该送孩子去私立学校吗？ | 经济学人

International | Studying for success

国际 | 只争朝夕，鱼跃龙门

Should you send your children to private school?

该送孩子去私立学校吗？

As shortcuts to elite universities, American schools work better than British ones

作为进入精英大学的捷径，美国私校做得比英国好

Eton college can boast of educating more than a third of Britain’s 57 prime ministers over its 583 years. Less impressive is the fact that the number of its pupils winning places at the universities of Oxford or Cambridge fell by more than half between 2014 and the 2021-2022 school year. Some parents pick private schools in the hope that their kids will benefit from more attention or less bullying. Others bet that these institutions will lead to a better education, higher grades and a place at a venerable university. But soaring costs and changing university admissions policies are prompting discussion of whether the crests and crenellations are worth it.

伊顿公学（Eton College）宣称，自建校583年以来，英国的57位首相中有三分之一毕业于此。然而从2014年至2021-2022学年，该校录上牛津、剑桥的毕业生少了一半多，这一数值让该校黯然失色。一些家长之所以选择私立学校，是希望自己的孩子可以获得更多关注或免受校园霸凌。另一些家长则认为这些私立学校可以带来更优良的教育、傲人的成绩以及名校的入场券。但是，如今学费飙升、大学录取政策发生变化，人们开始讨论为私校的声望和所谓的优势买单是否值得。

In many rich countries, traditional private schooling is in decline. Across 30-odd members of the oecd, a club of mostly wealthy countries, the share of children in schools that get less than half their funding from government fell from about 8% in 2000 to some 5% in 2018. Private schools in Britain and America have fared better, and the debate over them remains particularly politically charged in both countries.

在许多富裕国家，传统私校光环一直在褪祛。在经合组织（主要由富裕国家组成）的30多个成员国中，在政府拨款占比不到一半的学校学习的儿童比例从2000年的8%下降至2018年的5%左右。英国与美国私立学校的情况则更为乐观一些，围绕私校的争论在两国仍然在政治上很敏感。

Recent evidence suggests that for most privately schooled children in Britain and those who attend elite private institutions in America, the advantages of an expensive education remain robust. The benefits are probably bigger in America than they are in Britain, at least for pupils sitting in the swankiest private classrooms. That is because their alumni continue to enjoy access to the best universities at rates which would cause a furore in the old country. That might surprise anyone who assumes that American society is less ridden by class than British society.

近期证据表明，对大部分就读于英国私立学校与美国精英私立学校的学生来说，精英教育的优势依然显著。而且在美国读私校的优势可能比在英国更大，至少对那些坐在顶尖私校的豪华教室里的学生而言是这样。美国私校的名校录取率居高不下，高到若是在历史更悠久的英国，可能会引起公愤。那些认为美国社会阶级分化程度低于英国的人也许会为此感到惊讶。

Private schools in Britain serve around 6.5% of kids, about the same share as they did in the 1960s. (Hockey sticks and rice pudding appeal across the ages.) America’s ones teach about 9% of children, a share that had held steady for a decade by the time of the covid-19 pandemic. In America about 75% of private-schoolers go to institutions with religious affiliations (a big chunk of which operate on fees that are similar to, or less than, per-pupil funding in government schools). But that country also has an exclusive subset of schools, often called “independent” schools, which most closely mimic fee-paying ones in Britain. These educate less than 2% of American youngsters.

全英6.5%的儿童就读于私校，这一比例与上世纪60年代基本保持重合。（看来曲棍球和米布丁的魅力几十年不减——私校的魅力几十年不减）。而美国私立学校为全美9%的儿童提供教育，截至新冠疫情爆发时，这一比例已保持10年。在美国，大约有75%的私立学校学生就读于有宗教背景的私校，其中大部分学校的学费与公立学校的人均教育政府拨款相差无几，甚至更低。但美国还有一类学校，通常被称为“独立”学校，它们与英国的私校非常相似，只有不到2%的美国孩子就读于此类院校。

Costs in Britain are among the highest in the world. A family there can expect to cough up more than £16,000 ($20,000) a year to put one child through a private day school. That is three times what they were paying in the 1980s; it is around half the median household income in Britain, whereas it was once one-fifth. Fees in America are lower on average, but also rocketed by 60% in the first decade of this century, according to the most recent good government data. The most snooty schools bill parents on average $28,000 each year for a day pupil.

