choosing non-government secondary schooling

Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 19, No. 2 1992

CHOOSING NON-GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLING

Peter G. Carpenter and

John S. Western

Abstract. This paper tests a model of non-Government secondary school choice among the subjects of a longitudinal study of career commencement. The results show that the socio-economic advantages of upper middle class origins, already a factor in these subjects remaining at school, may repeat their effects in terms of Independent secondary school choice for possible children. The choice of Catholic schooling seems motivated by other concerns, though we demonstrate a sizeable drift from the Catholic school sector to the Independent school sector. The choice of Catholic secondary schooling is bound up largely with being Roman Catholic and carrying on a tradition of attendance at such schools, especially among men.

Introduction

Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (1991) indicate that in 1990 there were 1,278,163 students attending secondary schools in Australia. Of these, 68.1 percent attended Government schools, 19.9 percent Catholic secondary schools and 11.9 percent other non-Government schools, henceforth referred to as Independent schools.

These percentage distributions between school sectors vary between the States and Territories, as set out in Table 1.

Nationally in 1990 some 31.8 percent of secondary school students in Australia attended non-Government schools. But Table 1 shows that across the States and Territories this percentage varied between a high of 36 percent in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory to lows of 21.6 percent and 24.1 percent in the Northern Territory and Tasmania respectively..The proportions of secondary school students in non-Government schools in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia are remarkably similar - 30 to 31 percent- and close to the national average. The substantive point of these comparisons is to highlight the fact that too much writing about non-Government schools in Australia focuses upon Victoria in particular where enrolments in Independent

24 Carpenter & Western

secondary schools represent a higher proportion of total secondary enrolments than occurs elsewhere in Australia. And, as some research has shown (e.g. Carpenter and Hayden, 1985), the effect of Independent schooling upon, for example, academic achievements while it maybe iaoticeable in Victoria is negligible in other States.

Table 1 Full-time Students in Secondary-Schools by School Sector,

States and Territories, 1990

School Sector

States/Territories Government Catholic Independent % % %

Total No. of

Students

New South Wales 69.3 21.4 9.3 442,515 victoria 63.9 21.3 14.7 355,480 Queensland 69.3 17.8 12.8 207,271 South Australia 71.8 15.2 13.0 91,066 Western Australia 69.5 18.3 12.2 107,522 Tasmania 75.9 13.6 10.5 36,177 Northern Territory , 78.3 13.9 7.7 9,589 Australian Capital Territory 64.0 25,4 10.6 28,543

Australia 68.1 19.9 11.9 1,278,163

Source: ABS (1991). Schools, Australia 1990. Catalogue No. 4221.0: May 1991.

The interesting phenomenon is that while many parents send their children to Government primary schools, they then send these same children to non- Government secondary schools. This phenomenon is not well-understood nor has there been a body of published research upon this question.

The matter of the possible effects of schooling, especially non-Government schooling, upon a variety of outcomes has, however, received attention from Australian researchers. There have been papers and monographs on school systems and public policy (Anderson, 1990b; Praetz, 1980; 1982). Other writing has focussed upon the effect of private schooling upon attainments across generations (Graetz, 1987; 1988; 1990) or upon the long term effects of schooling upon career advancement (Anderson, 1990a). Utilising national data other researchers have sought to disentangle the effects of private versus public schooling upon attainments net of any effects of individual social origins (e.g. Williams and Carpenter, 1990; 1991). And recently it has been demonstrated how private schools provide a link for individuals between home circumstances marked by better educated parents in higher prestige jobs, contact with peers oriented to higher education completion, ultimate graduation and increased

Choosing Secondary Schooling 25

rewards in the form of job prestige and increased income (Carpenter and Western, 1992).

