2016 and 2020 Election Survey Results
Before the 2016 presidential election, the Riverdale Review surveyed Upper School students on their political ideologies, gathering revealing data on students’ views on particular issues, their preferred candidates, and their political alignment with their parents. When the 2020 presidential election was just around the corner, the Review again set out to gain insights on the current political leanings of both Upper School students and teachers. Around 30% of Upper School students and 50% of Upper School teachers responded to the survey; while not totally representative, this data still gives us insight into how a portion of students and faculty think.
Issues That Students and Faculty Prioritize:
To gauge whether the political issues that students prioritize have shifted over time, we compared our recent results to those from a similar survey sent to Upper School students in February 2020. An important note: the February 2020 poll only received 87 responses, while this current poll received 142. Since February 2020, racial inequality and LGBTQIA+ rights have skyrocketed to the top of the issues that students prioritize. 44% of students voted for racial inequality in February 2020, whereas 73% of students voted for racial inequality in October 2020; and while 28% of students voted for LGBTQIA+ rights in February 2020, 56% of respondents voted for LGBTQIA+ rights in October 2020. This data speaks volumes to the monumental impact of recent conversations about systemic racism and homophobia, both within the country at large and within Riverdale. Furthermore, the October 2020 form was sent out around the time of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, so it is possible that many student and faculty respondents felt as if this appointment furthered the imperilment of queer rights. See the graphic for more details.
Political Identity and Preferred Candidates:
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being very conservative, 5 being very liberal), the average Riverdale student is a 3.8, which is decidedly left of center. This is consistent with 2016, when the average Riverdale student was a 3.7. Unsurprisingly, based on this data, the percentages of students supporting the Democratic and Republican candidate in 2020 are around the same as they were in 2016. More students supported Third Party candidates in 2016, however, suggesting that 2020 students felt more strongly that they should solely choose between the two major parties.
What About the Parents?
*Note: This data is from students’ estimations of their parents’ political leanings - parents did not directly report this data to us.
In 2016, the average Riverdale parent was a 3.4 on the same 1-5 liberal/conservative scale, and students were about 0.3 points more liberal on average than their parents. In 2020, we received similar data: the average parent is a 3.5, which is slightly more conservative than the average political identity of students, but still left of center. On a scale of 1-5, where 1 indicates complete disagreement and 5 indicates complete agreement, 2020 student respondents indicated that they are about a 3.6 in terms of the extent to which they share their parents’ political beliefs.
Political Discussions At Riverdale:
We also asked students whether they wish there were more spaces at Riverdale to discuss current politics and the election. 62% of students indicated support for more political discussions, which is close to the 73% who indicated support in the survey sent out in February 2020. In the written responses to the form, some students expressed their belief that political discourse at Riverdale is flawed. One student, for example, wrote that all current political discussions are “just arguments,” while several other students believe that the Riverdale community struggles with handling opposing ideologies in a way that is productive. Throughout the year and beyond, the Riverdale Review aims to help address these concerns, providing a platform for voices that feel silenced within the community and giving students a space to freely express their opinions and engage with each other respectfully.
The Issues:
Along with general questions about political ideologies, we asked students about their views on particular issues, including abortion, the death penalty, and police brutality. For every issue that we asked about, the majority of student responses leaned towards moderate or liberal positions. Generally, student views in 2020 stayed consistent with student views in 2016; however, with issues like immigration and the death penalty, the amount of students leaning towards highly conservative positions slightly increased. For more information about students’ views on certain issues, check out the chart below.
