do the same.17

Chubb and Moe’s detailed and paradigm-shifting 1990 study identified several characteristics of “effective schools” and then found that school sector—public or

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