When it comes to private school admission, recruitment and re-recruitment efforts are paramount to a school’s long-term viability. ISM’s data-informed approach pinpoints what attracts families to your school and inspires them to stay.
Here are sample sessions our consultants have led on this topic.
Casey Bell, Ed.D., IAP-L
ISM Consultant
What Students Feel, Families See: Turn Experience into a Strategic Enrollment Asset
How Mission Delivery, Predictability, and Support Create Conditions for Student and Enrollment Success
If you want families to say “yes” to your school and stay for the long term, your internal reality must match your external promise. Too often, enrollment professionals focus on messaging, events, and marketing without connecting those efforts to what students actually experience once enrolled. A strong student experience is the most powerful and credible marketing strategy your school has.
Parents Gone Wild: Reframing the Parent-School Partnership
Managing Expectations, Building Trust, and Strengthening Family Relationships
Private-independent school parents increasingly see their investment in education through a transactional lens, expecting exceptional outcomes in return for high tuition costs. While understandable, this mindset strains relationships between parents, teachers, and administrators, especially when expectations are misaligned or communication falters.
The Enrollment Ripple: How Internal Trust Builds External Demand
How Faculty and Student Experience Shape Enrollment Outcomes
Explore how faculty morale and student experience directly shape your school’s enrollment success. Grounded in Independent School Management’s (ISM) research on student and faculty satisfaction and enthusiasm, this session highlights the vital link between internal culture and external perceptions. Learn to recognize cultural warning signs, foster collaboration between faculty and admission teams, and use culture as a strategic driver of recruitment, retention, and long-term sustainability.
Retention by Design: Building a Strategic Framework for Re-Enrollment Success
Creating Systems, Teams, and Tactics to Sustain the Students You’ve Worked Hard to Enroll
Retention is not a separate task from enrollment — it's a critical part of it. A strong retention strategy can impact sustainability as much as new student recruitment, yet many schools approach it reactively, waiting until issues arise or students depart before taking action. This session reframes retention as a proactive, mission-driven process and offers a clear framework to guide your efforts.
From First Handshake to First Gift: Creating a Seamless Journey for New Families
Most schools invest significant time and energy in attracting mission-fit families but all too often, once the enrollment contract is signed, those families experience a handoff gap between Admission and Development. As a result, schools miss critical opportunities to engage new families early, build relationships that lead to long-term involvement, and cultivate future ambassadors and supporters.
Jesse Roberts
Unbound Brand General Manager, ISM
It's Not You, it's Your Data: Five Questions You Should Ask Your Data Every Day
"It feels like your school is doing everything “right” when it comes to expanding your footprint. You’ve invested heavily in your website and marketing strategy, you've doubled down on the travel budget, and you have the FTEs to enroll a strong class…why are you struggling to achieve your strategic goals? Whether your school is looking to find and enroll more students, uncover more full/high-pay families, or meet other strategic enrollment plans, this session will identify some of the most common metrics to keep your eyes on, where you might be missing out, and how to get the most out of the data you have.