Era School Student Survey, October 1996

 

What do past Era students think about the school now?

Below is the questionnaire intro, read by 50 former Era students who agreed to complete the survey in October 1996.

'Era often found itself labeled as an 'experimental school'. If it was an experiment then where is the result? It has always bemused me that none of the educational gurus seem to have tried to scientifically assess the Era alternative. Although a highly subjective exercise, one would think it is still a very valuable one.

Can our current manifestly imperfect educational system really afford not to analyse and learn from the Era experience? Is there a rational basis for the apparent lack of schools modeled on the Era philosophy nowadays?

Personally I don't see it. Although the Era concept had its weaknesses and the school is popularly seen as some kind of glorious failure, I am struck by the volume of positive sentiment from former students, many of whom have become highly successful even by prevailing social standards that Era sought to some extent to question.

The following is a not very scientific attempt to get at least some statistical feedback. Please answer questions as they apply to you personally. Feel free to leave blanks or expand upon answers.'

And this is my introduction when reporting the findings.

'I am not a scientist and make no pretense that this survey has any scientific validity. There is no 'control' group, and it is a biased sample of a biased sample.

However, it's the only attempt of which I am aware to do any kind of follow up research on Era students and how they feel about various aspects of Era with the important advantage of hindsight. As such, hopefully it has some value, if only as a matter of curiosity.

To elaborate on my comment about a biased sample:

1/ Era students generally came from atypical families. It's not clear how much this distorts any conclusions that may seem apparent from the survey.

2/ Most of the students did the survey at the September 1996 school reunion. Students who had a positive experience at Era would seem to be more likely to attend such a reunion, and hence be included in the survey.

3/ The survey was optional. Students with less positive feelings may have been less likely to participate in the survey.

4/ Era was in it's day a fairly expensive private school, and as such was unintentionally exclusive.'

The survey

Sample number = 50. One respondent translates to 2% of the sample:

1. I was at Era for ... years.

Years there
Respondents
unanswered
0
1 or less
3
2
7
3
5
4
5
4
14
6 or more
16

60% of respondents attended Era for 5 years or more, despite the large turnover at the school. This is relevant because a short stint at Era would seem less likely to tell us anything about the long term effects of alternative education.

2. My overall feelings about my Era experience are ... (very negative) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (very positive)

Emotion scale
Respondents
unanswered
1
1
0
2
0
3
2
4
0
5
0
6
2
7
3
8
13
9
10
10
19

84% of respondents rated their Era experience 8/10 or higher, with the largest single group, 38%, giving their experience at the school the highest possible rating of 10/10. Only 6% of respondents fell below the halfway point of 5/10. This would appear to be a very high level of positive sentiment. A survey taken at a 15 year reunion of a 'normal' co-ed private school would provide an interesting comparison.

3. Would you send your children to a school like Era?
    A. Yes       B. Maybe       C. No

yes
19
maybe
23
no
7
unanswered
1

38% of respondents said they would send their children to a school like Era, with the largest group, 46%, saying they would consider it. 14% said they would not. Given that the verdict of society seems to have been that Era style schools are not a good idea, it's interesting that a substantial percentage of people who have actually attended such a school do not agree, especially given the dominant economic paradigm in 1996 when this survey was taken.

4. How did Era's structure develop your academic potential whilst at school?
    A. Hindered       B. Little difference       C. Helped

unanswered or don't know
4
hindered
12
little difference
8
helped
26

I have always (perhaps mistakenly) regarded short term academic progress as Era's Achilles heel. I would have assumed that Era's environment had a generally negative impact on people's academic progress at the time, hopefully compensated by a long term positive impact through heightened self motivation. However, easily the largest group, 52%, felt that Era's structure helped to develop their academic potential whilst at school. Less than half that number, 24%, felt their academic potential was hindered during their time at Era.

