A Survey of U.S. Senators Regarding Their High School Education

As part of an effort to identify a group of successful professionals, determine what percentage attended small secondary schools, and assess from those attending small schools their attitudes regarding the quality of education received and aspects of the experience which they felt contributed to their professional success, all 100 members of the United States Senate were mailed a 29-item, self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included 13 statements about principles/qualities of effective schooling arising from "effective schools research" to be graded by respondents on the basis of their own experience. Only 21 senators responded, 10 of whom indicated they had adopted a policy of not participating in surveys, questionnaires, or interviews with academic institutions. Of the 11 who did complete questionnaires, 5 had graduated from high schools with 40 or fewer students in their class, with 3 graduating from schools with 15 or fewer seniors. Although the response rate was too low to make any inferences, senators who attended small schools rated their experiences more positively than those attending large schools in all areas except parental involvement in the school and community support of the school. Interestingly, these are two areas referred to in the literature as strong points for small schools. (NEC)