3 Things You Can Do To Combat Attrition

Who is responsible for the retention of families and students at your school? If enrollment management is everyone's job, as the saying goes, what does that mean?

Here's a scenario that is a composite of several client schools:

ABC School, serving students in pre-K through 8, did not see a pandemic enrollment boom and is experiencing about 15% attrition per year. The admissions team offers an online survey to parents withdrawing a student, but only a few people fill it out. The team suspects that parents are leaving due to relocation out of the city or financial difficulties. Sometimes they talk with parents after they do not re-enroll, but that meeting often does not happen. They lose most students to public schools and don't see that as "competition" since parents are not leaving for other private schools.

In the second year of his first headship, the Head of School has watched this decline and is alarmed. He and the finance committee can only balance the budget and offer faculty raises if they retain more students and bring in more new families. He also believes in hiring good people and leaving them to do their best work. Yet, he wonders if they genuinely do the job he needs them to do.

Even though the budget is strained, the board chair, who has served on several boards in their city and on the board of his college alma mater, understands that sometimes an organization needs to spend money to make money. He and several other trustees donated the funds necessary to hire me to examine the reasons for the ongoing attrition.

After conducting an Attrition Study and interviewing the parents who left the school in the last two years, I found several repeating themes causing attrition. The main issue was inconsistency in the faculty's communication with parents about student progress. Some teachers were excellent communicators. They emailed each parent every other week, they had a classroom blog that highlighted special projects with photos of students participating in the activities, and they were in the car line letting parents know how the child did that day in just a sentence or two. Some teachers only communicated with parents in parent/teacher conferences and responded to parents' concerns through brief emails that often took days to materialize.

Anxious parents talk to each other about what causes their anxiety. They speak to each other to dispel that anxiety and find answers. Parents quickly realized there was inconsistency in their experience at the school because of teacher communication or lack of it. The parents whose children were in classrooms with less communicative teachers were at a higher risk for attrition.

While every school is different, and the exact solutions to their attrition issues differ, here are three things you and your teachers can do this year to encourage retention and combat attrition:

One. Teachers need to email each of their student's parents every other week. Not in a group email, but individually and with specifics to that child. Parents are paying tuition and expect a deeper understanding of their students than what one thinks they will find at the local public school.

Two. The division heads or Head of School must formally (and informally) observe all teachers to ensure consistency in the classroom experience. Otherwise, you will have parents jockeying for classroom positions and favorite teachers, causing stress for everyone at school.

Three. Help faculty and staff understand the role of admissions and that admissions cannot do their job in a vacuum. Devote a portion of your August professional development for faculty to this understanding and the correlation between their practice and retention of families at your school.

If you would like to investigate the exact reasons for attrition at your school and get on a path to happier parents who prioritize your school, let's discuss the steps needed to make that a reality. Students, parents, and faculty will feel less anxious when everyone is working together for the best outcome for each student and talking with each other about what that means at your school.

The author, Jill Goodman, is a consultant working with independent school leaders to advance their school’s mission, enhance their processes, and bolster their skills. Learn more about all services here.

Photo by: Hartlove Goodyear