Study of Education Outcomes Places Adventist Schools Significantly Ahead of Public Schools
by Adventist Today News Team
Correction added on April 30.
The first analysis of all available research comparing religious, public and charter schools was released recently in a presentation at Notre Dame University and the author had positive comments about Adventist schools. The meta-analysis combined data from all 90 studies on this topic published in recent years, most of them in refereed academic journals. It is the first such analysis ever undertaken comparing the three types of schools and included both elementary and secondary students.
Dr. William H. Jeynes, well known for his meta-analytic research on a number of topics, is a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, and professor of education at California State University, Long Beach. He is known as the architect of the economic and education plan that enabled the Republic of Korea to recover from the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis. He has authored more than 110 academic publications, including 10 books.
Students attending faith-based schools had an academic advantage of approximately one year over their counterparts in both public and charter schools, Jeynes stated in his Notre Dame lecture. Even when the data was controlled for socioeconomic status, ethnicity and gender this advantage was maintained. “I was quite surprised that students from charter schools did no better than their counterparts in traditional public schools,” Jeynes said. “I really expected charter school students to outperform pupils in traditional public schools. It appears that if this nation is to support the notion of a greater breadth of school choice, then religious schools should be included.”
Schools operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church were included in the analysis and Jeynes spoke exclusively to Adventist Today about the results. “Students who attend Adventist schools score at an academic level about 11 months ahead of their counterparts,” he said. “Even when controlling for socioeconomic status, race and gender, the advantage is six months.”
“The advantage for students who attend Adventist schools is somewhat greater at the high school level,” Jeynes told Adventist Today. Students in Adventist secondary schools are 12 months ahead of their counterparts as compared to 10 months for students in Adventist elementary schools. (Or seven months and five months when the data is controlled for ethnicity, socioeconomic status and gender.) “The primary reason for this is the high school students attending Adventist schools have been attending those schools longer than the younger students, and the … advantage tends to accumulate over time.”
The achievement gap for minority and low-income students in Adventist schools is about 25 percent smaller than in public schools, Jeynes said. “Attending private religious schools is associated with the highest level of academic achievement,” which means that Adventist education provides a significant path to overcome poverty for the children from inner city and immigrant families.
“One of the reasons that Adventist schools are successful,” Jeynes told Adventist Today, “is because they have higher expectations of students and encourage them to take hard courses. They are more likely to support the notion that ‘God doesn’t make junk’ and that students are often capable of achieving more than they realize.”
Jeynes also stated that “students who attend Adventist schools have fewer behavioral problems than their counterparts, even when adjusting for socioeconomic status, race and gender. In fact, the behavioral advantage is even larger than the scholastic advantage.” And students “report that there is a greater degree of racial harmony at Adventist schools than one finds in public schools,” despite the high level of diversity in many of the schools operated by the Adventist Church.
The research is being published in the Peabody Journal of Education, volume 87, pages 305-335. The article does not include any specific references to Adventist data.
“This research is similar to what the Cognitive Genesis project is finding,” a veteran education administrator for the Adventist Church told Adventist Today. “It is great to see that someone with Jeynes’ reputation agrees with our own findings.” The Cognitive Genesis project is research being conducted by La Sierra University for the Office of Education at the denomination’s North American Division. Little of the findings and data from the project has been released to date.
Correction Addendum
Cognitive Genesis "was not a project of the North American Division Office of Education (NADOE)," Dr. Marilyn Beach, assistant director of the Center for Research on Adventist Education (CRAE), told Adventist Today. It "was conceived of and executed at La Sierra University [and it] was not funded by the NADOE or the Seventh-day Adventist Church." Funding came from grants by Commonweal Foundation, Versacare and the Zapara Family Foundation, as well as private donations. "However, the research could not have been done without the cooperation of the NADOE that collected the standardized tests data for four years and helped disseminate the results."
Beach told Adventist Today that a summary report was published in 2011 and a series of annual reports are available for download on the web site www.congnitivegenesis.org or from CRAE. In addition findings were published in The Journal of Research on Christian Education in 2012. And there is a 16-page booklet entitled Moving Hearts & Minds Upward that can be purchased from AdventSource, the leadership resource center of the North American Division.
"In addition to the academic achievement results," Dr. Beach told Adventist Today, "information gleaned from the questionnaires gives insight into student, parent/home, teacher and school factors that influence achievement. These factors continue to be examined by graduate students at La Sierra University and Andrews University as well as researchers at non-Adventist institutions such as the University of Notre Dame and the University of Iowa."
Yea! I sent my kids through SDA schools, and while at the time I thought things could be better, it's amazing to me how well they turned out. I am so thankful to Adventist education.
I can honestly say I despised life in an Adventist high school dormitory, but still love my church and the spiritual life I enjoyed in an imperfect environment. Ditto our two kids, now adult and active in the church, one a school teacher herself. I don't think I ever enjoyed Sabbaths as I did while in Adventist high school.
There is much more to do to continue improving Adventist schools, but there's no doubt that in this exceptional area, the church founders got a lot really, really right….
So where are all the liberals, who incessantly deride Adventist education as being narrow and parochial – sheltering students from "dangerous" ideas, belief in which is the sine qua non of a truly educated person? Chris, Elaine, Joe – anybody home? Surely you don't want to let this myth go unrefuted. Surely some of you folks can figure out a way to explain away or challenge the inference that students who attend parochial schools actually receive a superior education. Of course we haven't even discussed home schooling, where the differences are enormous. If religion tends to make people dumb, or at least poorly informed and unenlightened, why do kids who go to religious schools appear, at least according to this study, to be exceptionally bright?
