Who chooses private school, and for what academic results?

Summary This study approaches the comparison between public and private schools from two perspectives. The first is to better understand the choice of sector at the beginning of elementary school (CP and CE1). This choice differs according to the family environment, the proximity of a private school to the home, and the level of the student at the beginning of CP. The second aims to judge the effectiveness of the private sector in helping students succeed. A direct comparison of results between the two sectors is not relevant, as their students do not have the same characteristics. To account for these differences, we use information collected from the panel of students who entered the first grade in 1997. The difference in distance to the parents' home between the nearest private and public schools is used as an instrumental variable. Overall, we find no significant effect of private school attendance in CP and CE1 on the results at entry into CE2, in mathematics as well as in French, nor on the probability of repeating the first and second grade.