Catholic school students are "one to two years ahead" of students in traditional public schools and charters in reading and math, tweets Marc Porter Magee. He's got a chart.
If Catholic schools were a state, they'd be first in the nation, notes the National Catholic Educational Association.
Catholic schools work for children of all faiths, writes William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal. " Although it isn’t fashionable to say, their success might have something to do with treating every child as created in the image of God."
During the pandemic, "Catholic schools, with far fewer staff and less resources, were far more flexible and innovative than their public counterparts," he writes. More than 90 percent stayed open for in-person learning.
Of course, Catholic schools enroll students who are more likely to be white and middle class than public school students. Minority enrollment is rising: About 19 percent of students are Hispanic.
Education Savings Accounts are making it possible for lower-income parents to choose Catholic and other private schools. That happening in Iowa, reports the Des Moines Register. Catholic school enrollment is rising, and more of the new, ESA-using students are English Learners, special-education students and eligible for the free-lunch program. Nationwide, nearly 14 percent of Catholic school students are using a choice program.
(Charter students are the most racially and ethnically diverse and the most likely to come from lower-income families, reports Pew.)
DoD schools aren't comparable with civilian schools. A child in a DoD school has at least one parent in the military, and the military has a required minimum score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) for recruits. It sometimes varies between branches, and is adjusted from time to time, but roughly the minimum is between 90 and 95 IQ. In addition, the military has more leverage over parents, and teachers, than school districts have, in dealing with problems such as chronic absenteeism.
The correct comparison would the DODEA to Catholic schools.