Private and Public School Students: Longitudinal Achievement Differences?

Abstract

Two groups of 49 students were matched on age, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and IQ on data obtained 10 years earlier when they were in public elementary schools. One of the groups switched from public to private schools with an average amount of time in the private schools being about 5.5 years. The other group remained in public schools. Ten years later when they were seniors in high school, both groups were given the same reading and mathematics tests. The results of this longitudinal study do not show any mean differences in achievement test scores between the private and public sectors. The results are discussed largely in the context of two recent and well-known studies on the same topic byColeman, Hoffer, and Kilgore (1981) and Page and Keith (1981).