The Effects of Catholic Secondary Schooling on Educational Achievement
Abstract
This article examines the effect of Catholic secondary schooling on high school graduation rates, college graduation rates, and future wages. The article introduces new measures of access to Catholic schools that serve as potential instruments for Catholic school attendance. Catholic secondary schools are geographically concentrated in urban areas, and Catholic schooling does increase educational attainment significantly among urban minorities. The gains from Catholic schooling are modest for urban whites and negligible for suburban students. Related analyses suggest that urban minorities benefit greatly from access to Catholic schooling primarily because the public schools available to them are quite poor.
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Blacks in private schools appear to do especially well.
“Blacks in private schools appear to do especially well, consistent with Neal (1997) and Grogger and Neal (2000).”
From Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School (2004) · cites this paper as Neal (1997)
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Selection on observed and unobserved variables: Assessing the effectiveness of Catholic schools
Altonji, J. G., Elder, T. E., & Taber, C. R. (2005) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/426036 · Cited by 3,706 · see citing works
Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School
Fryer, R. G., & Levitt, S. D. (2004) · Review of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.1162/003465304323031049 · Cited by 936 · see citing works
Fostering and Measuring Skills: Interventions That Improve Character and Cognition
Heckman, J., & Kautz, T. (2013) · doi:10.3386/w19656 · Cited by 311 · see citing works
Charter Schools in Eight States: Effects on Achievement, Attainment, Integration, and Competition
Zimmer, R., Gill, B., Booker, K., Lavertu, S., Sass, T., & Witte, J. (2009) · doi:10.7249/mg869 · Cited by 264 · see citing works
Chapter 9 Why Has Black–White Skill Convergence Stopped?
Neal, D. (2006) · Handbook of the Economics of Education · doi:10.1016/s1574-0692(06)01009-9 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Neal, D.
- Corresponding author
- Neal, Derek
- Venue
- Journal of Labor Economics
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1997-01
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1, Part 1
- Pages
- 98-123
- ISSN
- 0734-306X (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5307
- OpenAlex
- W4255496439
- Cited by
- 411
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 47.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Labor Economics (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Catholicism and Religious Studies
- Keywords
- Catholic schools, religious education, educational attainment, high school graduation, college graduation, urban minorities, school choice, public school quality, suburban students, urban students
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