5. How did Era's structure develop your academic potential in later years?
    A. Hindered       B. Little difference       C. Helped

unanswered or don't know
3
hindered
5
little difference
5
helped
37

Personally I consider this the more important question, and if the results were in any way duplicated in a more scientific survey, the 'alternative educationists' would be smiling! 74% of respondents felt that Era's structure helped develop their academic potential in later years. 10% felt it hindered them and 10% felt it had little effect either way. An objective basis for this positive response can be found in the results of question 9 (about the number of Tertiary degrees)

6. How do you think Era's structure developed your personal development?
   A. Negatively       B. Little effect        C. Positively

unanswered or don't know
4
negatively
1
little effect
1
positively
44

This question goes right to the heart of the Era philosophy, as postulated in the original '13 points' of the founding members. Not everyone concerned with Era felt that academic results make a good criterion by which to judge a school's success, but heightened personal development was something that I think everyone involved in Era was aiming for. On the face of it, the result looks like a triumph for the Era philosophy. 88% of respondents felt their personal development had been positively affected by Era. Only 2% felt it made little difference and 2% felt it had a negative impact. 8% found the question too difficult to answer, which is understandable, given the rather subjective nature of the term 'personal development'.

7. Has Era had any impact on your current overall happiness?
    A. Reduced it       B. Little effect        C. Increased it

unanswered or don't know
5
reduced it
1
little effect
15
increased it
29

58% of respondents felt that Era had increased their current overall happiness. 30% felt it had little effect and 10% didn't know. Only 2% felt Era had reduced their current overall happiness. Given that happiness is surely one of the most important yardsticks in evaluating our lives, then prima facie this would appear to be a great compliment to the school. Again, I draw attention to the deficiencies of my sampling and the question is, of course, highly subjective.

8. Are you employed? (Including self employment)
    A. Yes    B. No       C. Not looking

yes
43
no
0
not looking
7

Finding out the unemployment rate of respondents and comparing it to the community average for 23-39 year olds from private schools seemed like a useful objective measure I could make. I was stunned to discover, however, that 0% of Era respondents were unemployed and looking for work. Feeling slightly skeptical at such a seemingly anomalous result, I followed up on several of the 7 who were unemployed but not looking for work, to see why they weren't looking. Silly me! I had overlooked child rearing and home duties. Interestingly, more than half the people I spoke to in this category had tertiary degrees. 86% of respondents said they were employed (including self employment). This area needs follow up research as zero level unemployment is surely too good to be true, isn't it?

9. Do you hold a tertiary degree?
    A. Yes    B. No

yes
30
no
17
other qualifications volunteered
3

This was another attempt to bring more objectivity to the survey and perhaps cross reference to question 5 to check for inconsistencies. I have to admit that I had a preconceived idea that a lot of Era kids might have found their own little niches outside the academic mainstream like myself, but I was wrong. 60% of respondents had at least one Tertiary degree and 12% of those who didn't volunteered other professional qualifications without prompting. 34% said they had no Tertiary degree (some of whom might have volunteered other professional qualifications if prompted). It does not appear from this data as if Era has impacted negatively on long term academic potential. If anything it would appear that perhaps the opposite is true.

10. Do you think that Era's environment with regard to drugs and alcohol had any impact on you?
       A. Caused problems    B. Little effect        C. Prevented problems

unanswered or don't know
2
caused problems
3
little effect
32
prevented problems
13

Era had an unusually tolerant attitude towards drug and alcohol use, even allowing students to smoke tobacco in class if nobody objected. I was interested to find out whether students felt this type of approach made any difference one way or the other. 64% of respondents felt it had little effect on them. 6% felt it had caused them problems. 26% felt it had prevented problems. I'm not sure how to interpret this because it's unclear how objective people are about their use of drugs and alcohol, and also because there's nothing to compare the results with. I find it interesting all the same!

11. Ideally, what percentage of schools in our society should be like Era?

Easily the largest group, sixteen people, couldn't say what percentage of schools in our society should be like Era. Of this group five people said it should be some, but couldn't specify a percentage.

Five people felt that all schools should be like Era. Two people felt that none should.

unanswered or don't know
16
0%
2
2%
2
5%
1
10%
4
15%
1
20%
2
25%
1
30%
2
35%
1
50%
4
70%
1
80%
4
100%
5

The clearest thing revealed by this final question, and indeed perhaps the whole survey, is that amongst people who actually attended Era, there appears to be a large majority who feel that society should have access to at least some schools based on an alternative model similar to Era's. There is also strong evidence that Era, despite it's unfortunate demise, succeeded in many of its most fundamental aims. If it could be shown by proper scientific follow up research to be so, surely it must have ramifications for educational theory?

Guy West (student 1971 - 1975)

Guy can be contacted via the left hand menu link.