The role of Catholic education in American society has never been fully explicated-particularly relative to its public counterpart. Some insight into the nature of that role is possible, however, by comparing the outputs of the two systems in contemporary American society. Using data collected in a national survey, this study reports upon the results of a secondary analysis wherein the effectiveness of the output of the two systems is compared. Defining effectiveness as the proportion of former tenth, grade students in senior high schools who go on to any form of post-secondary education, controlling for the number of dropouts, the results of the analysis indicate that Catholic senior high schools are more effective than public senior high schools. This difference was maintained even when the effects of the capability of the student body, the social class context, and the community setting were controlled for. Implications of these findings for the nature of Catholic education are considered.