Nathan,
Myself, Joe and David Langworthy did discuss this amongst ourselves via email exchange. Private schools first have kids from a different socioeconomic status and parents who support the teachers and administration in the overall goal of a rigorous education. I think children of educated parents who are actively involved in their childrens education will do well in public schools also. In addition, there is a wide range of quality in public high schools. For example Redlands East Valley educates kids from the south side of Redlands and many of those kids have parents who are working at LLU or at Loma Linda Academy. Thus, the academic achievements are greater than the Redlands High School. With regards to the latter school a good friend of mine have a son going to Redlands High School with a straight A record and taking college prep classes. He is going into engineering and will most likely go to Univ Calif Riverside which has a school of engineering. Once again these parents have been and are actively involved with their sons education. Thus, I would conclude that the sine qua non of successful edcuation of children K-12 is actively involved parents who value a good education and do everything in their power to enrich their kids education. My son was an avid reader before he entered the 1st grade. I spent a lot of time reading to him and teaching him to read and he was reading at a 3-4th grade level before he went to 1st grade. He did go to SDA schools until the 12th grade then went to the Univ of Calif.
I have three children who have all gone (or are going) through SDA education K through University. My older two have full scholarships for grad school. I am grateful for the quality of SDA education. The older two went to Walla Walla University. I have to say that there have been many periods of angst and times when we felt trapped—especially elementary school when the peer group was very limited. But, I have prayed and I have learned that God was working behind the scenes when I didn't even realize it. Nathan, you are baiting the so called liberals…..Let me just say that currently, the college students are exposed to many ideas—at least at Walla Walla. PTL. But, we must guard that liberty.
Nathan,
As a side note I do support the SDA educational system. They need a bit of an upgrade when it comes to biology in the area of evolution as a mechanism for changes in life forms. But, that will come in time. I will be sending my oldest grandson to Loma Linda grade school as it is a better school than in the Yucaipa district. That said his parents and me as a grandparent are very involved with his learning. Any spare time I have I am with him and his younger brother at museums and other places of educational interest. Once again, educated adults who value their commitment to life long learning and interact with their children and grand children on average the kids will have a more successful outcome.
As is well known, the biggest contributor to a child's success in life is a learning environment that usually begins at home, long before formal schooling. With many books and travel to places of interest, a child will be given a life long love of learning. Exposure to art, classical music, learning an instrument, all contributes to student excellence.
Good for SDA schools. I would like to see them graded objectively on their spiritual emphasis and knowledge of the Bible.
Maranatha
I concur with both of your comments, Doctorf and Elaine, and I appreciate your weighing in very thoughtfully. The importance of variables, such as parental influences and subcultural selectivity, can scarcely be overestimated when analyzing the efficacy of any educational model. I think both are vastly more important than the quality of faculty or curriculum.
Recognizing that there are of course cross-currents of exceptionalism in the waters of public education, which produce highly successful students, should not make us oblivious to the general flow of the river. Nor should it undermine the reality that the odds favor students who attend parochial schools.
It is tempting to find, in exceptions to general truths, evidence that we can rise above the constraints of truth – that we can escape the fate of Icarus. Those who succumb to the temptation argue that the bark of religiosity can be stripped away from the tree of education without adversely affecting the tree. And indeed it is sometimes true. Some kids who drink heavily, use drugs, and are sexually active are also very successful academically. But one can hardly deny the empirical truth that the clustering of certain values and practices increases the likelihood of academic excellence and life success. I maintain that religious life is one of those values and practices which increases the likelihood that the pursuits of a child's life will be attended by transcendent meaning and purpose – and therefore success. And I believe it is more than coincidental that those who value religious education usually cultivate habits and values that result in superior academic achievement.
All excellent private schools are to selectively choose the students; public schools do not have this liberty but must take all children. Selection can be on many factors: scholastic ability, behavior, even religion, so there cannot be a true comparison between private and public schools.
My 13-yr. old attends a charter school which has more requirements than the surrounding public schools. Their core curriculum is broader, music is offered, and parents are eager to enroll their children in this school. Parents must sign a contract to ensure their student's continuing there and must also participate in school activities.
Just last week the comparison chart for the county's largest school districts was posted, and most that had very high scores was from the area of town with the accompanying highest socio-economic positions. There were exceptions, and those are the ones being studied to determine reason for higher rates than previously. It is almost impossible to expect all children to achieve the same level of success when some have educated, supportive parents and some come from a home living on food stamps and poverty level; where the parents don't always see that the child is in school, and life is a struggle just for the necessities. The Adventist schools I've known do not accept such children without assurance from parents to maintain and support their children.
The local Catholic high school has one of the highest graduation rates (the one standard of evaluation), and I believe the small 12-grade SDA academy also has the same.
Ed-
Why did you despise life in a dorm?
I went all four years to a SDA academy and disagree with this study. The last 26 years I have worked for a public school and see many opportunities not available to me in church school when I was there.
I think this bragging is a discusting untruth.
Can either Catholic or Adventist schools claim superiority for excellence? Is it because of the religious instruction or is it in spite of it? IOW, the rigorous learning system as well as student selection and stronger parental involvement (when you must pay for an education, you are far more interested)?
My adult children are thankful for their Bible knowledge (good at Jeopardy!) but not the indoctrination and excessive attention to innocent behaviors and dress, etc. They have effectively rejected the indoctrination and aren't practicing Adventism, but have all the morals and character that are appreciated. Morals can be very effectively taught from a non-religious perspective; in fact, much better without the angst of God's disapproval.