英国私校的学费在全球位居前列。如果英国家庭想让孩子就读全日制私立学校，每年就要花费16000多英镑（折合20000美元）。这是上世纪80年代的三倍，也占了英国家庭收入中位数的一半，而过去只占五分之一。平均来看，美国私立学校学费稍低，但根据最新的政府数据，私校学费在本世纪前十年也暴涨60%。而那些最自以为是的私校收取的年均学费甚至可以达到28,000美元。

Measuring what benefits flow from these outlays matters both to critics of private schooling—who accuse posh schools of perpetuating elites—and to those who pay for it. At first glance, the pay-offs are clear: all around the rich world privately educated pupils do better in exams, go to better universities and end up with better-paid jobs. But some of that success derives from advantages outside the classroom, such as having wealthy, encouraging or intelligent parents. Understanding the boost from private education involves comparing pupils’ fortunes with those of otherwise similar peers in government schools. Good research of this sort is easiest to find in Britain.

不管是对指责私立学校固化了精英阶级的人还是对那些选择为精英教育付费的人，重要的是得搞清楚钱砸下去有什么好处。乍一眼看上去，回报非常明显，在富裕国家，接受私校教育的学生能在考试中取得更好的成绩，能考上更好的大学，拿下收入更高的工作。但是上述成功中有一部分也依赖于教育以外的其他优势，例如经济条件好、有善于鼓励的高知父母等。如果想研究私立教育起到的助推作用，就需要对比相似条件下进入公立学校里的孩子的未来发展。这方面的优秀研究在英国非常容易找到。

Getting the abacus out

拿出算盘算笔账

By the time they turn 25 Britons with private education earn 17% more than other workers from similar homes, according to a study from 2015. The pay premium widens by the age of 42, according to earlier research, to around 21% for women and 35% for men. In part this is because privately schooled people are more likely to enter high-earning professions, such as finance. Alumni networks may help in this, but peer pressure and parental expectations probably play a big role, too.

2015年的一项研究表明，到 25岁时，接受私立教育的英国人比家庭背景相似的员工收入高17%。而此前的研究表明，到42岁时，薪酬差距将会进一步扩大，女性可以达到约21%，男性则为35%。部分原因是因为私立学校的学生更有可能进入金融这样的高收入行业。当然，校友会也发挥了作用，不过同伴压力和父母期望可能发挥的作用更大。

A larger reason for higher incomes is because private-schoolers get more and better academic qualifications than they otherwise would. They enjoy a “modest” boost in test scores when compared with children from similar homes who enroll in government classrooms, reckons Francis Green at University College London. This advantage accumulates with every additional year they spend in private schooling. One study finds that the edge they enjoy by the time they are 18 is roughly the equivalent of moving from grades of aab to aaa (school-leavers on England’s academic track commonly take nationally standardised exams in three subjects).

收入高的主要原因是私立学校学生的学业表现会越来越优秀亮眼。伦敦大学学院的弗朗西斯·格林（Francis Green）认为，与家庭背景相似但就读于公立学校的孩子相比，他们的考试成绩 “有但不明显”的领先。私校上学时间越久，这种优势也就越大。一项研究发现，私立学校学生18岁时享有的优势大约相当于AAB和AAA差距（在英国，想读大学的毕业生一般来说要参加三个科目的全国标准化考试）。

The critical point is that even a modest boost in results can have a big effect on the size of additional earnings. That is because better grades might secure a pupil a slot at a more prestigious university than they would have gone to otherwise, or a slot at a university at all. In 2021 more than half of privately educated pupils who started a degree in Britain attended one of the 24 “Russell Group” universities (a club that includes most of the best ones). Such pupils are more likely to spend their last years at school studying the tough, traditional subjects that very selective universities most want to see on applications. They are also more likely to get extra help so as to ace interviews and admissions tests.

