文章概括：

这篇文章讨论了私立学校在英国和美国的作用以及其对大学录取的影响。文章指出，尽管私立学校的费用不断上涨，但在英国和美国，私立教育仍然能够给学生带来许多优势。在英国，接受私立教育的学生在考试成绩、大学录取和未来工作收入等方面表现更好。在美国，私立学校的毕业生仍然享有进入顶尖大学的机会，并且私立学校在招生中起着重要的作用。然而，私立教育所带来的好处也受到了一些批评，认为私立学校会维持精英阶层，并使社会不平等问题加剧。

此外，文章还提到了私立教育的成本不断上涨，给家庭带来了经济压力。在英国，私立学校的费用已经是世界上最高的之一。在美国，私立学校的费用平均较低，但在本世纪初也出现了大幅增长。对于私立教育的好处，需要将私立学校学生与接受公立教育的学生进行比较研究，以了解私立教育对学生的影响。

最后，文章指出，私立学校在大学录取中的优势正在逐渐减少。在英国，私立学校的学生进入牛津和剑桥大学的比例有所下降。在美国，私立学校学生在大学录取中占比较高，但对于普通的私立学校学生来说，他们与接受公立教育的学生相比，在学术成绩方面并没有明显的优势。

 

International | Studying for success

国际 | 为了成功而学习

Should you send your children to private school?

你应该送自己的孩子上私立学校吗？

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

作为进入顶尖大学的捷径，美国学校比英国学校更有效

Jun 8th 2023

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.

伊顿公学可以自豪地说，在其583年的历史中，培养了英国57位首相中的三分之一以上。不那么令人印象深刻的事实是，在2014年至2021-2022学年期间，获得牛津或剑桥大学录取的学生人数下降了一半以上。一些家长选择私立学校，希望他们的孩子能从更多的关注或更少的欺凌中受益。其他人打赌这些机构将会带来更好的教育、更高的分数和进入令人仰慕的大学。但是不断飙升的成本和不断变化的大学招生政策引发了关于这些大学纹章和雉堞是否值得的讨论。

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，传统的私立学校正在衰落。在经合组织的30多个成员中，学校从政府获得不到一半资金的儿童比例从2000年的约8%下降到2018年的约5%。英国和美国的私立学校表现得更好，关于它们的争论在这两个国家都充满了政治色彩。

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.

最近的证据表明，对于大多数在英国私立学校上学的孩子和那些在美国精英私立学校上学的孩子来说，昂贵教育的优势仍然存在。美国的好处可能比英国大，至少对坐在最豪华的私人教室里的学生来说是这样。这是因为他们的校友继续享受着进入最好大学的机会，其费用会在这个古老的国家引起轰动。这可能会让那些认为美国社会不像英国社会那样受阶级支配的人感到惊讶。

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.

英国的私立学校为大约6.5%的孩子提供服务，与20世纪60年代的份额大致相同。美国9%的孩子都是由私立学校教的，这一比例在新冠肺炎疫情时代已经稳定了十年。在美国，大约75%的私立学校的学生都去了有宗教背景的学校。那个国家也有一个排外的学校子集，通常被称为“独立学校”，它们最接近英国的收费学校。这些学校只为不到2%的美国孩子提供教育。

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.

在英国，私立学校的费用是世界上最高的之一。在那里，一家人每年可能需要支付超过16,000英镑（20,000美元）的费用来供养一个孩子上私立日校。这是1980年代的三倍；它约占英国家庭收入中位数的一半，而曾经只占五分之一。美国的学费平均较低，但根据最近可靠的政府数据，这个世纪初的十年里也增长了60%。最高档的学校每年对一名走读生收费平均达到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.

衡量这些支出所带来的好处对于批评私立教育的人——他们指责豪华学校在延续精英统治——以及为此付费的人来说都很重要。乍一看，回报是显而易见的：在富裕世界范围内，接受私立教育的学生在考试中表现更好，进入更好的大学，并最终获得更高薪水的工作。但其中一部分成功源于课堂之外的优势，比如拥有富裕、鼓励或聪明的父母。了解私立教育的提升效果涉及将学生的命运与政府学校中与其条件相似的同龄人进行比较。这类研究在英国最容易找到。

Getting the abacus out

拿出算盘

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.

