Catholic Schools and the Common Good by Anthony S. Bryk, Valerie E. Lee, and Peter B. Holland (Harvard University Press, 1993).
As the school choice landscape continues to evolve and expand in the U.S., there is a need to pay attention to the organizational and instructional perspective that this book brought to the debates, in the 1980s, about the effects of private versus public schools. Rather than set up a horserace between public and Catholic schools, Bryk et al. argue that there is much to be learned by looking at how organizational forms may differ by sector to provide lessons for all schools. Today, we have a variety of school choice models, with traditional public, private, charter, magnet, homeschooling, and other options. This book provides a template for understanding how those types of school choice are associated with different organizational and instructional conditions that may explain the variation in effects on student outcomes — not only between sectors but within them. Providing important historical context about the Catholic school sector, Bryk et al. rely on a wide array of quantitative and qualitative data to examine school effects and the organizational processes that help to explain them. This comprehensive approach provides a lesson to all of us as we conduct school choice research to inform policy and practice.
Mark Berends’ latest in Kappan:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Berends
Mark Berends is the Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and a professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, where he also directs the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity. He is a coeditor of the Handbook of Research on School Choice.
