This article lists the answer to the following points of interest: 1. How many private schools are there in the United States? 2. How many students are enrolled in private schools? 3. Which factors affect parents’ choice of the school? 4. What is the difference in results of public and private schools? 5. What is the average tuition?

1. Why Private Schools?
How to compare private schools
with public schools?
What's better for your child?
5,488,000
Total PK-12 private school
enrollment (10 % of all US
students)
33,366
Total number of private
schools (25 % of all US
schools)
Top 5 Reasons for choosing a
private school
1. Better student discipline;
2. Better learning environment;
3. Smaller class sizes;
4. Improved student safety;
5. Individual attention for children.
Student performance on standardized test scores is one of the least
important reasons.
8 Serious problems in US schools
Public Schools Private Schools
Disrespect
for
teachers
Student
tardiness
Absenteeism
Students
unprepared
to learn
Student
apathy
Lack of
parent
involvement
Use of
alcohol
Drug
abuse
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Factors affecting school choice
1. The student-teacher ratio
2. School Accreditation
3. Curriculum and course descriptions
4. College acceptance rate
5. The availability of religious instruction
Most private schools are small: 86% have fewer than 300 students.
Comparing private schools and
public schools
(Academic Performance)
MATH
How well do students perform in
Math?
Public Schools Private Schools
Basic 89%
Proficient 49%
Advanced 9%
Basic 82%
Proficient 40%
Advanced 6%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
% of Grade 4 Students in Public and Private Schools At or Above Achievement Level
Public Schools Private Schools
Basic 85%
Proficient 48%
Advanced 13%
Basic 72%
Proficient 34%
Advanced 8%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
% of Grade 8 Students in Public and Private Schools At or Above Achievement Level
English Language Arts(ELA)
How well do students perform in
ELA?
Public Schools Private Schools
Basic 81%
Proficient 48%
Advanced 13%
Basic 66%
Proficient 32%
Advanced 7%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
% of Grade 4 Students in Public and Private Schools At or Above Achievement Level
Public Schools Private Schools
Basic 90%
Proficient 54%
Advanced 8%
Basic 75%
Proficient 32%
Advanced 3%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
% of Grade 8 Students in Public and Private Schools At or Above Achievement Level
Private schools have an advantage
in reading but perform at a
comparable level to that of public
schools in math.
Average SAT test scores
Writing Reading Math
Public Schools
Religious
Schools
Independent
Schools
488
530
560
498
533
557
511
534
583
It appears, private schools do more to develop students' critical-thinking
abilities.
Top private schools
Catholic 42.90%
Non-Sectarian 19.80%
Conservative Christian 14.00%
Jewish 5.50%
Baptist 4.50%
Lutheran 3.60%
Episcopal 2.10%
Seventh-day Adventist 1.10%
Calvinist 0.50%
Friends 0.40%
0 10 20 30 40
Percentage of Students (2012)
Most private school students attend religiously-affiliated schools.
(80 percent)
Where families with income over
$75,000 send their kids?
Public Private Both
85%
12%
3%
Of the 8.8 million families with children in grades K-12 with annual
incomes of $75,000 or more (the highest income bracket measured);
83% have children only in public schools, and 13% percent have
children only in private schools. (Four percent have children in both
types of schools.)
Average private school tuition
(2011-12)
All Levels Elementary Secondary K-12
Schools
All Schools
Catholic
Other
Religious
Non-Sectarian
$8,549
$6,018
$7,117
$17,316
$6,733
$4,944
$6,576
$15,945
$10,549
$7,826
$10,493
$27,302
$10,045
$9,066
$7,073
$16,247
Conclusion
The top five reasons why parents
choose a private school are all
related to a safe school climate and
effective classroom management.
Parents place low emphasis on the
results of standardized test scores.
Demographic differences between
students in public and private
schools more than account for the
relatively high raw scores of private
schools.
After
controlling for these differences, the
presumably advantageous private
school effect disappears, and even
reverses in most cases.
Ref: http://capenet.org, http://staticbrain.com, More than score(2013), http://greatschools.org and NCES
Create infographics
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