Boarding & Day Schools Meet Over Current Trends

October 2, 2009 | no comments

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

From the SSATB Annual Conference, Washington DC

The nation’s leading independent schools have gathered here to discuss current

Jody Dobson, Mark Sklarow, and Georgia Irvin at the SSATB Conference

trends. The conference comes at an anxious time for the nation’s private day and boarding schools. With the economy continuing to struggle, nearly half of the schools have seen inquires and enrollments decline as compared to last year. Many of the others indicate that they maintained or increased enrollment only by providing increased financial aid—even on a temporary basis.

The key topics targeted at this gathering include marketing, data-driven admissions (from test scores to demographics), school leadership, recruitment of future students, assessment of applicants, use of technology and, of course, the impact of the economy.

I’ll be presenting a short piece later today that will explore how the world of secondary school educational consulting has changed in the last two decades, as well as how schools can best work with the consulting community today. Among other topics, I’ll explore how the traditional “admission funnel” does not apply to working with consultants and why messages about the school’s strengths and weaknesses need to be on point and far more specific than information readily available to the general public.

IECA’s roots began with the consultant/boarding school relationship, and this remains a central, core reason the profession exists. I hope in my presentation that I’m able to build on that history in the best interests of the schools and the students we serve.