How does Catholic schooling affect homework, test scores, graduation rates, religiosity and the level of substance abuse among students? Do the proponents of educational vouchers have a valid argument when they say private school competition increases the quality of public school education? Do private schools affect property values?

DePaul University Economics Professor William Sander has tackled these controversial questions over the last five years in a series of research studies published in academic journals. Six of these studies, and four new studies by Sander, are now available in a book, “Catholic Schools: Private and Social Effects” (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), which summarizes Sander’s research, using national and Illinois data, on the effects of Catholic schooling. Sander’s research has found:

· Nationally, minority Catholic high school students have a 30 percent higher graduation rate than minority students attending public schools, a significant difference in achievement. Catholic schools also have a positive effect on the hours of homework done by minority students, leading to higher math and vocabulary scores among these students.

· An analysis of Illinois school data fails to support the view, held by proponents of educational vouchers and school choice, that private school competition stimulates quality improvements in public schools. But private schools do not hurt public schools either, the data shows.

· Catholic schools help to preserve Catholic culture by having a positive effect on the level of prayer, church contributions, Catholic religious identity and Catholic beliefs evident among adults who attended Catholic schools nationally

· Men and women who attend Catholic schools in the United States have the same propensity to smoke cigarettes, abuse alcohol and use marijuana than their public school counterparts.

· Housing values are higher in Illinois urban school districts that contain a greater percentage of children in private schools.

Sander became interested in researching the effects of Catholic schools after reading the late University of Chicago sociologist James Coleman’s studies on Catholic schools and Nobel-prize winning economists Milton Friedman and Gary Becker’s views on vouchers.

Coleman and his U of C colleagues found in the 1980s that Catholic schools had positive effects on educational outcomes for students, especially minority students. Sander’s new study, published in the book, has found further evidence of the positive impact of Catholic schooling on minority student achievement but found very little difference in academic performance between white Catholic school and white public school students.

Freidman and Becker strongly supported educational vouchers and increased competition among private and public schools in the United States. However, Sander’s new study finds no evidence of quality benefits from vouchers and greater school competition.

“It’s important to understand the academic and social effects of Catholic schools because of the national debate on how to improve education,” Sander said. “A great deal of this debate centers on the roles of private and public schools in our educational system and controversial issues such as educational vouchers.”

“There are ongoing experiments with vouchers in cities such as Milwaukee and Cleveland,” Sander said. “Some people perceive that vouchers will improve education in the U.S. The studies in this book shed new light on the voucher issue and provide valuable new insights into the outcomes of Catholic versus public school education.”

Catholic schools educate the largest percentage of private school students nationally—about half of the 10 percent of students who attend private schools in the United States, Sander said. In certain cities, such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, the impact of Catholic schooling is even greater. Chicago has the largest Catholic school system in the nation, with 25 percent of the city’s school-aged population attending Catholic schools.

Editor’s Note: To obtain a copy of any of the book’s studies or to arrange an interview with Sander, call Robin Florzak, DePaul Media Relations, at 312/362-8592.