Catholic Schools out perform public schools academically, while also offering discipline and faith values for which they have long been respected. A number of national studies and comparisons between schools confirm these claims. Altoona Central Catholic has exhibited these same trends, as students have consistently scoried significantly above grade level.
- U.S. Public Schools & Private Schools:
- Performance & Spending Compared
The article by Public Purpose discusses advantages and disadvantages to both education options. After describing the public schools advantage in financial resources and better paid teachers with longer tenure, they list some of the advantages of private schools...
Teacher Satisfaction
- The student-teacher ratios are slightly lower (3 percent) for private schools than for public schools.
- Private school teachers express a higher degree of satisfaction.
- Private school teachers rate their ability to control teaching practices higher than that of public school teachers in nine of ten measures (in the tenth there is no difference).
- Both private school teachers and principals rate the school climate better than that of their public school counterparts in all 10 separate measures.
Educational Performance
- Private schools cost less per student on average, yet, performance on standardized tests is higher in private schools than in public schools, although average differences may be in part related to socioeconomic and home factors.(1)
- Private school students scored Proficient in the 1994 NAEP reading test at 1.5 times the rate of public schools students.(2) Roman Catholic schools, which can be used as a surrogate for non-elite private schools, produced Proficient scores at 1.4 times or more the rate of public schools.
- Students at all three grades who attended non-public schools (either catholic or other non-public schools) had a significantly higher average proficiency than did students attending public schools.(3)
- Roman Catholic school students scored at Proficient in the 1992 NAEP mathematics test at 1.2 to 1.5 times the rate of public schools students.(4)
- Private school students have a five percent higher graduation rate than public schools students and are 1.5 times as likely to apply for entrance to post-secondary education.(5) Private school students are more likely to graduate from college. Roman Catholic school students are twice as likely to graduate from college as public school students. Hispanic and African-American private school students are three times as likely to graduate from college (both Roman Catholic and other private school students).(6)
For the complete article, checkout the Public Purpose website.
FOOTNOTES
1. Paul L. Williams, Clyde M. Reese, Jay R. Campbell, John Mazzeo, and Gary W. Phillips, 1994 NAEP Reading: A First Look (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, 1995).
2. Paul L. Williams et al.
3. Paul L. Williams et al.
4. Ina V.S. Mullis, John A. Dossey, Eugene H. Owen, and Gary W. Phillips, NAEP 1992 Mathematics Report Card for the Nation and the States (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993).
5. Digest of Education Statistics, 1994 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, 1994).
6. Peter Benson and Marilyn Miles McMillen, Private Schools in the United States: A Statistical Profile with Comparisons to Public Schools (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, 1991).
