Group (alphabetical by leader name in boldface)

Summary (Short Title)

Outcome

Andy Battle, Blake Sparrow (co-leaders)

Religious attitudes at STA

In a random poll of 60 STA Upper School students, the sample proportion of Protestants was 36%, Roman Catholics 22%, Jewish 20%, Atheist/None 16%, and all others 6%. Of those surveyed, 49% felt STA strengthened their faith, 42% said STA had no effect, and 9% said STA weakened their faith. On a question concerning how much focus STA should place on religion and spirituality, 8% said the school should focus more, 38% said less, and 54% advocated no significant change.

Doug Bemis, Alex Simpson, Andrew Steel

STA student attitudes toward music education

In a random poll of 50 STA Upper School students, slightly over half (52%) found the current music program to be adequate, but 46% would be interested in more music classes. Over half of those surveyed (54%) play an instrument. When broken out by musicians and non-musicians, the questions showed striking differences, with musicians more than twice as likely to consider the current music program inadequate, twice as likely to be interested in additional music classes, and three times more likely to consider additional music classes feasible.

Peter Felder, Ned Bartlett, Poya Daneshpour

STA/NCS student attitudes toward premarital sex

A random poll of 26 STA and 25 NCS Upper School students found extremely weak opposition to premarital sex, even among students whose religion was opposed or strongly opposed, and even among those who identified themselves as religious or very religious within those religions. In fact, only 3 subjects (1 male and 2 females) in the entire sample expressed any opposition at all. The rest either had no response (2) or were indifferent (13), mildly in favor (8), strongly in favor (14), or very strongly in favor (11). The researchers noted: ". . . we discovered that many of the Protestants actually responded that their religion was indifferent to premarital sex. This information made us see that the subject’s view toward their religion is actually much more important than the religion itself." The report concluded: "It is very interesting and a bit curious that religion seems to play no role in people’s stances toward premarital sex. Logically, one would expect, especially from a religious school, that people’s largest objections would be related to religion, yet that is apparently not the case. . . ."

Chris Martin, Mike Callaghan, John Goodell

STA lunch survey

Upper School student approval ratings of lunch, as well as frequency of eating lunch in the refectory, are negatively associated with form. Favorite student meals are chicken nuggets, followed by fajitas, steak & cheese sandwiches, chicken patties, and cold cuts. Favorite faculty meals are steak & cheese subs, turkey, cold cuts, and fried chicken. In general, faculty rated lunch and lunch choices higher than students. Of those having a dietary restriction, 70% responded that STA lunch adequately accommodates their dietary restriction. Not a random survey, but response rate was high.

Karl Rodger, Adam Hundt, Matt Steyer

Tutoring at STA

A random poll of approximately 80 STA Upper School students revealed a number of patterns in the use and prevalence of tutors for various subjects, as well as the reasons for employing tutors. Overall, about 20% of the students surveyed use tutors currently, and about 40% have used tutors at some point in the past. The most common reason for using a tutor was to improve standardized test scores. Other common reasons for tutoring were "always had trouble with the subject" (22 students), "learn better in 1-on-1 sessions" (14 students), "ineffective teaching" (9 students), and "have a learning disability" (4 students). Math accounts for 45% of all courses for which students use tutors, with precalculus alone (honors and regular) accounting for 27% of the overall tutor use. Concerning precalculus, the authors said their data show that "the math department needs to refine its manner of teaching this course." The questionnaire also gathered and cross-tabulated data on students’ desires for more study halls.

Chris Rubin, Gene Hsu, Matt Nowak

NCS seniors’ attitudes toward eating, voluntary restriction of food intake, and contentedness after eating

Slightly over half (52%) of the girls surveyed (in an attempt to perform a census of the senior class) reported that they do not restrict their food intake. Although not discussed in report, one scatterplot suggested a negative association between the number of times per day that subjects limited their eating and the number of times per day that they were contented by what they ate--perhaps implying that the more anxiety and attention one places on weight control, the less enjoyment one is able to obtain from eating.

Gabriel Somarriba, Adam Teslik, Randy Wellington

STA student attitudes toward homosexuality

In a random survey of 54 STA Upper School students, more than 80% felt the STA community is "not very sensitive" or "not sensitive at all" to the needs of homosexual individuals. However, the respondents felt overwhelmingly that they themselves were tolerant and/or sensitive, although those numbers decreased depending on the closeness of the hypothetical contact (having a homosexual teacher, working with a homosexual student, sharing a locker room). The prevalence of friends who were homosexuals increased with form, with seniors having noticeably more homosexual friends, although the reasons for this trend were not explored. Insightful concluding line: "The subjects think that there is a problem with homophobia, but that that problem resides in others and not in themselves."

John Neil Thompson, Carlos Kim, Dan Pearson

Interracial marriages

Interracial marriages appear to be much more prevalent among African American families at STA than among Caucasian families. Prevalence by form, or by length of time that family had been in the United States, showed no real differences. Report concluded by stating that Hispanics are especially underrepresented among the STA student body. Not a random survey.