I’ve learned to appreciate that we in admissions and enrollment are living historians. Even if our schools have been around for a century or longer, admissions and enrollment sustain the legacies we’ve inherited and steward them daily. The milestones are cataloged through accreditation reports and national databases.
Still, in our day-to-day, we are often left to our devices. For example, every year around this time, we see requests for enrollment reports and data dashboard templates filling our inboxes. Indeed, there are some templates out there. But, in my experience, they lose their luster when transferred to another school. Why?
It dawned on me that for all the requests for enrollment plan templates, the solution for data and templates lies with our Heads of School. More specifically, it lies within enrollment directors' relationships with their Heads of School. See, each community has its own politics. Its own history. Its own traditions. These foundational attributes comprise the DNA of the school community. It is within this DNA where our templates and dashboards are borne, nurtured, and improved.
Unfortunately, I’ve found that data alone is a poor tool for understanding context. When we process the significance of historical milestones, we should remember to analyze the context of the key data—the how and why—to bring color to our data. With the changing of guard we are experiencing in our industry and across schools, both public and private, understanding the data within the school’s context illuminates a school’s unique story–its DNA.
I realize that what works for my school now is unique to my school. This is borne out by the formal and informal discussions I’ve had with my current Head of School and my experience working under previous Heads. In short, as an admissions director, you need to understand what best practices for our work you have in your toolbox and which ones to enact at this moment in time. Not all tools will be helpful now, no matter how shiny and fun the data they produce is.
It's taken nearly four years for me to figure out what works most optimally for my Head of School. This summer, I used the quieter months to expand our School’s Dashboard to capture more data points. Some of the suggestions are practical: they will help me with the sections I’m responsible for completing the NAIS DASL reporting this fall. Others are less about data and more about documenting. In our weekly meetings, I’ve also started a working document that catalogs my meetings with my Head, specifically outlining the topics we’ve discussed and providing essential links to documents that she may be asked about when meeting with board committees and other key stakeholders. After all, she is the keeper of my school’s narrative. My job is to support the narrative and, most importantly, provide her with data that she can use to project her vision for the school.
The beauty of documentation is that it can serve us best when it is time to reflect or defend our work. None of us likes the question, “Why did this happen?” when reporting something negative or unexpected. After all, admissions is the work of type-A planners. Although it is easy to reject the idea that we can predict the future, documentation of topics over time highlights the annals and general cyclical nature of our work. Combining data points and contextual background is essential to ensure the continuity of our school’s narrative and keep any new (enrollment) leader faithful to the school’s DNA.
In this post-pandemic era, how will our school communities continue to change? The average postings of our school leadership are transforming. Will we see school heads stay in one place for years? Or will we continue to see reports that the average posting for Heads is five years? If it is the latter, the lack of documentation poses a more significant threat to our communities.
As we embark on a new school year and a new admissions cycle, it's crucial to take a moment to reflect on our data-gathering practices and dashboards. By cataloging our discussions with our Heads, we ensure that our discussion topics are documented. In doing so, we play a significant role in preserving our school’s traditions, culture, and trajectory and in staying faithful to what makes our school unique.
David Lazo
Director of Enrollment Management
Bentley School