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…

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,…

From the colonial period to the present, no form of integration (defined as the opening of institutions and communal spaces to members of different groups) has produced more conflict than the integration of American schools. Struggles to open other locations within the social landscape--such as railroad cars, buses, restaurant counters, and water…

The voucher system in Denmark combines unrestricted generous subsidies with substantial autonomy of private schools as to schedule and teaching methods. This has produced a private school sector with a wide variety of school types. This paper uses data on eight cohorts of students (over 510,000 individuals) to compare educational attainment in…

In this article, the author discusses the "child-to-child evangelism" technique designed by evangelist Franklin Graham to convert America's children to his brand of Christianity. Starting in local public schools, Graham put out this plan whereby children could study evangelism techniques over the Internet and then march into their schools to…

Using the conceptual organizers of Young's (1990) "faces of oppression," and Hardiman and Jackson's (1997) "levels of oppression," this essay investigates the concept of domination and subordination, Christian privilege, and the subtle and not-so subtle promotion of Christianity in public schooling and in the larger United…

Four typical arrangements for relating faith to schooling were developed in Canada during the nineteenth century. All resulted from compromises between the assimilating traditions of Christian Constantinianism and Enlightenment liberalism. These arrangements only reluctantly accommodate the religious diversity within society. Although scholars…

During the mid-nineteenth century, Americans created the functional equivalent of earlier state religious establishments. Supported by mandatory taxation, purportedly inclusive, and vested with messianic promise, public schooling, like the earlier established churches, was touted as a bulwark of the Republic and as an essential agent of moral and…

Protestant and Catholic missionary organizations contributed to the development of American schooling. On the Protestant side, the American Home Missionary Society and the American Sunday School Union provided missionaries who frequently became active in school activities. More importantly, these agencies, typical of the evangelical alliance of…

THE HYPOTHESIS THAT PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL EXPENDITURES ARE RELATED TO THE RELIGIOUS COMPOSITION OF A COMMUNITY WAS TESTED STATISTICALLY. EIGHTEEN RANDOMLY SELECTED SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS FROM A TOTAL OF 130 HAVING MORE THAN 300 PUPILS IN ADA WERE USED FOR THE STUDY. QUESTIONNAIRES ON RELIGIOUS PREFERENCES WERE SENT TO 50 RANDOMLY…

Challenges to public school materials, curricula, and instructional activities reflect perceptions that conservative Protestants face discrimination in U.S. public schools. Perceptions of religious disparagement trigger the establishment of alternative schools. Concerns over materials and activities that offend Protestants are found in Christian…

This document contains issues of "The Educational Record of the Province of Quebec" from January 1898 through December 1898. Among the topics covered in this volume are: aim of a true teacher, child study, circular to superior schools, elementary course of study, model and academy course of study, convention of Protestant teachers, Latin…

One cannot reflect on centuries of accumulated religious wisdom without experiencing a deepened sense of personal meaning and purpose--a phenomenon often marginalized in progressive education. Contemporary issues have religious dimensions. The four essays assembled in this special section consider religion's role in public education from different…

In Cincinnati, Ohio, between 1836 and 1853, controversy over religious education resulted from religious, ethnic, and political factors. Debate began between Catholics (mostly German and Irish immigrants) and Protestants over which Bible should be used in the public schools. (It was accepted that daily Bible readings were to be a part of religious…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the three overlapping movements during the nineteenth century that sought to provide public support for religious education. The first movement sought to fund denominational schools directly from public revenues. These publicly supported denominational schools received funds from the state in proportion to…