| Vivien Wen-Chun Chen
Pennsylvania State University
The effect of neighborhood segregation on school choice
FINAL REPORT
This study reexamines the Catholic school effect on high school students’Äô mathematic achievement. Replicating Morgan’Äôs (2001) study, I apply propensity score matching method and fixed-effect modeling with the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:02-04) data to minimize the selection bias which has been criticized in the literature. Moreover, this study estimates the effect of Catholic school at the policy level through three research designs: (1) a sub-sample from matching students within school districts; (2) estimating state fixed effect; and (3) controlling for whether or not public aid is available for Catholic schooling in the school district.
The empirical results suggest a positive effect of Catholic school on mathematic achievement, especially for the disadvantaged students with lower propensity of attending Catholic schools than those with higher propensity. This effect is heterogeneous by races. Specifically, White and Hispanic students benefit from Catholic schooling, rather than blacks. Estimating the effect at the policy level, the findings also show a positive Catholic schooling effect within states for Hispanic students, but not for whites and blacks. However, within school districts, for students with similar propensity, attending Catholic schools does not improve mathematic achievement. The only exception is for the students who attend Catholic schools in the districts where public aids are available for Catholic schooling. In those districts, Catholic school students outperform their counterparts in mathematic achievement.
Those findings support the policy to help the minority and low-income students to attend Catholic schools. At the school districts where voucher programs or tax credit are available for the disadvantaged students who intend to enroll in private schools, attending Catholic schools might be an effective way to improve mathematic achievement and therefore narrow achievement gaps.
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