A further test is possible, for there were eight schools in the sample of non-Catholic private schools ("other private" in the analysis above) that have religious foundations and over 50% of the student body of that religion. Three were Baptist schools, two were Jewish, and three from three other denominations. If the inference is correct about the religious community's providing intergenerational closure and thus social capital and about the importance of social capital in depressing the chance of dropping out of high school, these schools also should show a lower dropout rate than the independent private schools. Item 3 of table 2 shows that their dropout rate is lower, 3.7%, essentially the same as that of the Catholic schools.

XREF: Extends the intergenerational closure and social capital argument tested earlier with Catholic schools to non-Catholic religious schools, strengthening the generalizability of the finding. Builds on: "Community social capital reduces dropout rates more than school structure alone"

Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, loc. 199