根据2015年的一项研究，英国接受私立教育的人在25岁时的收入比其他来自类似家庭的工人高出17%。根据早期的研究，这种薪资溢价在42岁时扩大，对于女性约为21%，对于男性约为35%。部分原因是因为接受私立教育的人更有可能进入高收入行业，比如金融行业。校友网络可能在其中起到一定帮助作用，但同龄人的压力和父母的期望可能也起到了重要作用。

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).

更高收入的一个更大原因是私立学生获得的学术资格比他们否则可能获得的更多且更好。伦敦大学学院的弗朗西斯·格林认为，与就读于政府学校的类似家庭的孩子相比，他们的考试成绩得到了“适度”的提升。这种优势随着他们在私立学校度过的每一年而累积。一项研究发现，到他们18岁时，他们所享有的优势大致相当于从AAB级别提升到AAA级别（英格兰的学校毕业生通常会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.

关键点在于，即使是考试成绩的适度提升也会对额外收入的规模产生重大影响。这是因为更好的成绩可能使学生获得比原本更有声望的大学录取机会，或者干脆获得大学录取机会。2021年，在英国开始大学学位的私立教育学生中，超过一半就读于24所“罗素集团”大学（该集团包括大部分顶级大学）。这些学生更有可能在最后几年的学校时间里学习那些非常有选择性的大学最想看到的难度较高、传统科目。他们也更有可能得到额外帮助，以在面试和入学测试中取得优异成绩。

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.

不再像过去那样，私立学校的学生不再占据那么不公平的大学名额。在英格兰，私立学校的学生约占所有16-19岁学生的18%，以及约占所有获得高分的学生考试成绩的25%。去年，私立学校的学生在罗素集团大学的新本科生中占比20%。

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.

在2016年，约有6%在英国开始大学学位的私立学校学生获得牛津或剑桥大学的录取机会；这一比例已经下降到约4%（对于政府学校的学生来说，这一比例约为2%）。去年，私立学校的学生占到牛津和剑桥大学新英国本科生的32%和27%，较10年前的43%和39%有所下降。这种变化对曾经将大量学生送进这两所大学的少数顶级私立学校造成了冲击。

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.

在美国，分析私立教育的好处很困难，因为美国的学校群体比英国更加多样化。由于政府学校禁止宗教活动，许多虔诚的家长选择私立学校不仅仅是出于学业表现的原因。总体而言，相比英国，美国的私立学生比起就读政府学校的学生学到更多的证据并不那么确凿。

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·皮安塔和阿里亚·安萨里在2018年发表的一项研究分析了1000名20世纪90年代出生的儿童的考试成绩。研究发现，年满15岁时，就读美国私立学校的学生在考试成绩上并没有取得更好的成绩，经过背景调整后的结果是如此。然而，目前并没有太多关于从美国的“独立”学校获得的额外好处对富裕孩子的影响的良好研究。但是，合理地认为，这些好处至少能够为孩子的前景带来与英国同等水平的提升。

America’s universities welcome those from grand schools with open arms. In 2021 James Murphy of Education Reform Now, a think-tank in Washington, dc, collected data from 35 of America’s highest-ranked universities and liberal-arts colleges. He found that on average about 34% of their new undergraduates were educated in private high schools (see chart). That is astonishing given that the private sector educates just 8.5% of American high-schoolers. Pupils from “independent” schools do brilliantly. The most recently published data suggest they made up about one-third of new undergraduates at Dartmouth and more than a quarter at Princeton. “Legacy” preference, whereby the relatives of alumni get a leg-up in admissions, may explain some of this. Nothing so brazenly unfair happens at British universities.

