Finally, a US city with more private school kids than SF!
Eduwonkette has a very interesting series of posts about private school attendance in NYC that is a real eye opener for anyone that's been looking at the similar trends here in SF. 
In Why NYC Private School Kids Drink Frappuccinos she gives us the hilarious graphic I've reposted here. Her earlier posts, here and especially here, uncover some juicy data. Aside from the telling correlation between private school adoption and Starbucks, the map shows that in some pockets of Manhattan over 80% of school age kids attend private schools. Her graphic showing the strong correlation between income and private school attendance is excellent. I'm not sure how to compare this with the oft-repeated figure that %30 of SF kids attend private schools. But it suggests that Manhattan might beat SF's sky-high private school adoption rates -- or at least provide some data points that might explain SF's demographics.
Some of Eduwonkette's commenters make the point that income alone does not explain attendance patterns. They note that the correlation is not strong in Brooklyn, for instance, and that religion becomes just as important as income, if not more for some locations like the Williamsburg neighborhood. Here is San Francisco we hear plenty of anecdotal evidence that both religious influences and wealth play a role in driving private school attendance.
From my own subjective perspective I suspect that religion used to play a much bigger role, and that class based factors are shaping the modern picture. As evidence, look at the growing stature and selectivity of schools like Sacred Heart or Riordan that used to have modest reputations and working class demographics. Now they are highly selective and come with decidedly non-working class price tags. Another data point comes from looking at new private schools that have opened up here, like The Bay School. It has religious roots, but the school itself is very secular and its marketing efforts are nearly devoid of religious overtones.
I think San Francisco has a legacy of private school attendance based on patterns of religious beliefs and immigration. This is probably unique along the West Coast and maybe an outlier nationally. But that legacy is hardly the driving force today. In the '70's the pattern shifted based on reactionary fear of school integration policies. SFUSD suffered a significant drop in attendance when the consent decree integration policies were introduced. In the modern era we've seen further erosion of attendance as the city has gentrified dramatically. Gentrification is a double-edged knife that reduces overall school age populations and replaces working class and middle class families with more wealthy kids who are much more likely to go private. Looks like these forces are not unique to San Francisco and can be seen in Eduwonkette's data.
If anyone knows of other article about urban private school demographics, please send them my way.
Some of Eduwonkette's commenters make the point that income alone does not explain attendance patterns. They note that the correlation is not strong in Brooklyn, for instance, and that religion becomes just as important as income, if not more for some locations like the Williamsburg neighborhood. Here is San Francisco we hear plenty of anecdotal evidence that both religious influences and wealth play a role in driving private school attendance.
From my own subjective perspective I suspect that religion used to play a much bigger role, and that class based factors are shaping the modern picture. As evidence, look at the growing stature and selectivity of schools like Sacred Heart or Riordan that used to have modest reputations and working class demographics. Now they are highly selective and come with decidedly non-working class price tags. Another data point comes from looking at new private schools that have opened up here, like The Bay School. It has religious roots, but the school itself is very secular and its marketing efforts are nearly devoid of religious overtones.
I think San Francisco has a legacy of private school attendance based on patterns of religious beliefs and immigration. This is probably unique along the West Coast and maybe an outlier nationally. But that legacy is hardly the driving force today. In the '70's the pattern shifted based on reactionary fear of school integration policies. SFUSD suffered a significant drop in attendance when the consent decree integration policies were introduced. In the modern era we've seen further erosion of attendance as the city has gentrified dramatically. Gentrification is a double-edged knife that reduces overall school age populations and replaces working class and middle class families with more wealthy kids who are much more likely to go private. Looks like these forces are not unique to San Francisco and can be seen in Eduwonkette's data.
If anyone knows of other article about urban private school demographics, please send them my way.
1 Comments:
I don't think Riordan is highly selective (or selective at all) -- it's still known as "Mission with tuition," though I cringe at insulting Mission.
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