A Structural Model of Public and Private Schools

AbstractA structural equation approach was utilized to evaluate a theoretical model of schooling for the High School and Beyond 1980 seniors data. The model of schooling included home background, academic orientation, extra-curricular activity, educational aspiration, occupational aspiration, and present achievement as latent variables. The results indicate that the model applied equally as well to both public and private school seniors; both academic orientation and extra-curricular activity were superior for private school seniors when controlling for home background variation; and both educational and occupational aspirations and student achievement of public school seniors exceeded that of private school seniors when controlling for home background, academic orientation, and extra-curricular activity variation.