Study
| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.Ontario's Private Schools: Who Chooses Them and Why?
Private school attendance in Ontario has grown over recent decades from 1.9 percent of the student population in 1960 to 5.6 percent in 2006. What are the characteristics of private schools? Why are parents increasingly choosing them over public schools? What kinds of parents are choosing them for their children? This study is the most recent and comprehensive attempt by researchers to document the characteristics of private schools and the characteristics and motivations of Ontario parents of private school students.
This study is based on a survey of parents (from 919 households) whose children attend private schools in Ontario. We considered two major groups of private schools: academically- or pedagogically- defined day schools (ADS) and religiously-defined day schools (RDS), schools which together served over 107,000 students in 2005-2006, or almost 90 percent of Ontario private school students. The study did not include schools with a more specialized madate; those specifically for special needs students (11%), schools that cater almost exclusively to international students, or publicly funded First Nations schools.
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Deani Van Pelt
Senior Fellow, Fraser InstituteDeani Van Pelt is a Senior Fellow and Former Director of the Barbara Mitchell Centre for Improvement in Education at theFraser Institute. Following her studies at McMaster University (B.Comm.) and the University of Toronto (B.Ed.) she taught mathematics and business subjects in both public and private secondary schools. She then completed her M.Ed. and Ph.D. in Education at The University of Western Ontario where she was awarded the Bishop Townshend Gold Medal Award for excellence in graduate studies. From 2006 to 2014 she served at Redeemer University College, first as Assistant Professor and then as Associate Professor of Education. During this time she led several international research collaborations funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, taught a variety of courses including Systems of Education, and was Director of Teacher Education for four years. Her research and publications in Canadian education policy include studies in home schooling, independent schooling and education funding. She has presented numerous times over the last two decades in academic and practitioner conferences across North America. Recently a co-author of the Fraser Institute studies Education Spending in Canada: What’s Really Happening? and Financial Savings: Restructuring Education in Ontario Using the British Columbia Model, she continues to appear on TV and in radio talk shows across Canada. Her work has been featured in many Canadian newspapers including the National Post and Globe and Mail and she has served as an expert witness.… Read more -
Patricia A. Allison
Patricia A. Allison, B.Ed. (Alberta), M.Ed. (UWO) teaches in the Faculty of Education at The University of Western Ontario, andrecently retired from many years as an administrator and institutional researcher. She teaches the social and legal foundations of education and also developed (and still teaches) an elective course on private and independent schools. She has extensive experience as a researcher in many facets of education.… Read more -
Derek J. Allison
Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario