Wesley Powell 3/20/2017 ED 123 Religious Schools and Secular Schools: Comparing Outcomes There has been considerable public discussion over the place of religious schooling within the United States, a method of education that has largely been supplanted by secularized public schooling. This discussion has led to debate over the how much leeway should be given to parents in school choice, the ability to place their children into school systems and types of their family choosing. Part of this debate revolves around the relationship between the church and state, and the question of how much control the government should have in mandating how private religious schools are allowed to run their own affairs. Naturally a core part of this debate …show more content…
This can be used to compare students from backgrounds ranging from secular public schools and charter schools, to the religious schools (ranging from the most common moderate Catholic schools to the more conservative Evangelical Christian ones). It is important to note that test taking ability alone is not enough to draw significant conclusions from the data provided. Religious schools are also private schools and are quite heterogeneous from each other. Different religious (Christian) schools not only prescribe to unique denominations (Catholic, Lutheran, Evangelical, etc.) but the family backgrounds of the attending students are typically very different from that found in public schools. Private school attendees typically source from wealthier and more educated families, with the inverse being true of their public school peers. In addition to socioeconomic differences, children in private religious schools have different proportions of racial minorities, come from different regions of the country, and have a different set of cultural backgrounds. All these factors need to be properly investigated before drawing any conclusions as to the efficacy of private religious schools versus other forms of