Public versus Private High School Attendance

 And College/University Admissions

Analysis of Lafayette Elementary School Class of 2000

In 2006, a study was conducted of the Lafayette Elementary School graduating class of 2000. It investigated whether there was a difference in the rankings of the colleges and universities that admitted Lafayette graduates who attended public high schools versus those who attended private high schools. The results show that there is no difference in the college and university rankings of the two groups – that the public and private school graduates were enrolled in colleges and universities of equal rank.

As children approach elementary school graduation in affluent neighborhoods of upper Northwest Washington, many of their parents debate the merits of continuing to send their children to the public school system and consider the alternatives of private or parochial school. Parents consider the quality of education and their child’s prospects for admission to the best colleges. Both the private schools and the neighborhood District high school (Woodrow Wilson Senior High School) can demonstrate that their graduates enter the best colleges. In the end, there is little analytic information available for parents to base their decision upon.

Data was available for over half of the students in the class, whose secondary education was split nearly equally between public and private high schools. Nearly 80 percent of the students who attended public high school attended D.C. public schools with most attending Wilson High School. The private high school students attended a variety of schools.  The rankings of the institutions of higher education were derived from the 2006 college and university rankings published in U.S. News and World Report.

In the study, it is assumed that the college or university which each student has chosen to attend reflects the quality and ranking of the best schools to which the student was admitted. (Information was only available on the schools where the students have enrolled not the full set of schools where they were accepted.)

Lafayette Elementary School Class of 2000 at Reunion in May 2006

I am currently a manager at a non-profit technology company in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area. I have over 20 years of professional experience in conducting analytic studies in the public interest. One aspect of my professional responsibilities includes the identification, analysis, and presentation of metrics in an emerging area of healthcare. I applied the same approach in this analysis. I conceived the study to be an independent initiative which would inform the public debate conducted by many Northwest Washington public elementary school families – What are the relative merits of public versus private high school education as it relates to college admissions?

To view a copy of the study, click here.

If you would like to communicate with me, please send a message to jewlers@starpower.net.

Leonard Jewler

Washington, D.C.