Cognitive Outcomes in Public and Private Schools

Abstract

Three types of analysis are carried out in this paper and provide strong evidence that there is, in vocabulary and mathematics, higher achievement for comparable students in Catholic and other-private schools than in public; the results are less consistent in reading. The last portion of the analysis shows the elements of school policy that can account for these differences-account for them by showing that achievement is just as high in the public sector when the policies and the resulting student behavior are like those in the Catholic or other-private schools.