Listen to this Episode!
There are few issues that frustrate school leaders more than the topic of enrollment, and in this economic climate, enrollment in Adventist schools is declining each year. Join us in this episode as we search for the underlying causes of these enrollment trends, as well as what principals are doing to combat the crisis. Continue in the discussion on our blog, and share with us what is working at your school.
LEARN MORE.
AUDIO.
To learn more about any of our interviewees, listen to the uncut footage in our Full Interview Archive.
To learn more about national trends among private schools, just click on the links below.
Private School Facts Numbers and statistics of all private schools in North America.
“Christian School Enrollment Drops with Economy” USA Today article on private school budget cuts as a result of the economy.
“Private School Economics,” a New York Times report on private school enrollment this year versus the last few decades. Includes a breakdown of religious and non-religious institutions.:
“Private Schools Feel the Pinch Amid Recession.” An article describing how schools are coping with the economic downturn.Private School Facts Numbers and statistics of all private schools in North America.
President Obama’s view on private education, his family, and his private education choice.
Although President Obama sends his daughters to one of the most prestigious private schools in Washington DC, he is a huge proponent of the public school system and does not support government funded private school vouchers. All about school
More on Private School Vouchers.
FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE…
HEALTHY SCHOOL CHECKLIST
6 things to turn around schools (as told by Dale Twomley in this episode):
- Focus on Spirituality. The leader needs to set the tone for the staff, parents, students, and community and has to emphasize the need for spirituality in school.
- Strong Academics. One of the key academic changes at SVA was the development of a Dual Credit Agreement with Columbia Union College, which offered students nearly 35 hours of credit for college coursework.
- Safety. Physically, spiritually, and socially safe.
- Aggressive Marketing and PR. The most effective part of this plan includes personal conversations with potential students, presentations at area churches, and home visitation to Adventist families. Professional marketing materials are an important reinforcement face-to-face recruitment.
- Student Aid. Families need to have options for making tuition affordable. Customized matching programs, donors, churches, and student work helps make this possible.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
- What ideas to YOU have to stimulate enrollment in the midst of an economic crisis?
- Do we need to change the way we do marketing?
- How are you retaining tuition paying families?
- Have you been affected by the Adventist community’s “loss of brand loyalty”?
Enrollment….. How do we find a niche in our communities and then market to that niche?
In our small town of just over 25,000, with an average church attendance of 75, we currently have an enrollemnt of 78 students, often with a waiting list. We are a thriving school. Many of those students are not Adventist. The only thing that makes that possible is a truely non-judgemental congregation with a pastor who is willing to see our school as a mission in our community- and an innovative staff.
The model we have developed incorporates creative hands-on learning and a lot of outdoor education. Marketing has become vastly easier in the past 4 or 5 years as word of mouth does it for us.
When we are truely doing creative, high quality education, centered on our Creator,word gets around and enrollment worries can ease off.
We have just reviewed our school marketing survey results and recommendations. We are in the process of organizing out church membership and interested parties to deal with the seven recommendations. Our school, Hilltop Christian School, has severe financial & related enrollment challenges. It is ironic, that we are in the process of finishing a brand new church on the same property of a school that we built some ten years ago of top notch quality in terms of building but our enrollment has been declining since we moved our school to the new facility and the financial challenges that developed by not adjusting the personnel to the dropping enrollment.
Just found this podcast, and it is somewhat timely.. as with two little ones and one in PreSchool and currently attending a non-Christian private school.. I’ve been pondering what direction to go. I attended Adventists schools from 1st grade through Graduate school. around 20 years in SDA schools. The issue to me is loyalty, I have none. The SDA school that my kids would goto now, is the same school that I attended through grade school, it has less kids now then when I went to it. The Physical plant hasn’t changed, and there is no hope for change anytime soon. I live in a community of almost 2million people and the 1 SDA elementary school has 75 kids and no Academy with in 400 miles. The reality is that Adventist education works in places where there are large Adventist populations, but where there aren’t, the feeder schools are struggling… The only way the little Adventist elementary school in my town could succeed would be to compete for the non-adventist student with the other private schools in the community. Sadly, the churches that support the school only want to focus on the Adventist student and have cut off marketing to non-adventists. The other issue is that the private schools in my community have fantastic academic programs. The non-denominational schools have established themselves as leaders in the education community, and the local adventist school is compared to them, we have one private school that has a wait list miles long and their tuition is 3x’s more than the Adventist school. If a non-adventist parent looked at the two schools and one’s tuition was 3x’s more, why is the Adventist schools tuition so low? I want my kids competing in school with other students in my community and I want the best for them, I want them to have a Christian education, but I also know that it probably isn’t possible in my community, thus, my kids will probably never experience Adventist education because I know that once they begin their experience in school their path probably won’t lead to an Adventist academy and college. A question to ask, is why are there some communities with less than 100,000 people that have multiple options for Adventist education and some areas with much larger populations have fewer options? Adventist enrollment will continue to decline if the mission is educate Adventists, in the major Adventist communities, Adventist Education will explode if the emphasis is towards educating non-Adventists in non-Adventist communities.
