ABSTRACT
Think back to your high school days. The awkward dances. The Friday night football games. The stress of completing college applications. Do you ever wonder how your life today would be different if you had attended a different high school? Would you be at the same university that you are now, or even at a university at all? How sure are you that you would have even graduated from high school? Our experiences as teenagers can have long-lasting impacts on our lives. These types of topics aren’t just what daydreams are made of. For decades, public policy researchers have tried to examine how the choice of middle or high school can affect student outcomes. These analyses often compare how the performance of public school students differs from that of private school students.1 Some people presume that private schools are more effective on average than public schools are, but is that really true? Answering that question may be more difficult than it sounds.
