Awareness is a Powerful Start for Independent Schools

File this one under the “for what it’s worth or “news you can use” category.

We’ve just finished several powerful strategic projects for our clients across the nation, as well as launched brand new projects over the past few weeks and months. Add a keynote speaking engagement for MISBO at Hilton Head Island in October, as well as contributing to an upcoming featured story for the Enrollment Management Association, it feels like we have really had the opportunity to be in touch with what people in the independent school field are feeling.

Independent schools are starting to see the issues, the challenges, and are grappling with them in an honest way that I have not seen in the past. There appears to be a building awareness among those that I connect with of three main strands of thought:

1. The business model of independent schools is broken, was never sustainable, and is in the process of being recalibrated.

2. The classroom has already changed and will never be the same; it is up to us to adjust to a new learning and teaching environment.

3. Delivery of education in the future may undergo as radical of change as we have seen in retail, transportation, and entertainment.

It is a good moment in time. Awareness is a powerful start for creating the necessary change in our model. I sense more urgency as a result of the awareness of the issues at hand. I still believe that independence remains the most powerful attribute of independent schools and colleges. We can exercise our independence by leading the change in the education industry. I see leaders and school communities wrestling with this new reality with a renewed sense of purpose. This is a critical first step at moving the industry sector forward.