Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

The private versus public education debate around the world tends to be highly contentious because arguments often focus on outcomes cared about by the adults but carried out in the name of children. This research approached education outcome from a multidisciplinary perspective to understand important factors that impact students schooling experience and college performance when controlled for school type. This study specifically explored the roles of environmental, psychological, and sociological factors that influence academic achievement. The evolution of school education in the United States, India, and other countries around the world along with different perspectives on the school choice debate were considered. The research investigated key high school dimensions like infrastructure, curriculum, teacher effectiveness, school leadership, parental involvement, and extracurricular activities that impact students school experiences along with students self-efficacy beliefs and how all these factors collectively influence students college academic performance. The study results found the influence of parents educational levels on school choice and level of parental involvement in students education to be significant while the results also revealed a positive relationship between high school and college grades. The study found all the dimensions of the high school experience contributed more significantly to the performance of students who attended private high schools compared to public high school students as well as highlighted the significant mediating influence of students self-efficacy on high school factors in predicting students college performance.

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