Wow Doug. I just discovered this site, and find your comments really interesting. Yes. No one should have to sacrifice a great education if they want to attend a SDA school. But sadly, most schools are working from an outdated model that seems sad and worn out. I teach and am principal of a school in Durango, CO where 80% of our student body is not Adventist. Those parents are at least or even MORE supportive than our Adventist parents. I wonder if a model like ours might work in your town. Look in at our website and let me know what you think. My sense is that there is a new way to look at our schools that might work for a service centered, open-minded group. I’d love to hear from you. http://www.columbinechristian.com
Thank you for this podcast. I am so grateful that you are opening up this mode of discussion about a topic we are all concerned about. Both the podcast and the comments are very interesting and helpful. I will continue listening and reading!
1. I am especially intrigued by Dale Twomley’s comment that first and foremost we must focus on spirituality. What is it that sets our schools apart? What is it that makes SDA education unique? We must go back to our founding roots and make the main thing the main thing! If you have not listened to Dr. Twomley’s entire pocast it is a half hour well spent!
2. I was also drawn by the comment from Barry Warren….communication is key! We do not do a great job at telling the story of our successes. Adventist education is one of the best well kept secrets. It is time we let the cat out of the bag!
I just found out about your podcasts and I’m very impressed with their quality and the information presented. I am currently employed in an Adventist elementary school and have a son who will be graduating from an Adventist academy this May. He has expressed some negative opinions about his school regarding academics and the work ethic, but has also enjoyed his academy experience. Speaking as a parent, it has been very difficult putting 4 children through church school, academy, and some college. I am looking forward to future podcasts and hope to hear more on the elementary level.
A key to enrollment that has already been discussed is communication. It is also key when making changes. Recently, I’ve seen many schools -including mine- making changes with regard to technlogy. Whether it is a cell phone policy, 1-to-1 computer program, adding edline, etc. These things MUST be communicated clearly to parents so they know what to expect of the school. In a digital age, there is no excuse for not publicizing the changes which occur in our schools. blogs, podcasts, etc reinforce the letters and other print media. Plus, some parents won’t read a letter but will watch a video blog. Luckily for me, our school has been pretty smooth with these things so far. I give kudos to the admin & staff but mostly God for that.
We appreciate all feedback so far, and want you to know that we are listening! We are in production mode right now for our next episode and have our ears wide open to school leaders like you. One of the resounding perspectives that I am hearing from right now is the elementary Adventist schools. I want to assure you that your comments and opinions are opening us up, and we will be sure to include the elementary level in upcoming conversations. Much of the education system depends on the base that is built in those crucial years, as well as the spiritual seeds that are planted in these kids.
I just want to thank you for your thought-provoking comments and questions. Like I said, because we’re still doing the research and story-building for our next episode, YOUR OPINIONS AND THOUGHTS MATTER! Tell us what you think. If you want to share just with us, you can also email us at alumniawards@gmail.com.
-Rika (your humble host/producer)
Thank you for being YOU!
I found this podcast to be extremely helpful as we are looking to do what we can to grow our school. Thanks for producing it!
fantastic episode, will continue listening
I appreciated the comments and suggestions on your podcast. It seems like most of the comments were geared to the academy level. What about our elementary schools? After all, the elementary schools help feed the academies. It would have been nice to also have someone from the elementary level also giving their enrollment success stories. Obviously, some of the suggestions given on the podcast would be workable for all levels of schools, it seems that a lot of studies, etc. are done on the academy level. Thank you for your podcast. I am looking forward to listening to more of the in the future.
As Chairperson of a small elementary Adventist school, I found it interesting that the focus of the podcast is Academies and very little or no mention of the “feeder” system – the elementary schools. We were very fortunate to have Lisa Goolsby work with us about five years ago to help re-start and re-build a failinig elementary school in a nearly 500,000 population market with one primary SDA church and two smaller, one being Hispanic. We found, back then, the four leading causes of enrollment loss mentioned were the basic cause of Aboite Christian School (ACS) faultering.
We believe a quality program that includes the Church, Shcool Board, Principal, Teachers, Spiritual Environment, Facility, Curriculum, Outside Programs and Parents taking ownership are vital in the growth and maintenance of a quality education. We believe that from the very beginning years of Jr. K to 8th grade that a focus on getting good grades and preparing to be in the world as a follower of Jesus will encourage parents to send their children to a our school. That is difficult to achieve without money and asking the local church to fund it.
If we continue down the path of not finding a way to fund our elementary schools, to attract not only the children within our church enviroment but to be a school within the community where parents want to send their children, that the Academies will eventually fail and that also will have long term results on our colleges.
Finding a way to build fine facilities, finding excellent devoted teachers and providing the best curriculum will prove to be the road for our elementary and upper grade students to become a light to the world.
