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 better understand the academic, spiritual, and cultural outcomes of private religious Christian education in Canada and the United States. This article introduces the conceptual variables under investigation and the approaches to inquiry employed in the various studies. The article reflects on several of the findings and comments on the possible policy implications of this research. (Contains 1 figure.)