Effects of Catholic Schooling on Civic Participation, (The)

There is relatively little evidence on how private and public schools compare with regard to the promotion of civic engagement, and the limited evidence that does exist generally suggests that private schools (Catholic schools, in particular) are often better at promoting civic participation and political tolerance than public schools. However, the contemporary empirical evidence is based on youth, not adult, behaviors. Furthermore, a widely appreciated problem from empirical studies of student achievement is that conventional inferences about the effectiveness of private school may be contaminated by selection biases. In particular, since students whose families choose to send them to Catholic schools may have an unobserved propensity for civic participation, these results may overstate the true civic returns to Catholic schooling. This study, presents new empirical evidence on these issues by evaluating the relative effects of Catholic schooling on civic participation as an adult. This evidence is based on two nationally representative longitudinal surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Education: High School and Beyond (HS&B) and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS88).