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How Waldorf Students Stand Out

August 30, 2023
By Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor

With an increasingly competitive college admissions process, grades and test scores are no longer the final deciding factors for students to be accepted into the colleges of their choice. Applicants need to find ways to distinguish themselves from the crowd. Waldorf school graduates bring a unique perspective, set of experiences, and skill set. The Waldorf approach, which incorporates the arts, outdoor education and hands-on learning into academics, helps our graduates stand out as individuals. They are curious, creative, and confident, experienced in working with their peers, their hands and their minds. Their ability to listen, articulate their ideas, advocate for themselves and others, and work both independently and collaboratively helps them thrive in college and beyond. That is why colleges and universities across the country have recognized the degree to which Waldorf graduates enhance their student bodies.

Originally published by Ilan Safit – Humanities Teacher at Rudolf Steiner School New York City, Co-author of Into the World: How Waldorf Graduates Fare After High School, and Editor of the Research Bulletin for Waldorf Education

How do Waldorf students fare after graduation? How many of them go to college? What subjects do they choose to major in at college? Do they feel that their Waldorf education prepared them well for post-secondary studies? Did we, in fact, prepare them well for college? And then what? What do they do next? What professions do they choose for themselves? What kind of lives do they tend to live? How are they doing financially? How is there health? And are they—if we may dare ask—, at the end of the day, happy?

These are some of the questions that the Research Institute for Waldorf Education was set out to answer with its recent survey of Waldorf graduates in the book entitled Into the World: How Waldorf Graduates Fare After High School. Information was gathered through two extensive online surveys – one aimed to capture the experiences of those who graduated from a Waldorf high school in the past 10 years (and are therefore expected to be “college age”), another directed at those who are farther along on their life journey, as they had graduated high school in the period between 1990 and 2010.

In addition, a small team of researchers working on this project conducted a set of interviews with recent and not so recent Waldorf graduates, both in a one-on-one setting and in groups. And we benefitted greatly from the online survey respondents who chose to elaborate further, and at times in great detail, about the aspects of their lives and their perception of the role that Waldorf education played in shaping them.

This offered us a narrative treasure-trove of personal impressions, perceptions, and reflections. From this qualitative data we’ve learned that Waldorf graduates cherish their schooling greatly and are aware of how it instilled in them healthy habits of learning, working, and living. They often feel that it has prepared them well for college by showing them how to learn and study, thereby enabling them to take on subjects and fields that they might not have explored in their secondary education.

Quantitative data collected through the online surveys show us a decisive portion of graduated (close to 46%), major in either the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Exact Sciences, or other STEM subjects, while 28% major in the Arts & Humanities. In terms of professions, we found the largest discernible group of alumni (15.5%) working in Education (across the full spectrum from early childhood to academia), followed by Medical and Health-related professions (12.3%), followed by those working in creative fields of Arts, Entertainment, and Media (12%).

A composite profile of the recent Waldorf graduate tells us that they (practically all) attend college, for which they feel strongly prepared (95%), are accepted to the top three colleges or universities of their choice (90%), complete their initial degree (92%), and often choose thereafter to continue to graduate or professional training schools. They also feel that their Waldorf education prepared them to be creative and innovative, open minded, empathic, and to take on leadership roles.

This, of course, is just a taste of the findings collected in the book resulting from this study, which contains also detailed comparisons with similar, nation-wide surveys conducted by the National Associations of Independent Schools, as well as in-depth analyses, interviews, and testimonials.

Education for an Unpredictable Future

May 15, 2023
By Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor
Teens Feel Ready for College, But Not So Much for Work

A new poll found that 74 percent of high school students think they’ll have a job in 20 years that hasn’t been invented yet. How do schools prepare students for that future? In Waldorf education we focus on helping students develop creativity and problem solving skills, communication, teamwork, and empathy, as well as the ability to take their ideas and put them into practice in the real world. These skills are foundational, and prepare students to successfully navigate the unpredictable and rapidly changing world of work and the diverse paths to higher education.

This piece was originally published by Alyson Klein in Education Week 

High schoolers believe that their educational experience is getting them ready for college. But they’re less certain that their coursework is preparing them for the world of work.

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That’s one of the big takeaways from surveys published recently by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy based in Kansas City, Mo. The survey found that 81 percent of students felt that high school got them “very” or “somewhat” ready for college, compared with just 52 percent who felt it prepared them for the workforce.

