“升学季”特稿：2023年6月10日《经济学人》周报封面文章《送孩子去私立学校——值吗?》（Are private schools worth it?）

International | Studying for success 

为了成功而学习

Should you send your children to private school?

你应该送孩子去私立学校吗?

America’s private schools are a surer route to a top university than Britain’s

通往顶尖大学之路，美国的私立学校比英国更靠谱

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.

在其583年（的办学历史）中，伊顿公学可以自豪地说，英国57位首相中有三分之一以上是它培养的。一个不太令人骄傲的事实是，在2014年至2021-2022学年期间，获得牛津或剑桥大学名额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。其他人则笃信这些机构将带来更好的教育、更高的成绩并在一所令人尊敬的大学中占有一席之地。但飙升的成本和不断变化的大学招生政策正在引发人们的讨论，即这些“徽章”与“纹路”（象征高等教育机构的价值观、历史或成就、传统、声望等等）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，传统的私立学校教育正在衰落。在经合组织（OECD，一个主要由富裕国家组成的俱乐部）的30多个成员国中，从政府获得不到一半资金的学校儿童比例从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要好一些，关于它们的争论在这两个国家仍然特别具有政治色彩。

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，对于英国大多数私立学校和美国精英私立学校的孩子来说，昂贵教育的优势仍然很大（强劲）。在美国，好处可能比在英国更大，至少对于坐在最奢华的私人教室里的学生来说是这样。这是因为他们的校友能够持续以（较高的）比例进入最好的大学，而这一比例放在那个“老国家”（英国）肯定会掀起轩然大波。这可能会让那些认为美国社会的等级森严程度逊于英国的人感到惊讶。

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年代的比例大致相同——曲棍球棒和米饭布丁（指代英国的私立学校）的吸引力是跨越时代的。美国的私立学校学生约占儿童总数的9%，到新冠流行时，这一比例已经保持了十年。在美国，大约75%的私立学校学生就读于有宗教信仰的机构（其中很大一部分的学费与公立学校的每名学生资助相似或低于公立学校的人均资助）。但该国也有一部分学校，通常被称为“独立（私立）”学校，与英国的收费学校最为相仿。这些学校培养不到2%的美国年轻人。

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.

英国的（私立教育）成本是世界上最高的。那里的一个家庭预计每年会花费超过16,000英镑（20,000美元）来让一个孩子进入私立走读学校。这是他们20世纪80年代支出的三倍；它大约是英国中等家庭收入的一半，而（这项支出）曾经是五分之一。根据最新的良好政府数据（由政府机构或机关收集并维护的高质量、可靠且准确的信息。它意味着数据是通过可靠的方法收集的，遵循既定的标准和协议，并且在做出明智的决策、政策制定、研究或分析方面值得信赖），美国的费用平均较低，但在本世纪的前十年也飙升了60%。最牛气的学校平均每年向父母收取28,000美元（约合180,000人民币）的走读生费用。

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.

衡量这些支出能带来什么好处，对私立学校教育的批评者（他们指责豪华学校使精英永久化）和那些为此付费的人来说都很重要。乍看之下，回报是显而易见的：在富裕国家，受过私立教育的学生在考试中表现更好，他们上了更好的大学，并最终得到了薪水更高的工作。但是，其中一些成功来自课堂外的优势，例如他们的父母富有、善于鼓励或者智商高。要了解私立教育的推动力，就需要将这些学生的机遇与公立学校中其他类似同龄人的命运进行比较。有关此类问题令人满意的研究在英国很容易找到。

Getting the abacus out 

拿出算盘（算一笔账）

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年的一项研究显示，到25岁时，接受过私立教育的英国人收入比来自类似家庭的其他工作者多出17%。根据早期的研究，到42岁时，额外薪酬会进一步扩大，女性约达到21%，男性约为35%。这在一定程度上是因为受过私立学校教育的人更有可能进入高收入行业，比如金融业。校友网络可能在这方面有所帮助，但同辈压力和父母的期望可能也起着重要作用。

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).

收入较高的一个更大的原因，是私立学校的学生获得了比其他学校更多更好的学历。伦敦大学学院（University College London）的弗朗西斯•格林（Francis Green）认为，与来自类似家庭、就读于政府课堂（公立学校）的孩子相比，他们在考试成绩上有“适度的”提高。这种优势随着他们在私立学校多花一年时间而积少成多。一项研究发现，到18岁时，他们所享受的优势大致相当于从AAB的成绩提升到AAA的成绩（按英国学制，高中毕业生通常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，即使是成绩的小幅提升，也会对额外收益的规模产生重大影响。这是因为更好的成绩可能会让一名学生跻身于更有声望的大学，或者只是让他有机会进入大学。2021年，在英国接受私立教育的学生中，超过一半的人进入了24所“罗素集团”大学（这是一个包括大多数英国最好高校的俱乐部，类似于美国的“常春藤联盟”、中国的“C9联盟”等）之一。这些学生更有可能在学校的最后几年，学习那些非常挑剔的大学最希望在（入学）申请中看到的高难度传统科目。他们也更有可能得到额外的帮助，从而在面试和入学考试中取得好的成绩。

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.

