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Are catholic primary schools more effective than public primary schools?
Author(s)
Date Issued
2014-03
Date Available
2014-04-23T13:40:29Z
Abstract
This paper assesses the causal effects of Catholic primary schooling on student outcomes such as test scores, grade retention, and behavior. Catholic school students have substantially better average outcomes than do public school students throughout the primary years, but we present evidence that selection bias is entirely responsible for these advantages. Estimates based on several empirical strategies, including an approach developed by Altonji et al. (2005a) to use selection on observables to assessthe bias arising from selection on unobservables, imply that Catholic schools do not appreciably boost test scores. All of the empirical strategies point to sizeable negative effects of Catholic schooling on mathematics achievement. Similarly, we find very little evidence that Catholic schooling improves behavioral and other non-cognitive outcomes once we account for selection on unobservables.
Other Sponsorship
American Educational Research Association
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal
Journal of Urban Economics
Volume
80
Issue
1
Start Page
28
End Page
38
Copyright (Published Version)
2014 Elsevier
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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