就当今世界来说，私立教育是一种国际现象。在西方研究者的眼中，现代意义上的私立教育一般统指国家政府以外的社会力量(主要是私人和私人团体)为特定目的或使命参与或主持创办教育机构，以主体身份参与教育管理、教育经营的教育管理发展现象。在某些国家将其称为 “非国有化教育发展现象”(如俄罗斯)。私立学校是私立教育的最主要的表现形式。 私立教育现象是一种复杂的历史现象，与历史上的私立教育现象相比而言,现代私立教育现象不仅在其内涵、性质、表现形式及其社会功能不同，其生成的社会背景和生成与发展的影响因素也发生了变化,它是现代多元化社会的产物。是现代政治、经济、文化多元化发展取向和趋势在教育发展上的重要反映。在某种意义上说，私立教育不是教育国家化的对立，而是实现教育国家化的有效途径。 当今世界私立教育发展的现状可以通过私立教育的发展类型和发展规模两个维度得到基本反映。通过统计分析、归纳研究，我们发现，由于世界各国政治、经济、文化和教育发展背景的不同，从而在世界范围内形成了多元化和多样化的私立教育生成与发展类型，私立教育发展的规模以及其在国家教育发展中的地位和作用也因国而异。从世界整体来看，私立教育呈现出发展类型多样化、地区分布不均衡和整体上升发展等特征。 近十几年来，在我国出现的民办教育以及其它社会力量参与办学的现象，可以说是我国当代教育改革乃至整个社会变革的产物。如果说，它是一种新生事物，倒不如说是一种复兴，一种历史超越后的复兴。对世界私立教育发展现象的观察和了解以及对其生成与发展影响因素的分析、研究，可以使我们在世界大背景下更清晰、更深入地认识这种复兴现象，以利于我们更确切地把握它的生成与发展规律，使我国的民办教育早日走向发达之路。

Private education is a worldwide situation in nowadays. To west researchers , private education nowadays means that the social power (not the government , but the privateer or privateer group) found education organizations ,for special goal and participate in the management of education as a subject.It is called "none-country-hold education"in some countries.Private school is the main example of private education. Private education is complexiable. It is different from the private education in history . They are different in quality, social function, meaning and so on. The social background of private education and the factors which affect the born and development of private education have changed . Private education nowadays is the reflection of the multi developing direction of modern politic , economy and culture . Private education is not the opposite , but the effective way of education country-holding in some way. The present situation of private education in world , can be reflected by the developing types and scales. By statistic analysis and inductive study , we find that: because of the differences of politic , economy , culture and the background of education developing in different countries, the born and the developing types of education are different, and the developing scale and the status of private education are different. From the view of worldwide , private education has many characteristics , such as the multi-developing types , the un-balanced distribution in different places, the whole private education going up. These decades , there appears community education and other social power participating in running schools in China . It is the result of the reformation of our education and the change of our society . If it is a new matter , it is much more the revive transcending history . Observing and understanding the development of private education in the world , analysizing and study the factors which affect the born and development of private education , make us understand the revive of private education much more clear and deeply under the background of the world . It is helpful for us to grasp the rules of private education's born and development , and make the community education flourishing.