Education
Cardus Education exists to cultivate education for the common good and convene education leaders, through original research and policy studies on educational pluralism, excellence in education, and graduate outcomes.

David Hunt
Research & Policy

This report examines the correlation between religious school attendance, pro-social attitudes, and civic involvement. Are religious school graduates more likely to vote, attend a community meeting, or engage in some other action that contributes to the common good? Author David Sikkink at the University of Notre Dame examines these issues through an analysis of a major American longitudinal data set.

Using Cardus Education Survey data, University of Notre Dame analysts say that attending a Protestant Evangelical school has a measurable effect on graduates that is distinct from the influence of family, socio-economic background, or church life.

What is the impact of schooling experiences on the formation, quality, and stability of marriages and other romantic relationships of young adults? This report brings evidence to bear on the hypothesis that schools contribute to family formation and flourishing.

In the fall of 2017 Cardus Education hosted four by-invitation education policy round tables across Canada.

Because of historical, cultural, and governmental differences between Quebec and the rest of Canada, we have considered responses from Quebec high school graduates separately from the primary Cardus Education Survey 2016 report. This research brief reports the findings from Quebec, where it seems that schools may be choosing between an emphasis on faith formation or academic and civic formation.

Jonathan Schwarz and David Sikkink investigate if high schools in the United States foster behavior, attitudes, and identities that support volunteering and giving among their graduates.

Jonathan Schwarz and David Sikkink examine if religious school attendance has a direct, independent effect on adults' orientation toward science.

The 2016 Cardus Education Survey report is available now. This is the second instalment focusing on Canadian graduates.

Canadian businesses tend to be leading players in public policy debates, pushing governments to ask hard questions about costs and efficacy....except in K-12 education. The business community is virtually silent on an issue to which governments dedicate more money than any other service save health. This report asks, Why?

This paper summarizes the discussion convened by Cardus and explores the lessons that Ontario can learn about "warming the climate" for educational diversity from across Canada thirty years after Shapiro.

Julie Dallavis investigates whether religious high schools are associated with gender differences in earning a bachelor's degree and choosing a college major.

David Sikkink and Sara Skiles report on young adult outcomes of students who have been homeschooled using data from the Cardus Education Survey of 2011 and 2014.

Sara Skiles and David Sikkink examine religious school sector outcomes of college degree, field of postsecondary study, and income using data from the National Survey of Youth and Religion (NSYR)

David Sikkink and Sara Skiles investigate the relationship between religious school attendance and reading outcomes during the early elementary school years.

Download the 500+ slide extended data pack, to review a larger sample of Cardus's findings than could be discussed in the 2014 report.

The 2014 Cardus Education Survey is the second instalment focusing on USA graduates.
The Cardus Education Survey is considered the most significant representative benchmark of non-public school academic, cultural, and spiritual outcomes.

What is Ontario going to do about its private schools? Cardus explores the need for a serious policy review in this discussion paper by Dr. Derek Allison, emeritus professor in the education faculty at Western University.
"Something of a chilly climate has developed toward non-public schools in Ontario," writes Allison. This report argues to politicians, bureaucrats, and fellow citizens that both private and public education are goods that can be intertwined and made interdependent to foster a stable, orderly, and integrated society.

David Sikkink examines whether religious high schools influence the type of job and career achieved by graduates. He considers college choice, college transfers, college major, graduation rates and occupational sector for Evangelical Protestant schools and Catholic schools, comparing them with public, private and homeschool students.

Cardus presents a quick review of the Loyola High School v. Attorney General of Quebec case to date, including an introduction to the various perspectives of key intervening organizations. Published March 24, 2014.

Canada is in the midst of a new industrial revolution which is changing the face of our economy. Resources— long lamented as the means by which Canadians served other, more developed countries—have instead held Canada steady through a global economic crisis and maintained an industrial core.

David Sikkink examined "What Parents Want," a recent Fordham Institute report based on a survey of American parents and the educational goals and the school characteristics that are most important to them. Sikkink looks closely at the differences between religious school parents and non-religious school parents.

This policy paper presents the case for a new framework of understanding labour relations in Canada. Taking insights which move debates about labour beyond the pendulum of pro-union and anti-union policies, it proposes a new policy within a new framework.

On May 21, 2013, Brian Dijkema presented this briefing note to the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in Ottawa, ON.

A potential labour monopoly could increase costs by up to 40 percent on over a 100 million dollars worth of work in the Region of Waterloo, says a brief released by Hamilton based think-tank Cardus. The paper estimates
- A successful application in the Region of Waterloo could increase construction costs by up to 78 million dollars for 553,000 taxpayers in the Region of Waterloo
- 28 percent of Ontario taxpayers are affected by municipal labour monopolies in construction
- Labour monopolies affect almost a billion dollars worth of construction work in Ontario municipalities
For further information, or to arrange an interview, please contact Julia Nethersole at jnethersole@cardus.ca or via phone at 905.528.8866 x29

How do Canadians students rate their education? How do they fare—years later, decades later—in their cultural and civic lives? The Cardus Education Survey 2012 report examines graduate outcomes of both government (public) and non-government schools, comparing them to each other and to the stated aims of every provincial education ministry. Data collected by Angus Reid's Vision Critical polling.