Public and private secondary school: international variation in social composition, resources and student literacy from two international comparative studies

Data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) and the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) is used to investigate differences between public and private schools around the world. We explore the social composition and describe the characteristics of public and private schools within each participating educational system. In addition, we investigate whether the availability of resources is equally distributed between these two types of schools by comparing the data collected from principals and teachers within each participating educational system. Finally, we explore whether the difference in cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes can be explained by the socioeconomic composition of schools and the distribution of resources. The results show large variation between the share of private schools across educational systems. Consistent with other research, students from private schools have a higher socioeconomic background as their peers in public schools. The resources distribution is mixed, in some educational systems more resources are available in public schools and in some private schools. Furthermore, we find that in many educational systems, computer and information literacy and civic knowledge are higher in private schools, but the difference to some extent can be explained by the socioeconomic background of students.