According to ISM's most recent survey results (see the Editor's Note to download the full report), most responding schools said they were down in enrollments. Schools reported both a challenge to retain and to attract new students this past school year.
So this brings us to our main question: How do you sell the private school advantage to parents in a turbulent economy? This is not an easy question to answer. However, by reinforcing the advantages of private school education, showing parents what they're getting for their hard earned dollar (see article above), is certainly one way to retain and attract students.
There is evidence that private and parochial schools are better than public schools at developing critical-thinking abilities, as well as ensuring a college-bound outcome. On average, private school students' score higher on SATs than public school students—which, some argue, paves a more promising future for private school students—they have more doors of opportunity open for them.
But why? What is the difference between private and public school education?
Each school markets itself with a different selling point. For some it's their culture, for others it's their mission, and then there are those schools that sell small class sizes, green learning, etc.
Government educators follow the view of John Dewey, father of "progressive" education, that social adjustment trumps factual knowledge, and flexible attitudes supersede firm beliefs. Under this model, children who develop problems in basic subjects are labeled learning disabilities, as if it were a mental illness instead of a teaching problem. Public schools may even place a child labeled with a learning disability into special education, taking them out of the regular classroom.
Even successful students may fail to meet their potential in public schools because there is typically more chaos to distract them from their studies. For example, The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), expanded the term disability to include misbehavior. This allows juvenile delinquent students to be arbitrated with typical students, potentially adding more distractions into classrooms. For certain areas, this is an issue without an easy resolution.
Reminding parents of the alternatives, and perhaps the risks, of changing their children's schools can be a profound tool in retaining students—and might even help to attract new students for those schools in areas with less than ideal public schools.