There has not been a great deal empirical research upon parental choice of non-Government schooling for their children. Almost two decades ago Praetz (1974) examined parental motivations for choosing Catholic schooling for their children. In the mid 1980s a comprehensive study of school choice was conducted by the ACT Schools Authority (1985) in which parental reasons for the choice of school they had made for their children were sought. Parents choosing Catholic secondary schools for their children suggested religious as the most important reason for their choice followed by the nature of the education program, discipline, school type, convenience and reputation. Parents choosing Independent secondary schooling for their children provided a variety of reasons for their choice contingent upon particular Independent schools. Most parents had chosen one school for its education program, followed by its learning environment, relations with its parents and its staffing. A second Independent secondary school had been chosen for religious reasons firstly, followed by its staffing and its reputation for discipline. A third such school had been chosen because of its education program firstly, and then because it was an Independent school (i.e. a notion of exclusivity). A fourth Independent school was chosen because of its education program, its staffing and its discipline.

More recently, Anderson (1988) has examined the choice of school for their children by respondents who have been part of a longitudinal study of entrants to the professions of engineering, law, medicine and 1.eaching. Anderson found among members of these professions that the choice of Catholic~schooling for one's children is predicted from having attended a Catholic secondary school oneself, the respondent's mother being a Roman Catholic and by the respondent being both socially and politically conservative. Respondents who would choose Independent schooling for their children had often attended such schools themselves, belonged to a high status profession like medicine and had an interest in high culture.

In the remainder of this paper we test a model of secondary school choice among respondents who have been the subject of a longitudinal study of their career commencement.

Theoretical Stance

In this paper we utilise a theoretical framework that specifies the nature of the relationships between the criterion variable, choice of secondary school for one's children, and selected predictor variables. Certain of the predictors are specified as exogenous; others are deemed as causally intermediate. Our argument is that the choice of non-Government secondary schooling for one's children is affected by social resources in the form of particular home socio-economic circumstances and gender. What we suggest is that individuals from favoured social backgrounds


themselves are more likely to choose non-Government schooling for their own children. And we suggest such a choice may be more likely among men than women.

Secondly, we argue that individuals who had received the opportunities represented by particular types of secondary schooling, who had received interpersonal encouragement from parents, teachers and peers to continue their education beyond secondary school and who had developed a career orientation that stressed the need for a higher education qualification are more likely to choose non-Government secondary schooling for their children. Drawing on reference group theory (Kelley, 1968; Kemper, 1968) and the social psychological literature on individual attainment (Hauser, Tsai and Sewell, 1983) we ascribe substantial influence to the expectations and encouragement of parents, teachers and peers in explaining why individuals make the educational and career decisions that they do.

Thirdly we hypothesise that individuals professing belief in God and who attend a church on a regular basis may be likely to choose a secondary school in the non-Government sector for their children. Likewise it is proposed that adherents to Roman Catholicism may do likewise. Our final proposition is that, the choice of secondary school for one's children may be bound up with one's own educational, occupational and income attainments. Hence we test the notion that even at the early stages of individuals' careers those who have already achieved better educational qualifications, higher prestige jobs and higher incomes will be more likely to be planning Catholic or Independent secondary schooling for their children.

T h e S t u d y

The data employed are part of a longitudinal study of Australian youth. The original population comprised all the year 12 students (n=14,479) enrolled in all secondary schools in the State of Queensland in November 1978. At that time, using a two-stage cluster sampling design, a sample of these students was drawn with a probability proportional to the size of the year 12 group in each school. This sample also reflected the proportions of students in the three secondary school sectors (Government, Catholic and other Independent) as well as metropolitan versus non-metropolitan differences and gender differences. For a full description of this technique see Rosier and Williams (1973). By means of a questionnaire, data were gathered concerning, among other things, the students' social characteristics, their post-school plans and their parents' wishes for them once they had completed year 12. In the following year the students' year 12 results were obtained from official State sources. In 1987, nine years after the first contact, the sample was surveyed concerning employment history, work autonomy, job conditions, educational attainment, earnings, attitudes to self and career hopes/expectations.


From the original 1978 sample, 1,108 usable survey forms were received, a response rate of 86.1 percent. The other 13.9 percent were non-respondents who chose not to participate in the study or returned incomplete survey forms without any form of identification. Thus the 1978 respondents became the sample. However a further 23 persons of the 1,108 although returning completed survey forms did not provide enough identification to enable them to be included in any follow-up.