“People are coming out of this sort of either-or,” said Aaron North, the vice president of education at the Kauffman Foundation. “You’re going to college, or you’re not. You’re getting a job after high school or you’re not. I think that’s not reflective of the reality of what’s on the other side of that graduation stage for them.”

He expects that, in the future, many students will transfer in and out of the workforce, gaining both educational credentials and on-the-job experience.

The survey also found that students and adults in general expect that technology and computer science jobs will be a major growth industry, with 85 percent of adults and 88 percent of students saying they expect those gigs to be in “much” or at least “somewhat more” in demand in the next decade.

And 74 percent of students think they’ll have a job in 20 years that hasn’t been invented yet.

Students “have only grown up in an age of really accelerated tech evolution,” North said. “I think that’s just the world that they are in. It is a world of creation. It is a world of change.”

‘Practical Connection’ Needed


Overwhelmingly, students, parents, and employers surveyed thought high schoolers would be better off learning how to file their taxes than learning about the Pythagorean theorem. At least 82 percent of parents, students, and employers thought schools should focus more on the 1040-EZ form than on that fundamental concept in geometry.

And 81 percent of students said they thought high school should focus most closely on helping students develop real-world skills such as problem-solving and collaboration rather than focusing so much on specific academic-subject-matter expertise.

“I think what that highlights is this idea that there needs to be this practical connection between what and how you are learning when you’re in school and what happens when you’re not in school,” North said. “So that doesn’t mean it has to be directly related to your everyday life, but it does mean that there could be a balance between things that may be applicable to a very narrow number of fields and things that are highly applicable to your life no matter what field you go into or what path you choose.”

Employers are also more likely to rate employees highly if they have completed an internship in their industry and have technical certifications than if they only have a college degree, the survey found.

But at the same time, 56 percent of employers surveyed felt that someone with only a high school degree would be held back from success in life because of their education. Students were even more convinced of the benefits of college, with 63 percent saying that having only a high school education would be a roadblock to success.

Still, most adults—59 percent of those surveyed—said they can’t connect what they learned in high school to their current jobs. That’s especially true of workers in blue-collar jobs, 61 percent of whom say that their jobs weren’t relevant to their high school educations, compared with 52 percent of white-collar employees.

“Parents who have experienced a noncollege pathway understand that those pathways are viable and they can lead to really good options,” North said. “A huge percentage of our population ends up not getting a college degree. And so there are millions and millions of people out there navigating the nondegree world, without much of a road map, the kind of road map we’ve provided around college. So I think that’s reflective of people who have found that and are understanding that, whether it’s for themselves or for their own kids.”

Old Strategies, New Jobs


Similarly, a separate report released last week by the RAND Corp., found that the needs of the workforce have transformed dramatically thanks to technological changes, globalization, and demographic shifts. But K-12 schools, postsecondary institutions, and job-training organizations are preparing students for jobs using essentially the same set of strategies they’ve been relying on for decades.

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At the same time, employers are struggling to find workers with so-called “21st-century skills” such as information synthesis, creativity, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork. Yet the path forward is not easy for workers looking to upgrade their skills because of automation or shifting consumer demands.

“Employers are saying they can’t find employees with the skills they need, and on the other end, you have workers whose jobs have been made less relevant,” said Melanie Zaber, an associate economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

The blame shouldn’t be all on schools, the RAND report emphasizes. Employers and education and job-training institutions don’t do a great job of systematically sharing information with schools that would allow them to better prepare students for the changing needs of the workforce. Plus, funding for K-12 education isn’t equally distributed and often neglects the areas that need strong pre-career training the most.

What also makes progress difficult is that high school principals rarely get to see how their students are doing years after they leave the classroom, Zaber said. “Letting high school principals see what happens when students leave their doors can help inform policy for where the gaps are, where the barriers are, where students are being let down,” she said.

Waldorf Graduates Pursue Meaningful Careers

March 13, 2023
By Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor

Waldorf education strives to prepare children for a full and engaged life as change-makers in the world, which is evident in the career paths of its alumni. A 60-year survey of Waldorf graduates showed a diverse array of professions and occupations including medicine, law, science, engineering, computer technology, the arts, social science, government, and teaching at all levels–fields that require the skills and values instilled by Waldorf schooling. The ability to adapt, think creatively, demonstrate kindness, solve problems, communicate effectively, nurture a love of learning, and work collaboratively are just a few of the lifelong benefits of holistic, whole-child education.

This was originally published at waldorflibrary.org.

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