私校 vs. 公校也是一个一直以来让很多烤鸭纵有千言万语，也难以理清思路，述于笔尖的一个话题。现在终于有专家出来为我们答疑解惑，为arguments添砖加瓦了。妥妥看下去。
Private school education has little effect on a child’s academic success; new research
If you are a parent weighing up （判断权衡，注意这种地道phrasal verb在口语和写作中的使用）the benefits of an expensive private school education over the public school system, take note. It makes no difference.
According to a new national study – the first of its kind in Australia – the birth-weight, the amount of time a mother spends with her child and the educational levels of both parents contributes more to a child’s overall success at school rather than the institution.
Researchers from the University of Queensland, Curtin University in WA and the University of Southern Queensland tracked the development of more than 4000 Australian primary children born since March 1999.
The study, titled Does school type affect cognitive and non-cognitive development （cognitive development，教育学上专业说孩子智力认知能力发展的词汇，相对应的还有physical development体格发展，social-emotional development社交情感发展） in children?, examined results from the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests held in May each year.
It also looked at the test scores for the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test which measures language capabilities, and a matrix reasoning test that asks children to match pictures to incomplete sets.
The research found private school education had little effect on a child’s academic success when their backgrounds were taken into account.
“Our results show that sending children to Catholic or other independent schools has no significant effect,” one of the lead researchers from UQ, Professor Luke Connelly, said.
“Any differences we see in test results are not due to （be due to，归因于）the school type.
“Rather, they reflect the differences between households and students that already exist in society.”
The results of the Australian study support similar studies conducted in the US and the UK （注意这里的collocation，to conduct studies进行研究）.
“The work adds to a growing literature from three different continents that the returns from attending independent primary schools are no different from those of attending public school,” Professor Connelly added.
The study tested children between years three to five and found those with a birth weight of less than 2.5kg achieved significantly lower test scores, especially in grammar and numeracy.
And children’s test scores decreased as mothers’ work hours increased, but the working hours of the father were found to have no statistically significant impact（在数据统计上没有影响力）.
Children of parents who had both completed Year 12 had significantly higher test scores on all subjects.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children had lower mean scores, but there was marked improvement（marked作为substantial或者considerable的同义替换）by year five testing.
The research was published in the Labour Economics journal.