私立学校的学生不再像以前那样在顶尖大学中占有相当不公平的份额。他们占英格兰16-19岁学生总数的18%；在获得毕业考试高分的学生中，有25%的是私立学校学生。去年，他们占罗素集团大学新生的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.

2016年，在英国开始攻读学位的所有私立学校学生中，约有6%进入牛津或剑桥大学；此后，这一比例降至4%左右（公立学校学生的比例约为2%）。去年，私立学校的学生在牛津和剑桥的英国本科生新生中所占比例分别为32%和27%，低于十年前的43%和39%。这一改变震动了少数几所精英私立学校，这些学校曾经向这两所大学输送了大批学生。

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.

要贬低美国私立教育的好处是很困难的，因为美国的学校比英国还要五花八门。由于公立学校禁止宗教信仰，许多虔诚的父母选择私人课程不仅仅是为了学习成绩。总的来说，你要想证明美国私立学校的学生比去公立学校能学到更多东西，这方面的证据比在英国更不靠谱。

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·皮亚塔（Robert Pianta）和艾莉亚·安萨里（Arya Ansari）于2018年发表了一项研究，该研究分析了1000名90后儿童的考试成绩。研究发现，到15岁时，那些在美国私立学校上学的孩子在调整了他们的背景后，成绩并没有提高。然而，没有多少有说服力的研究专门指出富裕家庭的孩子从美国的“私立”学校小团体中获得了额外益处。但我们有理由认为，它们对孩子前途的促进作用至少与他们的英国表亲（同辈）一样大。

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.

美国大学张开双臂欢迎那些来自名校的学生。2021年，华盛顿特区智库“现在教育改革”（Education Reform Now）的詹姆斯·墨菲（James Murphy）收集了美国35所排名最高的大学和文理学院（人文学院）的数据。他发现平均约34%的本科新生在私立高中接受教育（见图表）。考虑到美国只有8.5%的高中生接受私立学校的教育，这一数字令人吃惊。来自“独立（私立）”学校的学生表现出色。最新公布的数据显示，在达特茅斯大学的新生中，他们约占三分之一，在普林斯顿大学则超过四分之一。“馈赠”优待，即校友的亲属在录取中获得提携，可能解释了其中的一些原因。在英国的大学里，没有发生过如此明目张胆（厚颜无耻）的不公平。

Green lawns and greenbacks 

绿色草坪与美钞

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.

钱也是起作用的。英国大学对每位国内学生收取相同的学费（尽管外国学生支付的学费更高），但美国最好的大学根据收入高低（家庭财富）而调整学费。这使得来自贫困家庭的优秀学生可以少交或者不交学费。但这也给了大学很好的理由与可靠的“输送”学校（直属学校）保持联系，这些学校充满了机灵而富有的学生。

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.

随之而来的是，英国私立学校将越来越多的毕业生送往海外。去年，约6%的大学生选择出国留学，高于2016年的4%。美国是最受欢迎的目的地。代表英国私立学校独立学校委员会（the Independent School Council）的巴纳比·莱农（Barnaby Lenon）说，美国的大学要求高分。但他补充说，他们也重视非学术成就，比如通过课外活动获得的成就，而这也正是私立学校所努力提供的方面之一。

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).

与英国相比，私立学校学生所享有的优势在美国很少有人讨论，部分原因是在关于大学录取的辩论中，占据中心位置的往往是种族问题，而不是阶级问题。在种族、性别和历史等的教学问题上爆发政治斗争正使私立学校的提供者受益，部分原因是各州正计划将资金投入私立“择校”项目。其中包括地方政府为一些私立学校的名额买单（通常只面向贫困儿童，而且往往投在最便宜的私立学校）。

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，美国可能正处于变革的边缘。最高法院即将做出的裁决可能会禁止在大学招生中使用平权行动（教育机构为促进多样性和增加历史上处于不利地位的群体在其学生群体中的代表性而实施的政策和做法。这些政策旨在解决过去和现在的歧视问题，创造平等的教育机会）。如果学院和大学因为分配给少数族裔的名额不足而不能继续增加入学申请者的人数，那么贵族学生所享有的优势可能会受到更严格的审查。英国的私立学校也面临着坎坷的道路（艰难的处境）。很有可能在未来18个月的选举中获胜的工党，谈到要废除私立学校的慈善地位，并取消它们的税收减免政策。这可能会导致学费飙升。与此同时，通往牛津和剑桥的道路将会越来越窄。预计越来越多的英国人将横渡大西洋（赴美留学）。