Strong and stable enrollment is essential for the health and future sustainability of any independent school.

Strong and stable enrollment is essential for the health and future sustainability of any independent school. Independent schools can stabilize and grow enrollment by developing well-defined applicant profiles and proactively meeting the needs of current families, aka super-serving current families. These profiles allow schools to create an effective vision for future enrollment informed by past success. A school becomes more stable and healthy when they understand and build about their success and strengths. Clear profiles also allow a school head to direct resources toward student success – thus super-serving families. 

The direction of resources toward student success is a great example of how the focus of a school head is divided – balancing nurturing a vision for the future with managing daily operations. Many school heads find that engaging outside parties such as board members or consultants to ensure that daily operations are managed in a way that super-serves current families and increases the organizational capacity to do so for new families thus nurturing a vision for the future. 

Prospective Families’ Needs Are Ever-Evolving

The profile of an independent school family, like the profile of any family, is always changing and with more school options available than ever before, the audience for independent schools is more diverse than ever before. Successful independent schools use both historical insights and forward-looking strategies to plan for a thriving future that aligns with their mission and values. They do this by understanding 

These schools take a data-driven approach to understand which student and family profiles align with their strengths, allowing them to focus resources effectively. These understandings are anchored in objective measurements, often using existing measurements of skill/success, and are used to craft a profile of the ideal applicant. 

At most schools, applicant profiles vary by division, with natural transitions for students and families as they progress through grade levels. Having clear division-specific data-based profiles of the ideal applicant allows schools to plan to support students and families transitioning into the school or matriculating through each division – ensuring a strong start for new families and that current families are being super-served. 

Super-Serving Students Through Targeted Support Services

This deep understanding of applicant profile(s) also allows a school to dynamically adjust their support services program to support students who are a good fit for the program with the right accommodations and supports. This can include establishing a formal student support services program, adding new members to an existing student support team, or bringing in outside specialists to contract for specific services. Taking a strategic approach to student services provides confidence to any school head focused on thoughtful use of school resources both financial and personnel and the thoughtful expansion or revision of an ideal student profile. Revising applicant/student profiles to be inclusive of neurodiversity has been a focus of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), Harvard Business Publishing, and is something most, if not all, independent schools will need to embrace in order to stabilize and grow their school enrollment. 

Strong and stable enrollment is essential for the health of any independent school. The enrollment of the school, along with the development efforts of advancement teams, keeps schools fiscally healthy which has a trickle-down impact on the entire organization and school community. A fiscally healthy school can maintain and develop facilities, expand and enrich curricular and extracurricular programs, and ensure that classroom instruction and support services meet student needs. It can also invest in training and developing an engaged, effective faculty and staff, reducing turnover and burnout.

Same goal, differentiated approach. 

While the goal is the same—stabilizing and growing enrollment by effectively serving current and new families—this work looks unique for each school. In most cases, it involves cross-functional work across different teams within the organization and a mixture of advising, directing, and coaching existing team members. An outside partner with a rich and diverse professional history in schools can be most effective to guide this work because of their ability to speak and understand a wide-range of professional educational language from the classroom, administrative offices, to the business office and boardroom. They also can understand the expectations, challenges, and best practices of each role. It is because of their experience that they are able to assist in creating a strategic vision for the future while supporting the improvement of daily operations that align with your vision for the future. Such a partner offers both strategic vision and practical support, making them an invaluable asset for your school’s growth.

About the Author…

Greg Donnellan is the founder and lead consultant for Plumewood Educational Partners with nearly two (2) decades of educational experience in private schools. His experience includes 10+ years as a classroom and special education teacher, 4 years as a middle school administrator, and experiences as an instructional coach, intervention specialist, and director of enrollment.

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