Opinions abound about where to send your children to school, but hard data is in short supply. The release of the Cardus Education Survey in 2011 helped to change that.

This million-dollar study surveyed 2,500 people in the U.S. and Canada, aged 24-39. It assessed the value of their Christian and non-Christian K-12 schooling, measuring at least 43 categories of academic, spiritual, and civic life. The survey was comprised of young adults who had attended homeschools, private secular schools, Catholic schools, Protestant schools, and public schools. Because of that, it brings hard data to questions about which types of schooling tend to provide which types of outcomes.

One of the key questions that Cardus sought to answer was the practical question, “How do I know that Christian education is really worth doing?” It also sought out whether each type of school is meeting its own stated purpose.

For the most part, the survey was great news for families that send children to a Protestant school. The stereotype of any type of Christian schooling is that it is anti-intellectual, reactionary, and socially stunted or isolationist. The survey found, however, that Christian school graduates, compared to their public school, Catholic school, and nonreligious private school peers, “are uniquely compliant, generous, outwardly-focused individuals who stabilize their communities by their uncommon commitment to their families, their churches, and larger society. Graduates of Christian schools donate money significantly more than graduates of other schools, despite having lower household income. Similarly, graduates of Protestant Christian schools are more generous with their time, participating far more than their peers both in service trips for relief and development and in mission trips for evangelization” (p. 5). These graduates also tend to have more children and divorce less frequently.

For better or worse, Christian school graduates are not the right-wing political activists they are portrayed to be. They are less engaged in politics and give less to political causes.

Catholic school graduates are more likely to attend upper-echelon schools, but that seems related to the emphasis of the schools rather than the intelligence of the graduates. Many Protestant schools do not regard high-paying jobs as one of the chief goals for their graduates. Catholic school graduates may find higher-paying jobs, but their school experience actually makes them less likely to demonstrate commitment to church after graduation, whereas Protestant school attendance is associated with higher church attendance and involvement.

The survey shows Christian schoolers as being equipped for a healthy, well-rounded life. They have “hope and optimism about their lives and their futures, and have the tools to engage in healthy relationships and address the problems in their lives. Protestant Christian school graduates are the only private school graduates more thankful for what they have in life than their public school peers. In addition, Protestant Christian school graduates are the only private school graduates to report greater direction in life than their public school peers, with nonreligious private and Catholic school graduates feeling statistically the same as their public school peers. Unlike their peers in other schools, Protestant Christian school graduates do not report feeling helpless when dealing with problems in life. In many ways, the average Protestant Christian school graduate is a foundational, reliable, and indispensible member of society” (p. 6).

One thing lending to the credibility of this survey, in addition to the representative sample, is the consideration of over 30 variables besides schooling that affect outcomes, factors such as relationship to parents, church service attendance, race, and educational attainment. The survey does not, however, provide some smaller categories that might be helpful to Witness readers, such as comparing results among Reformed/Presbyterian private schooled, homeschooled, and public school students. Cardus does give schools the opportunity to survey their own students and see where they fit in the overall survey values, but there is a fee for this.

—Drew Gordon

Drew is editor of the Witness. Data and charts used by permission of Cardus (carduseducationsurvey.com).