School Sector, School Poverty, and the Catholic School Advantage

Equality of educational opportunity is threatened by long-standing gaps in student achievement by race, gender, and student poverty, as well as by school sector and school poverty. The true magnitude of these gaps cannot be understood, however, unless these factors are considered simultaneously. While accounting for the effects of demographic characteristics, this article focuses on the effects of school sector and school poverty on gains in academic achievement. Analyses from a longitudinal study of public and Catholic middle school students in and around the city of Chicago show that neither the public nor Catholic sector has a consistent advantage in increasing student achievement in sixth and eighth grade reading and mathematics. School poverty has a deleterious effect on student achievement, although this effect is considerably mitigated for students in Catholic schools

Ability Grouping in Catholic and Public Schools

Researchers have found that students who attend Catholic high schools tend to outperform public high school students on standardized tests of achievement. Although many aspects of this finding have been examined in subsequent research, little attention has been paid to the issue of how ability grouping affects achievement across school sectors. A nearly universal practice in middle and secondary schools, ability grouping works to channel learning opportunities to students. The authors trace the history of ability grouping and review the findings regarding ability group effects, the assignment process, and mobility across groups in each school sector. Their analyses suggest that the way ability grouping is implemented in Catholic schools contributes to the Catholic school advantage in achievement

Book reviews

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45647/1/11199_2004_Article_BF00287924.pd