Volume 31, Number 3 (Summer) 1996
Sander, William. 1996. "Catholic Grade Schools and Academic Achievement." Journal of Human Resources 31(3):540-548.
The effect of a Catholic grade school education on the test scores of non-Hispanic whites is examined. Particular attention is given to the issue of selection into the Catholic grade school sector. It is shown that eight years in a Catholic grade school is associated with higher vocabulary, mathematics, and reading test scores. No Catholic grade school effect is found on science test scores. Further, it is shown that there is not positive selection into the Catholic school sector. Thus, higher test scores cannot be attributed to selecting superior students. It is also shown that the positive Catholic schooling effect is driven by non-Catholics who attend Catholic grade schools, Once non-Catholics in Catholic schools are eliminated from the sample, the Catholic school effect becomes zero. Data from the third follow-up survey of the High School and Beyond 1980 Sophomore Cohort are used.
The author is a professor of economics at DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60604. He would like to thank two anonymous reviewers, Rebecca Kilburn, and Karen Akerhielm for their comments. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the Western Economic Association‘s annual meeting in San Diego, 1995. The data used in this article can be obtained from the author beginning in November 1996 through October 1999.
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