In our most recent contact with the sample in 1987 a total of 609 persons provided at least partial dam though we reduced this case base by excluding cases with missing data on any variables.

Detailed investigations have been carried out to establish whether there were differences between the initial and follow-up samples. Bias was defined as the difference between the means of variables measured in the original sample and the means of the same variables among the follow-up sample(s) divided by the standard deviation of the former (Bachman et.al 1978, p.258). Comparisons between the original 1978 sample and the 1987 sample, the subjects of the present paper, on a similar set of variables are contained in Table 2.

Table 2 Estimates of Sample Bias

1978 Contact 1987 Contact Bias

Mean SD Mean SD

Gender 0.546 0.498 0.518 0.500 .06 Father's Occupation 6.397 4.188 6.466 4.194 .02 Father's Education 4.219 2.469 4.224 2.431 .00 Mother's Education 3.309 2.128 3.242 2.123 .03 Parent Encouragement 0.597 0.491 0.596 0.482 .00 Teacher Encouragement 0.334 0.472 0.338 0.474 .01 Year 12 Academic Achievement 1,034 239 1,053 235 .08 Catholic vs Government

Schooling 0.189 0.391 0.192 0.394 .01 Independent vs Government

Schooling 0.131 0.337 0.110 0.313 .06

The measures of bias are uniformly quite small and suggest that the 1987 sample is reasonably representative of the original population. For example, the largest bias estimate concerns Year 12 academic achievement, an estimate of 0.08 of a standard deviation. This means an actual fluctuation of 19 points across a total academic achievement range of 418 points (lowest individual Year 12 score) to 1,670 points (highest individual Year 12 score) between the original 1978 sample


and the 1987 respondents. All-in-all we can be confident that the people we are talking about in 1987 mirror well the original group we contacted in 1978.

Furthermore, in order to examine potential bias in relationships between variables at our first contact and our 1987 contact, we constructed correlation matrices among a similar set of variables for both samples and compared them. The details of these comparisons are contained in an Appendix to this paper.

The design effect of the multiple stages of sampling used this study was estimated in order to establish the size of the simple random sample with the sampling precision equivalent to the two-stage cluster sampling procedure used here (Kish, 1965; Ross, 1976). This value of the simple random sample is used in determining appropriate degrees of freedom for tests of significance. We excluded cases with missing data on any variables, from any of our four contacts with the samples reducing our sample for the analyses to 500 persons, ensuring that the multivariate analyses are conducted on the same universe of cases.

Measurement of Variables

The variable gender represents a contrast between women and men in our sample. Type of school is broken down into Government, Catholic and Independent. However, such a breakdown into these three categories is not appropriate for use in particular types of statistical analyses. In such cases we express type of school as two dummy variables, one contrasting attendance at a Catholic secondary school with attendance at a Government secondary school, the other contrasting attendance at an Independent (non-Catholic) secondary school with attendance at a Government secondary school.

The socio-economic circumstances of each respondent's family of origin has been calculated as an index. Several separate indicators of socio-economic background including father's and mother's ~ education and occupation, family structure, number of Siblings, home location and number of books in the home were combined statistically using a principal components analysis technique (Nie, 1983), to try to identify a single factor which could represent socio- economic status. A factor composed of father's occupation, father's education, mother's education and number of books in the home was thus identified (Eigenvalue 1.993; Cronbach Alpha 0.59). Each respondent's scores on each of these four items in the socio-economic status index were then summed to give each respondent a socio-economic status composite score.

A scale termed personal orientation to higher education was able to be constructed from the data. Responses to seven items capable of dichotomous coding were summed to form the scale. The iteXns were:

1. I plan to enter postsecondary education next year. 2, I am dissatisfied with my present level of knowledge. 3. My hoped-for job requires a higher education qualification.


4. Tertiary education broadens and develops personality. 5. Earning money on the job is better than tertiary education. 6. Learning on the job is more practical than school learning. 7. Success depends on ability and effort - not education.

Agreement with the first four items and disagreement with the last three items were regarded as indicating a strong personal orientation to higher education (Cronbach Alpha 0.75).

