La Sierra University Haystack anyone? Dr. Aimee Leukert holds one of Adventism’s best known iconic meals, the haystack. Left to right around her are Loma Linda Academy students (left to right, front to back) Kolton Ice, Micah Mendez, Liana Leukert, Kayleigh Leukert, and Makena Wacker.
Of Haystacks, Rook, and Potlucks:
Study Links School Choice, Adventist Culture By Darla Martin Tucker
E
ngagement watches, Saturday night Rook games, vegetarian potlucks, debates on proper construction of “haystacks”—for many Seventh-day Adventists these things are instantly familiar. But do anecdotal experiences constitute a denominational culture, and are cultural practices linked to Adventist K-12 school enrollment in America?
A doctoral study by La Sierra University Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Aimee Leukert recently produced intriguing answers to these questions. Initial research conducted for her dissertation at Claremont Graduate University indicates the presence of a unique Adventist culture existing across subcultural boundaries in America, and further analysis based on that research shows that lifelong Seventh-day Adventists who attended Adventist K-12 schools themselves and who are middle-of-the-road traditionalists in their views of diet, dress, Sabbath preparation, and other Adventist activities are often the most willing to invest in Adventist education for their own children.
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Conversely, those who scored low for Adventist cultural practices and norms were more likely to send their children to public or non-Adventist schools, and those who tested for a high degree of traditional Adventist cultural practices were more likely to homeschool their children. “It is a very interesting U-shaped curve,” Leukert said. “I think that the population in the middle is getting smaller,” a phenomenon that may be connected to the enrollment drop many academies have experienced over the past 20 years. Leukert graduated in May from Claremont Graduate University with a Ph.D. She plans to share more detailed analyses and findings of her
study in the future. Leukert also serves as associate director of La Sierra’s Center for Research on Adventist K-12 Education and has worked with the North American Division’s Education Taskforce. Prior to arriving at La Sierra University, she taught at multiple levels within the Adventist K-12 system and served as principal of a K-8 school. As an administrator she often faced frustrating questions about whether schools were doing enough to stem the ongoing enrollment fallout. The experience influenced the formation of her dissertation topic. “My context was that we have this decline in enrollment that people