Findings from the Condition of Education 1997 Number 12: Public and Private Schools: How do they Differ

摘要

About 46 million students are currently enrolled in the Nations public schools in kindergarten through grade 12, and another 6 million are enrolled in private schools. Because private schools are often perceived to be more successful in teaching students, with at least some empirical basis, many reform proposals for public schools have looked to the private sector for models to emulate. School choice, small schools, and decentralized decision making, for example, are among the features commonly associated with private education that many have suggested might benefit public schools. Exactly how do public and private schools differ. To address this question, at least in the aggregate, national data are assembled here to compare public and private schools along a number of important dimensions. The discussion begins with an examination of two fundamental differences between public and private schools: their sources of support and the role of choice in determining where students go to school. Next is a description of the characteristics of the key participants in the education process students and teachersand how they differ in the public and private sectors. Following that is a comparison of selected aspects of the organization and management of public and private schools, including school and class size and who makes policy decisions for the school and classroom. Next, the varying circumstances under which teaching and learning take place in public and private schools (the school climate) are examined. The final sections describe differences in academic programs and support services. The data show many systematic differences between public and private schools, and provide a context in which to consider the debates about the relative merits of various aspects of public and private schooling. However, as public and private schools are compared, it is important to keep in mind the enormous variation that exists within each sector and the overlap between the two. As Baker, Han, and Keil point out in their examination of organizational differences between public and private secondary schools, School sector is not a simple organizational fault line running through the Nations schools. More detail on the nature of the diversity that exists within each sector can be found in other NCES publications.