Peer-reviewed research finds religious private
schools play a particularly positive role in shaping civic
outcomes
NEW
YORK, April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/
-- Private schools are linked to more positive civic outcomes
for students and parents than public schools, according to a
peer-reviewed statistical meta-analysis published today in
Educational Psychology Review by authors from the University
of Buckingham and University of
Arkansas. The research, which combines, audits, and analyzes
all available empirical studies of the effects of public and
private schools on various civic outcomes, found that private
schooling is associated with an advantage of 5.5 percent of a
standard deviation, or roughly two percentile points, over public
schooling in various measures of civic outcomes.
The researchers combined the results of 57 studies from more
than a dozen countries, including the
United States, to calculate the average association between
schooling and measures of four central civic outcomes that are
widely viewed as conducive to self-government:
- Political Tolerance: An individual's willingness to
respect the rights and opinions of people who are different from
them. This also includes attitudes about equality, human dignity,
and even measures of antisemitism.
- Political Participation: A behavioral measure of a
person's willingness to engage in the activities of
self-government. This includes activities like voting and
contacting a political representative.
- Civic Knowledge and Skills: A set of understandings and
abilities widely viewed as conducive to self-government. Examples
include scores on factual quizzes regarding the country's
constitutional system, as well as willingness to accept the results
from fair elections.
- Voluntarism and Social Capital: Measures of one's
involvement in activities that benefit the broader community and
the depth of one's community attachment. Examples include
charitable giving and the number of hours of volunteering without
pay.
"Since public schools were often established specifically to
prepare children for citizenship, one might assume that they're
superior to private schools at that function. Our research shows
that is not the case," said study lead author M. Danish
Shakeel, director of the E. G. West Centre for Education
Policy at The University of Buckingham. "Private schooling does not
threaten democracy. In fact, it may strengthen it."
The study, titled "The Public Purposes of Private Education: a
Civic Outcomes Meta‑Analysis," found that religious private
schools had a greater effect than secular private schools relative
to public schools, equivalent to 7.6 percent of a standard
deviation. Even for the outcome of political tolerance, arguably
the toughest test for religious schooling effects on civics, the
researchers found that there is, at worst, no negative effect of
religious relative to public schools.
This research comes amid global concerns about the state of
civics education. In May of 2023, the National Assessment Governing
Board announced that just 22 percent of eighth graders in
the United States were proficient
in civics. Furthermore, a recent survey from the Institute for
Citizens and Scholars found that only 4 percent of Americans aged
18-24 were able to correctly answer four basic civics questions.
This is not a problem unique to the
United States, with UNESCO launching a framework for global
citizenship education in 2015 to address disappointing civics
scores in democracies around the world.
"With civics education in such a sorry state, our research
points to a possible solution," said Patrick J. Wolf, Interim Department Head,
Distinguished Professor of Education Policy and 21st Century
Endowed Chair in School Choice in the Department of Education at
the University of Arkansas.
"Educational pluralism, advanced by effective school choice
policies, seems to be a boon, and not a bane, for civic
outcomes."
"As a more expansive and diverse population of students gain
access to private schooling, and as pressure mounts for public
schools to improve their civics instruction, the private (mostly
religious) school advantage in promoting civic outcomes could
disappear or even flip to a public-school advantage," according to
the report. For now, a wealth of evidence indicates that private
schools do at least as well, and likely better, at forming
democratic citizens.
To ensure methodological rigor and guard against biases, the
researchers pre-registered the study at the Open Science
Framework and employed the latest and most rigorous meta-analytic
procedures. Meta-analysis is a well-established scientific
technique for consolidating all the reliable evidence that exists
regarding a question.
Contact: Jacob
Waters
Jacob@larsonpr.com
609.658.8147
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SOURCE University of Arkansas