The measure of Interpersonal Encouragement combines the perceptions respondents have of parents and teachers encouraging them to enter higher education after high school and the plans of their friends in relation to entering higher education. Parents can be a substantial influence upon decision-making by young people about entry to higher education via the extensive range of incentives and opportunities they can provide for going to college or university - financial support, accommodation, travel assistance and so on.

Teachers can play an important role in making students aware of what further study at a university or college involves and, to that extent, can draw to the attention of young people the possible incentives for going on to higher education and to possible outcomes from going on.

Members of the peer group can also exert influence by sharing knowledge and opinions about higher education that affect expectations of its likelihood of providing valued outcomes, or by making certain opportunities available (shared accommodation or travel, for example) that affect ~e attainability of higher education. In general, the more members of a peer group aspire to proceed to higher education, the greater will be the incentives and opportunities provided by them for a young person to proceed to higher education.

The measure of educational at tainment was a 6-category ordering of educational attainment from no post-school educational qualification (1) to post- graduate qualification (6). This ordering of educational attainments was derived from an appropriate 'write-in' question in the 1987 survey. In this same survey respondents were asked to indicate their gross annual income on an "income thermometer" illustrated in the survey. The nine categories on the "thermometer" ranged from less than $5,000 to over $40,000 per annum. The respondents' occupations, gauged from a "write in" question were coded into a 6-point occupational prestige scale - professional, managerial, lower white collar, skilled manual, semi-skilled manual, unskilled manual - developed at the Australian National University (Broom, Duncan-Jones, Jones and McDonnell, 1977).

Members of the sample were also asked to indicate their current religious position in terms of church attendance, belief in God and re l ig ious denomination. Our measure of this latter contrasts Roman Catholics and others using a dummy variable format. We followed this procedure to enable us to estimate the independent contribution of Roman Catholicism to choice of school (Anderson, 1988). Church attendance contrasted those who attended church at least once a month with those who attended less frequently, while the


belief in God variable contrasted those who professed no doubts about the existence of God with those who had doubts or disbelief about the existence of God. Finally the dependent variables, choice of Catholic secondary schooling and choice of Independent schooling respectively, have been cast in dummy variable forms.

The main technique of data analysis used is that of logistic regression as the dependent variables are dichotomous (Walsh, 1987). The use of logit regression allows the researcher to perform a regression-like analysis of the data where the predicted probabilities of the data fall between zero and one (Aldrich and Nelson, 1986). The effects of the independent variables from logit analysis are interpretable in the same way as the estimates derived from ordinary least squares regression analysis.

.Results

Members of our sample completed year 12 in 1978. Seventy percent of them had attended Government high schools, 19 percent had attended Catholic schools and 11 percent had attended Independent schools. In late 1987 we asked them, "What sort of secondary schooling would you favour for any children you may have?"

The types of secondary school chosen for their children are set out in Table 3.

Table 3 Type of Secondary School Chosen for Children

School Chosen for Children %

Government . . . . 45.7 Catholic 17.9 Independent 3 6.3

Seventy percent of our sample had attended Government secondary schools. Less than half would choose such a seCondary school for their own children. Just over 10 percent of the sample had attended Independent schools. Over one-third indicate that they would send their children to such schools. It is of a good deal of interest to establish the direction of this change from the type of school attended by oneself to that chosen for one's own children.

The required cross-tabulation is contained in Table 4. Three-fifths of those who attended Government secondary schools are intending at this stage for their children to do likewise. But almost one-thirdof Government school graduates now say that they wish their children to attend Independent secondary schools. There is also movement from the Catholic school system to the Independent schools. Two-thirds of Catholic school graduates plan to send their children to


Catholic schools. But a further one-fifth of those who attended Catholic schools indicate that their children will attend Independent secondary schools.

