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the parish or church. Campbell (2001), Coleman and Hoffer (1987) and Cox and Witko
(2008) argue that Catholic schools promote enhanced parental social capital (i.e.
involvement in school activities) because they have a strong “functional” community, in
addition to a values community. These types of functional communities are weaker than
the traditional type since they are only based on one dimension of community (religion),
but they may nonetheless provide some of the advantages of the traditional functional
community, according to Hoffer and Coleman (1987).
The purely values-based communities apparent at public schools of choice do not
appear to increase parental social capital (Coleman and Hoffer 1987; Cox and Witko
2008) but we do think that they may positively influence student academic achievement.
As Coleman and Hoffer (1987, 13) write “the consequences of a value community in the
school are great” because the schools will be “easy to manage and teach in” and authority
will lie in “teachers and the principal” rather than children. Furthermore, since students
(or parents) choose to be there with a clear expectation of what values will hold sway at
the school, there should be less resistance to those values and students should find them
less oppressive (Coleman and Hoffer 1987).
There is a contentious debate among education researchers over whether
communitarian approaches, which allow for greater student and teacher control over
curriculum or more hierarchical approaches, such as having higher grading standards and
stricter policies, produce better educational outcomes (Phillips 1997). This debate is
interesting, but we think it is not fundamental to our concern here. Instead, we think it is
likely that either of these types of specific value systems may work under some
circumstances. What is likely more important than adherence to any specific set of
Convention