Given the paucity of evidence accurately characterizing private education, this paper synthesizes and interprets available research on private school enrollments, religious affiliations, tuition levels, characteristics of patrons, and common features of operation. The organization of data on church-affiliated schools is found to be faulty, with too little information currently available on levels of tuition, attributes of fundamentalist schools, or ethnic and community schools. With the exception of fundamentalist schools, there has been no dramatic expansion in private-school enrollment. The recent growth in fundamentalist schools probably stems from sensitivity to court decisions on school prayer and the perceived breakdown of social mores in public schools. Private schools, moreover, reflect rather than create religious, ethnic, and economic segregation. Whereas parents' motivations for enrolling children in private schools may involve religious and ethnic distinctions, other reasons may include public schools' waning financial support, discipline problems, and large sizes, as well as such issues as the disparity between parents' and teachers' values and government regulation of public schools. Overall, most private schools share a strong social cohesion among parents, who are generally very interested in the ways in which their children are educated. More study is needed to clarify policy issues surrounding private schools. (JW)