Table 4 Type of Secondary School Chosen for Children by Parent's Secondary School Type

(Column Percentages)

Secondary School Chosen for Children

Parent's Secondary School Type

Government Catholic Independent

Government 61.6 10.1 5.9 Catholic 6.7 68.5 2.0 Independent 31.7 21.3 9 2.2

Quite strikingly, over 90 percent of our sample who had attended Independent secondary schools planned to have their own children attend such schools. This raises the question as to the identification of those factors which affect parental choice of a secondary school for their children. Are such choices motivated by parents' home circumstances? If one has been brought up in a well-to-do home does this affect one's choice of school for one's children? Do people's own career orientations and the encouragement they received to pursue a tertiary education affect their views of schools as more or less likely to foster similar motivations for higher education and career achievement?

Do religious factors (denomination, belief in God, church attendance) impinge upon the choice of non-Government schooling in particular? Do people send their children to the same type of school they attended? Irrespective of social origins do people's own levels of educational qualifications, job prestige and income predict where they will enrol their children of secondary school age?

In the analyses which follow we have sought to establish the impact of selected factors upon the choice of Catholic secondary schooling or Independent secondary schooling by sample members for their children. In each case our analyses have been carried out in three steps. At the first step the gender of the sample member and his or her parents' socio-economic circumstances are used as predictors of school choice. At the second step, variables representing the respondents' own secondary schools, their orientation to higher education as necessary for their careers and the level of interpersonal encouragement they received to continue their education beyond secondary school are added as predictors. In the final step, variables representing belief in God, church attendance, religious denomination and the respondents' early career attainments separately are utilised as predictors of the choice ~of secondary school. Table 5 displays the results of our estimation of the antecedents of Catholic secondary school choice.


Table 5 The Antecedents of Catholic Secondary School Choice

(Figures are Unstandardised Logistic Regression Coefficients)

Predictor Variables Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 3 A B

Step 3 C

Gender .478 O Home socio-economic circumstances-.017 R* attended Catholic school R* attended Independent school Orientation to higher education Interpersonal encouragement Belief in God Church attendance Roman Catholic denomination Educational qualifications Job prestige Income

-.175 -.017 1.7300 -.540 -.045 .031

-.115 -.132 -.022 -.022 1.1280 1.1300 -.372 -.375 -.032 .031 .054 .054

-.356 .347 -.241 .247 1.0740 1.0800 0.25 - .023 . .

-.150 -.021 1.1260 -.394 -.029 .061

-.351 -.256 1.0760

.027

*R = Respondent OUnstandardised coefficient exceeds three times its standard error

There seems to be three predictors among our respondents that affect the choice of Catholic schooling for their children. The first is gender. Men are more likely to choose a Catholic secondary school for their children than are women. This gender effect is partly to be explained by the fact that men in our sample were more likely to attend a Catholic school themselves than were women (product moment correlation 0.328; p < .01). At successive steps in the analysis if the respondent had attended a Catholic secondary there was a strong likelihood of choosing Catholic secondary schooling for the children. This result holds even when the religious practice, denomination and belief variables are taken into account, as well as variables representing the respondents' early career attainments. Religious denomination itself predicts the choice of Catholic secondary schooling - Roman Catholics in our sample indicate they would choose a Catholic secondary school for their children. Belief in God and church attendance do not predict such a choice when denomination is taken into account.

Neither the respondent's own home circumstances nor their early career attainments predict the choice of Catholic schooling for children. Nor do the respondents' career orientation to higher education nor the level of encouragement they received from parents, teachers and peers to continue their education beyond year 12. The following diagram summarises these findings.


Figure 1" The Antecedents of Catholic Secondary School Choice

Men

At tended Catholic Likely to S e c o n d a r y School ~"v Choose Cathol ic

Seconda ry School For Chi ldren

Roman Catholic D e n o m i n a t i o n

The choice of Catholic secondary schooling for one's children cuts across social origins and early career attainments. It is predicted from Catholic denomination, and from the respondent's attendance at a Catholic secondary school. Men are also likely to choose Catholic secondary schooling for their children but this effect is mediated by the impact of their own attendance at a Catholic secondary school.

In the final Table, Table 6, data are presented relating to the choice of Independent non-Catholic schooling for the respondents' children.