美国的大学热烈欢迎来自顶级学校的学生。2021年，华盛顿的智囊团“教育改革现在”的詹姆斯·墨菲收集了美国排名最高的35所大学和文科学院的数据。他发现，平均约有34%的新本科生在私立高中接受教育（见图表）。这一比例令人惊讶，因为私立教育部门只占美国高中学生的8.5%。来自“独立”学校的学生表现出色。最近发布的数据表明，他们在达特茅斯大学占到新本科生的约三分之一，在普林斯顿大学超过四分之一。在招生中给予校友亲属优先录取的“传统优待”政策可能解释了其中的一部分。而在英国的大学，没有发生如此明目张胆的不公平情况。

Green lawns and greenbacks

富裕和财富

Money helps, too. Whereas English universities charge every domestic student the same tuition fees (though those from abroad pay more), America’s best universities vary the cost according to means. This allows exceptional pupils from poor backgrounds to study for little or nothing. But it also gives universities good reason to keep in with dependable “feeder” schools, full of clever pupils with ample wealth.

金钱也起到一定作用。英格兰的大学向每个本国学生收取相同的学费（尽管来自国外的学生要支付更高费用），而美国的顶级大学根据学生的经济状况来确定学费。这使得来自贫困背景的优秀学生可以以很低的费用甚至免费接受学业。但这也使得大学有充分理由与可靠的“供养”学校保持联系，这些学校有大量富有且聪明的学生。

It follows that Britain’s private schools are pointing more of their leavers overseas. Last year about 6% of those who went to university chose to study abroad, up from 4% in 2016. America is the most popular destination. Its universities demand top grades, says Barnaby Lenon of the Independent School Council, which represents British private schools. But he adds that they also value non-academic achievements, such as those obtained through extra-curricular activities of a kind that private schools try hard to provide.

因此，英国的私立学校正在将更多的毕业生引向海外。去年，约有6%的升大学的学生选择出国留学，相比2016年的4%有所增加。美国是最受欢迎的目的地。英国私立学校协会的巴纳比·莱农表示，美国大学要求学生取得优秀成绩。他补充说，美国大学也重视非学术成就，例如通过课外活动获得的成就，而私立学校正努力提供这种机会。

The edge enjoyed by private-schoolers is much less discussed in America than it is in Britain, in part because questions of race, rather than class, tend to take centre stage in debates about university admissions. Political battles that have broken out over the teaching of race, sex and history are benefiting private providers, in part because states are choosing to put money into private “school-choice” programmes. These involve local governments paying for some private-school places (commonly only for poor children and usually in the cheapest kinds of private institutions).

在美国，私立学校学生所享有的优势比在英国更少被讨论，部分原因是关于大学录取的辩论中，种族问题往往比阶级问题更加突出。由于关于种族、性别和历史教学的政治斗争而爆发，私立教育机构受益，部分原因是各州选择将资金投入私立学校选择计划。这些计划包括地方政府为一些私立学校提供资助（通常仅限于贫困儿童，通常是在价格较低的私立学校）。

America may be on the verge of change, however. Imminent rulings from its Supreme Court could ban the use of affirmative action in university admissions. And if colleges and universities can no longer boost applicants from underrepresented minority groups, the advantages enjoyed by posh pupils may receive greater scrutiny. Private schools in Britain face a bumpy ride, too. The Labour Party, which looks likely to win power at elections due in the next 18 months, talks of abolishing private schools’ charitable status and stripping them of tax breaks. That could cause tuition fees to jump. Meanwhile, the paths to Oxford and Cambridge will keep narrowing. Expect a growing gang of Brits to head across the Atlantic.

然而，美国可能即将发生变化。最高法院即将作出的裁决可能会禁止在大学录取中使用平权行动。如果大学不再能够提高来自少数群体的申请者的录取机会，那么富裕学生所享有的优势可能会受到更多审视。英国的私立学校也面临艰难的时期。工党有望在未来18个月内的选举中获得胜利，他们提出废除私立学校的慈善地位并取消它们的税收优惠。这可能导致学费上涨。与此同时，进入牛津和剑桥的道路将继续变窄。预计会有越来越多的英国人前往美国留学。