Do Private Schools Get Better Results?

In college entrance tests, such as the SAT, the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) found that students in private schools consistently outperformed their public school peers in all subjects. But does the California Department of Education (CDE) evaluate or rate private schools? The answer is no. The CDE has no authority to monitor or evaluate private schools and does not have a rating or rating system for private schools. Do private schools have Academic Achievement Index (API) scores? Again, the answer is no.

The API, by law, applies only to public schools. At first glance, some data seem to support the idea that private schools get better results than public schools. The NAIS and Gallup found that private schools tend to have a higher percentage of graduates moving to higher education, and they also tend to attend selective colleges and universities. Moreover, a new study shows that, overall, children who have attended private schools performed better in almost every area of adolescence evaluated. Surprisingly, the federal evaluation reveals that private schools produce the same academic results for only a third of the cost of public schools.

There are no state programs in California that offer public funding for private school tuition, except when a public school district places a student with a disability in a nonpublic school. This makes it clear that the assumption that public schools are inferior to private schools is wrong. The CDE Private Schools website lists private schools in California that have filed the Private School Affidavit and have six or more students. To find out what options your local schools offer, start by asking the public school district in which you live what programs allow homeschooling. California has a growing number of charter schools that offer different types of education in non-traditional settings.

School directory search results can be downloaded in Excel or text format with options to include school contact information. A second directory, the California School Directory on the CDE website, also includes private schools. The CDE has no authority to supervise or regulate private schools and therefore plays no role in determining the validity or acceptability of private school diplomas. EC Section 48222 says that children can be exempt from compulsory public education if they attend a full-time private day school. Private School Enrollment by Grade State summary of private school enrollment totals by grade for the previous four years. Private schools are more competitive, which is often correlated with more motivated and academically minded students.

Private schools that offer instruction from kindergarten through twelfth grade and present with six or more students are assigned a CDS Code. In conclusion, it is clear that there are many advantages to attending a private school. Private school students tend to perform better on college entrance tests than their public school peers and they also tend to attend more selective colleges and universities. Furthermore, private schools produce the same academic results for only a third of the cost of public schools. However, it is important to remember that there are no state programs in California that offer public funding for private school tuition.