Table 6 The Antecedents of Independent Secondary School Choice

(Figures are Unstandardised Logistic Regression Coefficients)

Predictor Variables Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 S tep 3 A B

Gender -.011 Home socio-economic circumstances .0190 R t attended Catholic school R t attended Independent school Orientation to higher education Interpersonal encouragement Belief in God Church attendance Roman Catholic denomination Educational qualifications Job prestige Income

tR = Respondent t Coefficient exceeds twice its standard error OCoefficient exceeds three times its standard error

-.017 .010

-.278 1.283"

.052 -.061

Step 3 C

-.017 -.021 -'.057 .011 .010 .010

-.058 -.054 -.061 1.328* 1.328* 1.307*

.049 .047 .043 -.040 -.042 -.042 -.019 -.018 -.031 -.058 -.061 -.062 -.4120 -.4130 -.4180

0.19 - - - -.006 - - .037


As we could expect, the respondents' own home socio-economic circumstances predict the choice of Independent schooling for children. Respondents from families higher up the socio-economic scale indicate that their children will attend Independent secondary schools. At step 2 in the analysis presented in Table 6 the effect of family socio-economic circumstances upon secondary school choice becomes absorbed and mediated by the effects of the respondent's attendance at an Independent secondary school. It will be noted that, unlike the choice of Catholic schooling for children there is no sex effect in the choice of Independent secondary schooling. Women respondents as much as men are likely to choose Independent schooling for their children.

What is also very clear is that Catholics are not intending to send their children to Independent schools. The minus sign (-) attached to the coefficient for "Roman Catholicism" in Table 6 (e.g. -.412) indicates that it is not Catholic planning to send their children to Independent schools. And as we found with the choice of Catholic schooling, the choice of Independent schooling at this stage cuts across qualifications, job prestige and income levels among our respondents. This may change, as we would expect the incomes of our respondents in upper prestige jobs to increase rapidly over the next decade and that such respondents would be highly likely to choose Independent schooling for their children. For the present the diagram below summarises the path to the choice of Independent secondary schooling for one's children.

Figure 2: The Antecedents of Independent Secondary School Choice

Upper Socio-economic Origins

Respondent Attended Independent Secondary Schooling /

Respondent is not a Roman Catholic

Choose Independent

~" d r y • .- Secon a School for Children

Conclusion

Independent schools in Australia loom large in social importance and in the public mind as their dominance of access to certain universities or particular university courses contributes to their image of influence, success and leadership


(Anderson, 1990a). Among our respondents there is evidence of a cycle from favoured home socio-economic circumstances via Independent schooling to the choice of such schooling for one's own children.

What is clear is that the socio-economic advantages of upper middle class origins, already a factor in this sample of young people remaining at school, may repeat their effects in terms of secondary school choice for possible children. As Williams and Carpenter (1990) have argued the choice of Independent schooling for children is based on the presumption that there are returns from an investment in private sector schooling. And as these authors demonstrate empirically, this presumed advantage is not of the order that parents might believe from simple observation.

The choice of Catholic schooling seems to be motivated by other concerns, though we have shown a sizeable drift from the Catholic school sector to the Independent school sector. The choice of Catholic secondary schooling is bound up largely with being Roman Catholic and carrying on a tradition of attendance at such schools especially among men. We suspect that there is parental hope in such a choice for the continuation of a religious tradition. However whether such schooling promotes religiousness as indicated by church attendance and belief in God awaits further investigation.


APPENDIX Comparison of the Correlation Coefficients of the 1978 Sample and the 1987 Sample

Among Selected Variables (decimals Omitted)

G Oec FEd MEd Parent Tchr Yr 12 Cath Ind Acad

Gender Father's

Occupation Father's

Education Mother's

Education Parent

Encouragement Teacher

Encouragement Year 12 Academic

Achievement Catholic

Schooling Independent

Schooling

-093 012 046 001 -099 017 328 083

-089 -394 -196 -173 -086 -143 -073 -185

057 -385 384 175 062 103 -032 049

065 -205 395 158 066 110 035 120

070 -178 149 162 289 366 -002 179

-072 -042 060 061 276 356 081 -008

015 -122 195 100 313 319 061 093

257 -052 003 007 -014 044 055 -171

159 -221 083 137 144 022 014 -192

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