Academic achievement variations in geography: A public-parochial comparison

This paper assesses academic performance variations in Geography as a function of school typo. It reveals that parochial school students, seventh through twelfth grades, possess superior knowledge of geography when compared to their public school counterparts. This is consistent across the four sub fields of geography (physical, human, regional, map skills) that we surveyed. The difference is greater at the junior high school level and, while still significant, decreases at the high school level. While public and parochial school students differ significantly in a number of personal information variables, there is no evidence that these differences contribute to their differential knowledge of geography.