The effects of Catholic high school education: A systematic and historical analysis of the search for evidence

There is a body of social science research claiming that the Catholic high school produces a superior education for its students in comparison with the public ones. That research began in 1982 and 1987 in studies by the renowned James S. Coleman of the University of Chicago and in independent but related work by Andrew M. Greeley, also at the University of Chicago (the National Opinion Research Center). Working with statistical data from national data sets, they both claimed that Catholic high schools demonstrated an academic advantage in both test scores (verbal and mathematical) and lifetime accomplishments (such as graduation from high school and completion of further education) for their students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.;This body of research was completed in 1993 by the work of Anthony S. Bryk who reaffirmed Coleman's and Greeley's claim for an academic advantage from attendance at the Catholic high school. Bryk also explained the reason for this advantage through new data that isolated several explanatory factors from a special in-person study of seven carefully selected Catholic high schools.;That research conclusion was hotly contested from the 1982 first efforts by Coleman and Greeley through Bryk's 1993 reaffirmation and explanation. The central complaint against the Coleman-Greeley-Bryk effort concerned selection bias, conceding the evidence of better performance in the data but denying the claim by these three researchers that it was an actual effect from the working of the Catholic high school and countering that the better performance was a selection factor from the type of students attending Catholic high schools rather than public ones.;Looking at all of this controversy from the point of view of history and through a special systematic analysis, this study has attempted to understand better the conflicting claims in the scientific research as a first step toward suggesting, in the final discussion, whether any further research could settle the controversies and if so, what that research should be. The study concludes that further studies are needed, especially ones examining the religious motivations of the parents sending students to the Catholic high school.