Growing a Waldorf-Inspired Approach in a Public School District

Alice Birney, a TK–8 public Waldorf school within the Sacramento City Unified School District, provides a powerful example of an alternative educational approach within a public system. Rather than focusing on preparation for standardized tests, Waldorf students are deeply involved in a full range of expressive arts ranging from watercolors and music to knitting and physical activity. Students learn science by gardening and investigating natural phenomena, mathematics by designing and building things of practical value, history from studying biography and the human meaning of historical events, and English language arts by writing their own books and extended accounts of what they are learning. The school’s attention to comprehensive student development—including their social, emotional, physical, and artistic development—has profoundly shaped its graduates.

This study details the specific practices of a Waldorf-inspired approach at Alice Birney and how the school’s instructional approaches lead to strong outcomes for students. When compared with similar students in other district schools, quantitative analyses reveal that Birney students have low transiency and suspension rates and positive student achievement outcomes on standardized state assessments, particularly for African American, Latino/a, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

The study also examines the district’s role in supporting alternative models of education while working to ensure equitable access to high-quality education for all of its students. The findings illustrate the power of a school district in supporting and enabling a school’s fidelity to its approach and sustainability, as well as providing insight into how to create space in public schools for a broader definition of education. The report sheds light on the policy conditions needed to achieve this broader goal.

Posted with permission, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.