27 Apr
2012
We walk alongside a lot of organizations that are facing significant challenges. Some self-imposed, some not. But there may not be any group we serve that is experiencing as much rapid change and challenge as private schools. Here are five significant challenges changing the way schools think about their work and ministry:
Challenge #1: Scrutiny
Schools are being reviewed and held to public accountability like never before. There is increasing pressure on schools to publish organizational “report cards” with information about their programs, their teachers, and the academic performance of their students. For a handful of schools, this is a welcomed differentiator. For many others, not so much.
Challenge #2: Competition
This one is so multi-dimensional, it warrants further breakdown:
Charter schools – For parents whose choice of a private school is driven largely by dissatisfaction with their child’s assigned public school, charter schools often provide an attractive, cost-free alternative to paying tuition at a private school.
Improved public schools and school choice – Public schools are under the gun, and are making rapid changes in the face of the pressure. Public schools are working hard to improve student performance, and have extensive district, state, and federal resources to help them quantify and report those improvements. Secondly, increased in-district and other-district choices allow parents to put their kids into a “good school” available through the public system
For-profit school operators -- Organizations such as EdisonLearning, MosaicaEducation, and Nobel Learning Centers and bringing similar competition to nonprofit private schools as University of Phoenix and similar models did to traditional private universities.
Challenge #3: Demanding Parents
As parents grow more accustomed to the idea of choice, they become more discriminating and more demanding – of public AND private schools. Just as public schools have lost students to charters, so private schools will have to respond to the demands of a more educated and option-aware education-consumer.
Challenge #4: Rising Costs
The competition for good teachers, teacher’s demand for higher pay, must-have technology, and a generally rising-tide of expectations regarding facilities, grounds and student experience all are pushing costs higher. This is and will continue to be a significant long-term challenge for private education.
Challenge #5: Funding
Almost every school we encounter at EDGE is concerned with the short-and-long-term challenges of raising adequate operating capital through tuition and fundraising. More and more schools (and small colleges, and community colleges, and seminaries) and have or are looking to hire professional development help in hopes of raising additional financial support. But these professionals and their development offices/programs add cost, and each is looking to extract additional support from an almost-flat philanthropic landscape. (See our post It’s Harder Than Ever. Hurray! for some of the stats.)
But all these challenges can be met. We’ve trained over 150 leaders and worked with more than 25 private schools that were facing these challenges and more. They’ve done it. You can too. Call us if we can help.
[Posted by Shannon D. Barnes]
