The effects of private schools on public school achievement

This thesis analyzes the effects of private schooling on public school quality. The share of private schools in Turkish education system has been continuously increasing especially after the extension of compulsory primary education to uninterrupted eight years in 1997. While new regulations are being considered by the government regarding encouraging private schooling, the share of private schools will increase and the importance of the relationship between private and public education will also increase. In this study, the effects of private schools on public high school achievement, which is measured by Student Selection Examination (ÖSS), in 2003 in Turkey are estimated. Both the percentage of students attending private schools and alternative of it, the percentage of private schools, are treated as endogenous variables in the model. Private school achievement in previous year is used to identify a two-stage model. The empirical results showed that private schools have negative effect on public school achievement.