Do Amish One-Room Schools Make the Grade? The Dubious Data of Wisconsin v. Yoder

Abstract

Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), allowed the Old Order Amish to limit their children’s education to eight grades in private, one-room schools that resemble those of the nineteenth century. An important factual claim in Yoder was that Amish education was as effective as that provided by modern public elementary schools. This claim was supported by a statistical study directed by John Hostetler, the chief expert witness for the Amish. I show here that Hostetler’s data and findings should not have been taken seriously. I bring this charge not to urge that the Amish be herded back to public schools but to support a position I advanced in Making the Grade (Chicago 2009). I argued there that school-district consolidation from 1900 to 1970, which eliminated public one-room schools, was driven by popular demand for high school education and not, as is commonly assumed, by the top-down commands of state bureaucrats. It appears that the Amish maintain one-room schools for the very reason that non-Amish voters agreed to abandon them in the twentieth century: The education they provide is inadequate preparation for high school. I conclude by questioning the relevance of Yoder for present-day Amish education.