International human rights instruments provide a legal basis for an agreed set of human values globally. These 'values' are expected to underpin the purposes and content of education. This paper aims to explore how compliance with human rights instruments and values is balanced by educational leaders in Northern Ireland where diverse…

This article introduces the research initiated by Cardus on private religious Protestant and Catholic schools in North America and provides an overview of the succeeding articles presented in this special section of the "Journal of School Choice". Through mixed method study by multiple research teams the inquiry was designed to seek to…

School sector differences have been the subject of much debate in the literature, but there is limited data that allows careful consideration of differences within the religious school sector. The extensive Catholic school effects literature focuses on issues of school climate, especially an emphasis on persons-in-community, or communal…

Notwithstanding dramatically low levels of professed religiosity in Western Europe, the religious school sector continues to thrive. One explanation for this paradox is that nowadays parents choose religious schools primarily for their higher academic reputation. Empirical evidence for this presumed denominational advantage is mixed. We examine…

A meta-analysis was undertaken, including 41 studies to determine the influence of Catholic and Protestant schools. The analysis examined studies undertaken at both the elementary and secondary school level. The results indicate that both Catholic and Protestant school students do better than their counterparts in public schools. In addition,…

Scholars have attempted to discern the effects of competition between the public and private education sectors within the United States and in other countries, but no study has attempted to measure systematically the causal impact of competition by looking at variation across countries. Countries where more people choose to invest in private…

There is a persistent debate over the role of scale of operations in education. Some argue that school franchises offer educational services more effectively than do small independent schools. Skeptics counter that large, centralized operations create hard-to-manage bureaucracies and foster diseconomies of scale and that small schools are more…

This article reports recent research into aspects of the differences between Protestant and Catholic schools in Northern Ireland, namely, whether the two systems vary in terms of the balance of subjects in examination passes and the qualifications of leavers. Differences are presented and discussed. (CT)

Suggests that school sponsorship in Zaire by Protestant, Catholic, or government agencies serves as an indicator of future social power. Contends that perception of social power motivates students and influences their examination performance. Explains the charter system, compares the sponsors, reviews Zaire's education since 1908, cites…

This paper examines how religious practice and religious faith can protect Latino youth from problems in school and contribute to their academic success. Data were drawn from research on social capital and from three major national surveys with large samples of Latinos. Findings indicate that Latino students who actively attended church or who saw…