From the October 2, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *6   MORE ON CATHOLIC SCHOOLS:  COURSETAKING IS KEY
->    Catholic schools succeed in educating disadvantaged and
-> minority youngsters at higher rate than public schools because
-> more students take advanced courses, writes Diane Ravitch, senior
-> research scholar at New York U, in a WALL STREET JOURNAL
-> editorial (10/1).  Her editorial appears to be in response to
-> some critics of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's (R) plan to
-> send the city's lowest performing students to Catholic
-> schools.  The critics she directs her column to continue "to
-> insist that Catholic schools offer no advantages to poor and
-> underachieving students."
->    Ravitch first points to James Coleman's research of nearly
-> 15 years ago that found that Catholic schools "make the biggest
-> difference for the poorest, lowest-achieving kids," she writes.
-> However, some public school advocates counter that the Catholic
-> schools' "advantage disappears if you 'hold coursetaking
-> constant,'" she reports.  Ravitch concurs with this notion;
-> however, she adds that if you do not hold coursetaking constant,
-> "what you discover immediately is that poor, black or Hispanic
-> students are far likelier to take advanced academic courses if
-> they attend Catholic schools."  A major difference between
-> Catholic and public schools is that parochial ones set the same, high
-> standards for all student, while public schools do not, she writes.
->    Ravitch cites data from the U.S. DoEd that reveals "sizable
-> gaps between racial and ethnic groups in high school coursetaking
-> patterns."  White and Asian American students take more advanced
-> courses than do black and Hispanic children, she explains.
-> However, the gap closes for Catholic school students.  Seventy- six
-> percent of all Catholic school students are enrolled in
-> college-preparatory curriculum, compared to 45% of public school
-> students.
->    According to Ravitch, the "most revealing contrast" between
-> Catholic and public schools is a comparison in coursetaking
-> between students whose parents have a college degree with their
-> colleagues whose parents do not have a degree.  From DoEd data:
-> Algebra II is taken by 65% of public school students whose
-> parents have a college degree, but only 43% of students whose
-> parents lack a college degree take the course.  In Catholic
-> schools, 62% of students whose parents have a college degree take
-> algebra II, and 65% of students whose parents do not have a
-> degree.  Similar figures are available for geometry and
-> trigonometry.
->    Ravitch concludes:  "The greater academic demands on
-> students in Catholic schools produce higher academic achievement for
-> those who need it most."
->    Ravitch acknowledged an often-heard complaint from public
-> school educators:  higher academic demands will lead to higher
-> dropout rates.  However, the National Educational Longitudinal
-> Survey, a federal report, found that public school students had a
-> 7.6% dropout rate between the eighth and 10th grades, compared to a
-> 1.3% dropout rate for Catholic schools, notes Ravitch.
->    Ravitch reports on other findings from the Coleman study.
-> "But the key issue in the success of Catholic schools was
-> identified by Mr. Coleman when he wrote that for many youngsters from
-> broken families, the Catholic schools have become a haven of
-> stability, safety, and structure."
->    Not all children can or should attend Catholic schools,
-> acknowledges Ravitch.  But she asks "whether public schools can learn
-> from Catholic schools about high academic expectations;
-> respect for the individual student; a climate of caring and
-> discipline; and steadfast resistance to the fads that sweep
-> through the education world with alarming regularity."
->    Ravitch also is a senior fellow at the Brookings
-> Institution.
--- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10
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