For over 35 years, ISM has posited that, when attempting to ascertain the factors that drive families to enter, stay, and leave your school, you must attend to two constituent groups: parents and students. While parents hold almost all the decision-making power when children are very young, students begin to gain influence over the decision beginning in the middle grades. This increases through upper grades such that they can have the majority of the power through high school. Knowing this parent-student dynamic and the reasons each constituency chooses a private-independent school can (and should) significantly influence how you allocate time and resources to achieve your mission, as well as how you market your school.