Achievement Growth in Public and Catholic Schools

Abstract

This article brings together independent longitudinal extensions of Greeley's (1982) and Coleman, Hoffer, -and Kilgore's (1982b) analyses of public-school and Catholic-school student achievement differences. Drawing on a variety of analytic techniques, we find that Catholic schools have a positive effect on verbal and mathematics achievement growth from the sophomore to senior year of high school. The magnitude of the Catholic-school effects ranges from about one-half to one grade equivalent for students of average background. The Catholic-school effects are larger for black, Hispanic, and lower-SES students, and somewhat smaller for white, and higher-SES students. We find that Catholic schools produce higherachieving students because they place more students in academic programs, require more semesters of academic coursework, and assign more homework.

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