David Hales and Dr. Mikaela Dufur, Sociology

The recent debate and interest in the under funding of America’s public school systems has caused an increase in the number of students who have abandoned public schooling in favor of private educational institutions. This rapid increase in enrollment in private educational institutions has changed the classroom dynamics for both students and teachers. This paper is primarily interested in the experiences of students who are enrolled in private religious educational institutions. I will attempt to understand what impact enrollment in private religious educational institutions will have on pupil’s educational experiences, spiritual growth, and deviance. Perhaps insight into these dynamics of a religious education may offer some insights into how religious educations can help students and in what ways they have a limited impact on the lives of students.

Private education has long been dichotomized into private educational institutions generally concerned with higher academic performance of pupils, and private religious educational institutions which attempt to combine higher standards of educational learning with a religious educational experience. As public and some private educational institutions attempt to further remove religious ideas and values from the curriculum it becomes imperative that we assess the educational experiences of students with out religious influences and those who learn with them. To examine the educational experiences of students in public, private, and private religious educational institutions I combined a quantitative analysis of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) with a qualitative look at the curriculum for students in each of the three distinct educational settings.

I am concerned with understanding the various ways that religious educational environments will shape pupils. Based on the characteristics of private religious educational environments I have developed some hypotheses to be tested using the NELS data set. First I hypothesize that students attending private religious schools will be more involved in their religion, and subsequently exhibit more religious devotion than their counter parts attending public or nonreligious private schools. Second I hypothesize that students attending private religious schools will exhibit less deviance than their student counter parts. Lastly I hypothesize that students attending private religious institutions will perform better in academics than students at other types of schools. I will use linear regression models to determine the relationship between multiple variables in the NELS data set to test my hypotheses. Most important, I will be conducting analyses to determine the effect that family income and parental involvement will have on student’s performance in the classroom and their overall religious devotion.

Linear regression models and analyses of variables were conducted using SPSS to determine the relationship of a number of variables included in various models. Although there were definite trends present in my regression models there were no results yielded that were significant at the .05 or .10 level. For my first hypothesis I found that students at religious private institutions were more likely to exhibit religious devotion in their lives. This result may have been due to the questions used in the NELS. The questions centered on participation in religious activities and groups for students, but failed to address weather participation occurred outside or inside of schools. Another interesting finding was that student’s evaluations of their own spirituality showed that enrollment in private religious schools had no significant effect on spirituality when students were asked “Do you consider yourself to be a religious person?” (NELS, 2002). It seems that although students in private religious schools are active in religious groups and activities their individual level of spirituality is not significantly higher than students enrolled in public or non-religious private schools.

My second hypothesis failed to provide significant results was well. There was a modest relationship between student deviance and educational settings. Students in private religious schools exhibited fewer acts of deviance (the measure of deviance was comprised of a number of variables including drug and alcohol use as well as participation in acts of physical violence and vandalism) than students in other school environments. The effects of a private religious education on deviance became ambiguous when compared to the relationship that existed between household income and measures of deviance. Although neither model was significant at the .05 or .10 level, a nested f-test of both models showed that deviance could be predicted better by including household income into the model. It remains unclear if values taught at religious schools prevent deviance or the economic status of students at those schools is the actual determining factor in their levels of deviance.

The hypothesis examining academic performance and type of school attended by pupils showed trends for students in private religious and non-religious schools performing better than students in public schools. Further analyses and models showed that when parental involvement in a student’s life as well as household income were included in the models the significance of the results were increased; with parental involvement showing the most significant effect on student’s academic performance. The performance measures were based on student’s grade point averages in their classes. Another model examining college acceptance showed that private institutions facilitated college acceptance. These results showed a mild relationship, although when household income was included in the model the significance level increased dramatically. It seems that although the schools definitely have some effect on college acceptance economic status is a much better predictor. Based on my results future hypotheses may examine if students in private religious schools and non-religious private schools tend to have more economic resources available as well as higher levels of parental involvement.

My qualitative analyses of school curriculum and environments yielded insight into the differences in the various types of schools. Analysis of texts and scholastic curriculum at each type of institution showed little if any differences. This may be a reflection of the general aim of education to ensure students are able to enroll in high level colleges. Further examination of the structure of educational learning showed that religious rituals were present in religious institutions but aside from the inclusion of religious ritual such as prayers or readings of sacred texts there were no other real differences in classroom structure or organization.

In conclusion my study has found that there are only modest effects in school environments that correlate to academic success, avoiding deviant behaviors, and facilitating religious devotion. It seems that although school environments can have some impact on students parental involvement and household income are much more important for students to develop and succeed both in school and religious settings. Perhaps further research may shed light on ways that public schools can help students get the support they need to succeed in life.