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Lessons from Catholic High Schools on Renewing Our Educational Institutions

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Abstract

During the 1980s, a spate of research studies and newspaper stories chronicled the unusual effectiveness of Catholic high schools. These accounts claimed that Catholic schools do a better job of engaging students in schooling, have lower dropout rates, and show higher levels of academic achievement, especially for disadvantaged students.2 Moreover, Catholic schools use only very modest fiscal resources to produce these desired outcomes. Although these reports have been subject to rigorous critique and considerable reanalysis, the basic pattern of results has been sustained.

This article is drawn from my recent book with coauthors Valerie Lee and Peter Holland, Catholic Schools and the Common Good, published by Harvard University Press, 1993. The interested reader is referred to that book for further elaboration of the arguments presented here and for more details about the research evidence and methods.

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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Bryk, A.S. (1995). Lessons from Catholic High Schools on Renewing Our Educational Institutions. In: Hallinan, M.T. (eds) Restructuring Schools. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1094-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1094-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1096-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1094-3

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