Our SDA elementary schools have become a burden on the local churches and it should not be this way. They can become independent and be in demand. Tuitioin rates and economic conditions certainly become a factor yet we believe that these things are not as much of a factor as the quality of education that we provide.
We should not compare ourselves to public schools but to other private schools, who, at least in our area are growing at the elementary and high school levels. Parents are willing to find the funds to send their children to seek education at a better place then public schools if they provide a vision for them and the student to go on to higher education.
We need to determine within our elementary local schools if we are a church school, a mission school, a missionary school or a community school. We invite the puclic to send their children to our school to finid a quality education and where they will find Jesus.
We are working toward the goal of a heavenly kingdom, not only for our children within our constintuency but for all children within our community.
I really appreciated your podcast. It is time we started talking about ways to keep our schools alive. We have too many schools closing and we are nearing the end of time. We need all of our students in our schools. Our schools have so much to offer. It is very important that we market our schools and the problem is, we really don’t know how or have the funds to do this. I really liked number 4: Agressive Marketing and PR. In the times we live in, we have to sell what we have to our own members and that takes consistantly telling about the good things happening in our schools. It can’t be hit and miss, it must be consistant. It is time we tooted our horns. Thank you so much for this wonderful way to share ideas.
Well done on a thought-provoking and effectively presented podcast! I am encouraged that as a system we are beginning to share our successes so that the system as a whole will grow stronger as we learn from each other. Perhaps a next step should include further study in how to recruit/train/nurture/sustain/retain administrators . . . specifically principals . . . since they are key players in the success of Adventist schools.
Looking forward to your next podcast on church and school relationships!
I enjoyed your podcast on enrollment. Declining enrollment is evident throughout the NAD, and we in Canada have witnessed a disturbing trend over the past several years. We recently did a union-wide survey and came up with similar results highlighted in this podcast for the cause(s) of the decline in enrollment in Adventist schools. The cost of Adventist education is a real issue affecting many families, but I do feel that the two key factors are a lack of vision on the part of school administrators and the lack of collaborative effort of the local church (pastor) and other stakeholders to make Adventist education a priority. We call ourselves a system, but in reality we are a collection of individual schools adhering to some core values and trying to survive individually. Until we come to the point where we see ourselves as the best hope for our children’s salvation and have a systemic plan to put Adventist education on the front burner, we will be forever grasping at straws.
Dennis, you make a valid point about being a collection of individual schools. Until the leadership at the Conference level establishes a clear plan for Adventist Education, and until a real support base is established for school administrators willing to risk making the changes necessary in schools to reach levels that we can be proud of, the downward spiral will only accelerate.
Marketing is not an act that we do. It is a mentality that requires a change in direction in everything that the school attempts. When an administrator says he has no time for marketing he really means that he does not want to think about a change in attitude to his job.
When you do real marketing you must accept that everything in the school will change – the teacher loads, the classroom composition, the ratio of Adventists to others, communication patterns, short and long term staffing needs, PAC representation, busing needs, school board representation, challenges to the existing power structure, etc. Many schools are just not willing to make this ’sacrifice’.
No matter what you do, until you have a complete change in the approach to how you operate you will not achieve the results that you talk about.
I strongly agree with your conclusions in this podcast on enrollment.
The Adventist educational system is the second largest private school system in the United States. That statement is profoundly exciting and somewhat misleading at the same time. And it has to do with the simple word, system. If you take the religious component and the HR resources out, our system strips down to little more than an accreditation association. Each school is locally owned and operated with little or no shared resources. Lodi Academy has little or nothing to do with Fresno Adventist Academy, neither of which has anything to do with GEM Academy accept in Adventist name only. We are more like a Best Western Motel Association than a Comfort Inn Franchise. There is a huge difference in the expectations of resource sharing and the points of resource delivery. To the outside customer it may look the same but in terms of the business it is not. Independent businesses (our model) have a much higher failure rate than franchise businesses and require exceptionally good leadership to succeed in an isolated environment.
What if we were free to think about the entire system? What ideas could it generate? Could we have more successful schools under a different model? If we were more like a franchise model, then improvements at one campus would have a positive effect on other campuses. There could be shared resources (like mobile science labs) and possibly lower costs to all, allowing more children to attend our campuses.
Thanks for your great service to Adventist education.
Tom Krazan
Central California
Tom has identified a major flaw in how we do business. What if we were to operate regional boards for academies rather than being isolated independent entities? Certainly there would be more joint planning and cooperation in strategic resource use. The franchise concept has merit.
I think you left out one other important factor and that is communication. One factor in the turnaround of Thunderbird Academy is that we are very intentional about getting out the good things that are happening at our school. Bad news travels fast and needs no help in spreading. Good news must be pushed on the constituency. We send out a weekly email newsletter to all parents, pastors, alumni, and anyone else we can get on our mailing list. Monthly inserts in church bulletins, and writtent newsletters on a monthly basis. No good deed is left unpublicized! This is a huge factor in turning around perceptions of our school!