Research on Waldorf Graduates in North America, Phase 1

Research on Waldorf Graduates in North America, Phase 1 Faith Baldwin, Douglas Gerwin, and David Mitchell EDITORIAL NOTE: The Research Institute for Waldorf Education has completed Phase I of its research project, “Research on Waldorf Graduates.” We are pleased to present the report from this first phase of the research project with this issue of the Research Bulletin. Although the body of the report is printed here in its entirety, we have omitted all the appendices except Appendix E and Appendix F. (The other appendices are available on request). This initial project will form a foundation for the more in-depth research that will now begin with Phase 2. Readers of this report will be interested to learn that Waldorf graduates are being accepted by and attending not only the finest universities and colleges in North America but around the world. Especially intriguing is the number of students (22.8%) who opted to defer college for a year in order to pursue an impressive array of other creative and unique programs. Introduction Waldorf education is designed to provide its stu- Waldorf graduates, and to which colleges do they dents with broad skill sets and a wide range of choose to go? How many do not go directly to interests, giving them many options in life and college, and what do they do instead? allowing them to find fulfilling vocations. Seventy-five years after the founding of the first This first phase in a two-part survey examined Waldorf school in the United States and with the these questions by gathering data collected in tremendous growth of Waldorf schools across 2004–2005 in the United States and Canada the country, it is time to look in a systematic way from twenty-seven Waldorf high schools report- at what happens to Waldorf graduates: How ing on what their graduates from the past ten many go on to college? Which colleges accept years did in the year following graduation. Phase 42 • Research on Waldorf Graduates in North America, Phase I Two will look at career choices, how Waldorf grad- quite dramatically: in the last decade the number of uates are perceived by their professors and employ- Waldorf high schools has grown from 15 to 37. ers, and how well Waldorf education prepared them Only a few Waldorf high schools are not directly for life and the challenges of today’s world. Both affiliated with a Waldorf elementary school. phases of this survey will be useful to enrollment In 1995 there were 13 Waldorf high schools with coordinators, marketing/outreach directors, college graduating classes in North America,2 for which we counselors, parents deciding where to enroll their have information on 164 graduates (see Appendix children, and students graduating from Waldorf A for school information submitted). By 2004 schools across the continent. there were 29 Waldorf high schools with graduating The results of the first phase of this survey show classes, and there is information on 438 graduates that the vast majority of Waldorf graduates go to an from that year. There are also currently 8 high enormous range of colleges and universities. Some schools in North America that do not yet have take a year off to explore the world or go directly graduating classes; they are not included in this sur- into a trade that feels meaningful to them. These vey, but their existence shows that this growth results suggest that Waldorf education does in fact trend is continuing. produce free-thinking individuals with a broad range of interests. Previous Studies on Waldorf Graduates The Growth of the Waldorf School In the United States, there have been two major Movement in the United States studies on Waldorf graduates prior to this one: The number of Waldorf schools has grown dramati- • The first Waldorf Alumni Survey was cally over the last decade, highlighting the urgency conducted in 1987. Sponsored by the for a survey such as this one. Over the last thirty Association of Waldorf Schools of North years, the number of Waldorf schools affiliated with America and funded by the Waldorf the Association of Waldorf Schools of North Educational Fund of the Glenmede Trust America (AWSNA) has grown from fewer than ten Company, this survey sent out 2,400 in 1970, to more than one hundred and sixty as of questionnaires and received 710 in reply. This December 2004. survey brought in useful statistical and anecdotal results from nine Waldorf high schools and was a good start in surveys of this Number of Waldorf Schools in North America, 1928-20041 nature. • The second was the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America Graduate Survey— 1994. This project was conducted to gain insights into the ways that former students of Waldorf schools view the benefits and weaknesses of their education. There were some significant flaws in the research design and implementation, which are described in the conclusion of that survey. In design, the questionnaire contained open-ended questions that made it difficult to tabulate results or Most of these schools started with the younger establish relative weights of strengths/weaknesses. grades and grew one grade each year; thus it takes quite a long time before a school considers starting In implementation, the questionnaires were a high school. As the schools founded in the 1980s given to schools to distribute and collect and mature, the number of high schools is increasing so were distributed in vastly different ways and Faith Baldwin, Douglas Gerwin, and David Mitchell • 43 to different groups of students. Some schools How the Information Was Analyzed even changed the phrasing of the questions sent Information was entered into a database in out. ACCESS specifically designed for this project3 and The survey for this study was different from the is divided by year, by region, and by high school prior studies in that it was primarily quantitative age. instead of qualitative. By using information collect- Year ed by schools instead of relying on graduates to return surveys, major trends could be tracked in a For college acceptances and attendance, the aggre- way that was not possible with open-ended ques- gate over the span of the survey is given along with tions. a breakdown for 2004 to see recent trends of where Waldorf graduates apply and attend. In looking at Methodology of the Research trends in the number of students not going directly to college, a year-by-year breakdown from 1995 How the Information Was Collected through 2004 is examined. A graph showing the number of Waldorf high school graduates demon- For this survey, there were two major sources of strates the growth of this movement over time.4 information: Waldorf high schools with graduating classes and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). Information from Waldorf High Schools Surveys were sent out starting in September 2004 to 27 Waldorf high schools with graduating classes. This survey requested information on how many graduates they had had each year from 1995 to 2004, inclusive; how many went to college directly after high school and to which colleges they went; and how many did not go to college directly after high school and what they did instead. A copy of the survey is included in Appendix E. All 27 high schools returned the survey, giving information on 2,776 Waldorf graduates. Information from the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) Region The survey contains 4,376 college acceptances (regardless of whether students later attended these The regional breakdown was based on the Time institutions) from 1995–2004, inclusive. This Zone in which the school is located. As can be information was taken from data collected by seen in the table below, the vast majority of AWSNA: a compilation of graduate surveys collect- Waldorf high schools are located in the Eastern or ed from 1995–2000 and lists of acceptances sub- Pacific region, with only a few schools situated in mitted by schools in their AWSNA Annual Reports the middle of the country. for 2001–2004. 44 • Research on Waldorf Graduates in North America, Phase I Waldorf High Schools by Region in 2004 Number of Waldorf High Schools by Age in 2004 Age Category 1st Graduating Class Number of Schools in Region Number of Waldorf this Survey High Schools Mature 1994 or earlier 11 Eastern 10 Medium 1995-1999 6 Central 4 Young 2000-2004 10 Mountain 3 Total 27 Paciﬁ c (includes Hawaii) 7 Categorizing Colleges and Universities Canada 3 In order to categorize the types of Colleges that Waldorf graduates have attended, the Carnegie Total 27 Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning was used. This is the leading typology of American Age of the Waldorf School Colleges and Universities and is the framework by which institutional diversity of U.S. higher educa- For purposes of this survey the high schools are cat- tion is commonly described. We have modified this egorized as Mature, Medium, or Young, based on list slightly to include foreign universities. For a the year of their first graduating class, as described complete list of colleges and universities in the above. As previously mentioned, there are also 8 United States and how they are classified, visit the high schools in North America that do not yet go Carnegie Classifications website, up through the 12th grade and, therefore, were not http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/Classification included in the survey. /CIHE2000/PartIIfiles/partII.htm. Data Analysis Top Colleges Accepting Waldorf High School Graduates What Types of Colleges 1995–2004, inclusive Accept Waldorf Graduates? Number of University Name and Locatio n Students An impressively diverse number of institutions accept Waldorf graduates: Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 82 in 2004 alone, the 438 graduates were Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 72 accepted at 342 different colleges.

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