关键的一点是，即使成绩的小幅提升也会对未来收入的增加多产生重大影响。这是由于成绩的提升能帮助某个学生进入更好的大学，或者能帮助一个学生进入大学学习。2021 年，在英国私校毕业进入大学学习的学生中，一半以上就读于 24 所“罗素联盟”大学（该大学联盟囊括大部分顶尖大学）。这些学生更有机会在高中最后几年学习一些传统高难度科目，这也会让学生的申请更受顶尖大学的青睐。另外，他们也有更多机会获得额外的帮助，从而在面试和入学考试中脱颖而出。

注释：

“Russell Group” universities：罗素大学集团（The Russell Group）成立于1994年，由英国最顶尖的24所世界一流研究型大学组成，是全世界产生诺贝尔奖得主最多的著名高校联盟。

https://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/policy/policy-documents/briefing-benefits-of-joining-horizon-europe/

Private-schoolers no longer nab quite such unfair shares of top university places as they once did. They comprise around 18% of all pupils aged 16-19 in England, as well as about 25% of all those with top grades in school-leavers’ exams. Last year they were 20% of new undergraduates at Russell Group universities.

时过境迁，私校的名校录取率不再像以前那样失衡。英国的私校学生占所有16-19岁学生的18%，在毕业考试高分段的学生中私校生占25%。去年，罗素联盟新生的20%毕业于私校。

In 2016 about 6% of all private-schoolers who began a degree in Britain won places at the universities of Oxford or Cambridge; that share has since fallen to about 4% (it is around 2% for those from government schools). Last year private-schoolers made up 32% and 27% of the pair’s new British undergraduates, down from 43% and 39% a decade before. This shift has rocked the handful of elite private schools which once sent hordes of pupils to the two universities.

2016年，英国所有大学新生中私校生约有6%进入牛津大学或剑桥大学学习，此后，这一比例下降到4%左右（公立学校学生中，该比例约为2%）。去年，牛津和剑桥本科新生的私校生比例为32%和27%，低于十年前的43%和39%。这一转变让这些精英私立学校大跌眼镜，毕竟在过去是他们成批地将学生送入这两所大学。

Picking apart the benefits of private education in America is difficult, because its schools are a more motley bunch than Britain’s. Since religion is banned from government schools, many pious parents pick private classes for reasons other than academic performance alone. Overall, evidence to suggest that America’s private-schoolers learn more than they would if they went to government schools is less secure than it is in Britain.

很难说清美国私立教育有何好处，这是因为比英国的学校相比，美国的学校更加鱼龙混杂。美国公立学校禁止宗教，因此许多信仰虔诚的父母选择私立学校不只考虑学习成绩。总体而言，在美国，进入私校学习就能比进入公立学校学到更多的情况不如在英国那么明显。

A study published in 2018 by two academics at the University of Virginia, Robert Pianta and Arya Ansari, analysed the test scores of 1,000 children who were born in the 1990s. It found that by age 15 the ones who attended American private schools were getting no better grades, after adjusting for their backgrounds. There is not much good research, however, singling out the extra benefits rich children gain from attending America’s subset of “independent” schools. But it is reasonable to think that they boost a child’s prospects by at least as much as their British cousins.

弗吉尼亚大学的两位学者罗伯特·皮安塔（Robert Pianta）和阿里亚·安萨里（Arya Ansari）于2018年发表了一项研究，该研究分析了上世纪90年代出生的1000名儿童的考试成绩。研究发现考虑到学生的家庭背景之后，15岁的私校学生成绩并没有比公立学校学生好。但没有一项可靠的研究能够明确说明富裕的孩子就读美国私校后所获得的额外好处。但有理由认为，这些美国私校拓宽孩子前景的程度至少和他们的英国同行一样。

UU，日日行，不怕千万里

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