Volume 46 No. 6 ● June 1, 2021 ● Gold Member Sneak Peek
Among the many factors that drive families to choose private schools are safety and security, academic outcomes, and mission-alignment. But, as School or Division Head, you recognize that retaining families requires more than small class sizes and an impressive next-level placement record. Your faculty, in fact, is a primary reason your families stay at your school (or not).
Among the many factors that drive families to choose private schools are safety and security, academic outcomes, and mission-alignment. But, as School or Division Head, you recognize that retaining families requires more than small class sizes and an impressive next-level placement record. Your faculty, in fact, is a primary reason your families stay at your school (or not).
During new faculty orientation, be explicit about what effective communication between teachers and parents looks like.
The Admission Office has traditionally assumed responsible for retention. In reality, however, re-recruitment is everyone’s job, and teachers must understand the vital role they play in each family’s re-enrollment decision. To ensure that faculty members embrace their job as frontline re-recruiters, establish an education plan that includes communication expectations and standards.
Education regarding these policies should begin during the hiring process. Use the interview as an opportunity to explore a candidate’s beliefs about their role in the re-recruitment of families. Provide all faculty candidates with copies of your Essential Expectations and Characteristics of Professional Excellence and then ask for their impressions of these documents and to provide you with a concrete example of a time when they demonstrated this statement “in action.” You may even consider role-playing a difficult parent conversation with the interviewee to see how they respond to common parent concerns.
During new faculty orientation, be explicit about what effective communication between teachers and parents looks like. Underscore that quick and consistent responses to parent concerns are mandatory. In your faculty handbook, specify how often teachers should check their mail, voicemail, and email for messages from parents and how quickly they are expected to respond. Revisit these expectations each year at your back-to-school faculty meetings, and, if necessary, more frequently with reminders at division or department meetings.
Each year, review with faculty how retention impacts your school’s financial picture, including salary and benefits. Share an overview of the school’s budget to help teachers make the connection between high levels of retention, enrollment growth, and their job security.
Faculty members also must understand that they must be proactive in communication with parents—with both good news and bad. Insist that your teachers notify parents quickly about any decline in their child’s performance so action can be taken to remedy the situation. There should be no surprises during parent-teacher conferences or when report cards arrive. While parents may not welcome bad news, they will appreciate knowing where their child stands and what can be done to alleviate or rectify the problem.
The faculty-parent conference is an ideal time for your teachers to reinforce the decisions families have made to enroll their children in your school. Coach faculty to use positive, mission-, and values-focused language when relating stories about their students. For example, a comment like “Johnny exhibits a great deal of care and concern for his fellow students, which is one of our school’s values” helps to focus on the reasons that parents chose your school in the first place.
In addition, teachers should relay student-affirming information regularly via phone calls, notes, or emails. Have them make a “good news” contact early in the school year. This helps create a positive bond between teacher and parent, which makes it easier for them to deal with any concerns that might arise later.
Encourage faculty members to reflect on your school’s Portrait of the Graduate for inspiration in writing personalized emails and report card comments, thus allowing parents easily to connect the dots between the experience you provide with the benefit to their child.
To make consistent outreach more manageable for teachers, provide them with a template like the one shown in the accompanying table.
Because of their daily interactions with students and parents, teachers are often the first to hear whispers of a family’s intention to leave your school. Be direct with faculty members that any time they hear a student is considering a transfer—whether they believe it to be true—they should report it to you, as School or Division Head, or to the Admission Director. The onus then is on your Enrollment Management Team to follow up on this information and develop an appropriate plan.
While your faculty’s primary responsibility is to deliver an exceptional, mission-centered student experience, they also play a crucial part in your school’s re-recruitment efforts. Educate and empower your teachers to be frontline re-recruiters for your school by providing them with clear expectations and actionable steps to maintain strong relationships with your students and parents that result in high retention and healthy enrollment.