Governing Board Forum: Enrollment Management Presentation Baltimore, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Baltimore, MD November 2, 2012 Governing Board Forum: Enrollment Management Presentation

Workshop Outline

• My Context for Comments
• Trends/Issues in Enrollment
• Overview of Enrollment Management Theory
• The Role of an Admissions Director
• Using Data to Inform Decisions
• Creating a Recruitment and Enrollment Plan

About Maguire Associates

• Research-based consultancy based in Concord, MA
• Serve educational clients, public and private
• Established in 1983
• Staffed by experts, practitioners, and analysts from:
• Admissions & Recruitment
• Financial Aid
• Institutional Research
• Advancement
• Governing Boards
• Industry leaders in predictive modeling
• Recognized for thought leadership and publishing

3

Xaverian Brothers Sponsored Schools

4

• 1. Malden Catholic High School

Malden, MA

• 2. Nazareth Regional High School

Brooklyn, NY

• 3. St. Johns High School

Shrewsbury, MA

• 4. Saint Xavier High School

Louisville, KY

• 5. St. John's Preparatory School

Danvers, MA

• 6. St. Mary's Ryken High School

Leonardtown, MD

• 7. Xaverian High School

Brooklyn, NY

• 8. Mount St. Joseph High School

Baltimore, MD

• 9. Our Lady of Good Counsel High

School Olney, MD

• 10. Xaverian Brothers High School

Westwood, MA

• 11. Xavier High School

Middletown, CT

• 12. Lowell Catholic High School

Lowell, MA

• 13. Saint Bernard School

Uncasville, CT

TRENDS/ISSUES IN ENROLLMENT

What Do We See?

• Greater awareness of the importance of marketing,

recruitment, and enrollment – “if you build it, they won’t automatically come.”

• A developing understanding that enrollment is an

institution-wide responsibility.

• Increasing role of merit- and need-based financial aid in the

enrollment equation.

• Admissions Directors as members of leadership teams.

What Else Do We See?

• Too few schools collecting and analyzing data to guide

decision making.

• Amazingly few written marketing, recruitment, and

enrollment plans.

• A tendency to place people in Admission positions with

little experience.

• Insufficient attention to relationship building.
• Retention as an allusive concern.

What about the Overall Environment?

• Population growth or decline varies widely by region.
• The proportion of non-white students is growing, especially

Hispanics.

• Numbers identifying a Catholic affiliation is dropping

rapidly.

• Economic woes clearly impacting enrollment decisions, but

not in a linear way.

OVERVIEW OF ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT THEORY

What is Enrollment Management?

A process that integrates functions having to do with recruiting, funding, tracking, retaining, and replacing students as they move toward, within, and away from a school. Hallmarks:

• Collaborate across functions
• Involve multiple constituencies
• Harness the power of the latest information technologies
• Assert strong, energetic leadership
• Diverse efforts support a coherent, grand design

Goal #1: Admissions & Marketing

The Checklist:

• Who is responsible for admissions at your school?
• How do you involve faculty, alumni, parents and students in

admissions?

• Do you have an adequate budget and staff to ensure success?
• What impression is given to people who visit your school and website,
• r talk to current/former students and parents?
• Who are your key audiences? How do you communicate with them?

To develop admissions and marketing programs to attract qualified students in sufficient numbers.

Goal #2: Pricing and Financial Aid

The Checklist:

• Are you satisfied that your school is priced properly? Do you sense that

you are over- or under- priced relative to your market?

• Are you worried that cost-related increases will soon make your school

unaffordable for target families?

• Do you have any plans for reducing tuition dependence in the operating

budget?

• Do you have a comprehensive financial aid policy at your school? How

do you establish priorities for deciding who is eligible for limited funds?

To implement pricing and financial aid strategies that will

• ptimize the school’s ability to attract and retain the desired

academic and socioeconomic mix of students.

Goal #3: Student Information Systems & Research

The Checklist:

• How satisfied are you with the systems you are using to manage

student information?

• Do sufficient numbers of individuals know how to use them?
• Can you obtain a prompt and accurate “snapshot” of student inquiries,

applications, and enrollments at all levels at all times of the year?

• Do you regularly collect and analyze feedback from important groups

(admitted families, current parents, faculty, students)?

To create an information-rich environment to inform enrollment-related decisions.

Goal #4: Strategic Planning

The Checklist:

• Has your school prepared long-range (5- to 10-year) academic and fiscal

plans that identify school goals and include enrollment objectives?

• How well known are these plans among the individuals who will be

contributing to their success? To what extent do they have a voice in shaping the plans?

• How realistic are the plans? Do they include well-defined goals and

methods for fulfillment?

To develop a capability to anticipate immediate and long- term student interest and methods for improving the school’s ability to provide for these interests.

Goal #5: Collaborative Organization

The Checklist:

• Are you satisfied with the coordination among marketing, recruiting,

pricing/financial aid, teaching, and fundraising at your school?

• In what ways do individuals responsible for these tasks share

information?

• How do they contribute to overall success in a cross-functional ways?

To organize departments/roles in a way that facilitates the coordination of staff, the flow of information, and the integration of enrollment-management decisions.

THE ROLE OF ADMISSION DIRECTOR

Admission Director Responsibilities

• Understand enrollment expectations and develop a plan to

meet them

• Identify appropriate audiences for meeting goals and a plan for

cultivating them

• Develop a set of recruitment messages that positions the school

among the competition

• Construct an internal operations system to

 Field and fulfill information requests  Track students in a database from inquiry to enrollment  Process, complete, and review applications  Schedule and organize interviews  Determine student selection and yield strategy  Organize or “hand off” orientation

Admission Director Responsibilities

• Engage volunteers
• Create and orchestrate special recruitment events
• Monitor results and analyze data
• Report to the community
• Revise plan for the following year

Skills/Disposition to Seek in an Admission Director

• Belief in the institution and its mission
• Curiosity about people
• An engaging personality
• An analytical mindset
• Strong marketing instincts
• Attention to detail and customer service
• Willingness to make judgment calls
• Sensitivity to cultural differences
• Ability to advocate for resources
• Confidently represents strategy to the school community

USING DATA TO INFORM ACTION

Data Resources for Schools

• Institutional Data
• Testing Data
• Census Data
• College Board and ACT
• WICHE (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education)
• National Student Clearinghouse
• NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools)
• Your local state educational agency
• Diocese/archdiocese

23

Public School Enrollment in Selected Feeder Towns/Cities

25

Town 8th Grade 5th Grade 1st Grade % Change 8th to 5th % Change 8th to 1st Notes

Massachusetts

Andover (05501) 490 466 423

• 4.90%
• 13.7% Big Drop from 2nd to 1st

Billerica (01821) 504 505 505

• Increases in other years

Chelmsford (01824) 428 394 427

• 7.94%
• Large 3rd and 4th Grades

Dracut (01826) 364 367 297

• 18.4% Steadily Downward Enrollment

Groton-Dunstable (01471) 243 238 224

• 2.06%
• 7.8%

Littleton (01460) 103 125 154 21.0% 49.5% Appears to be considerable growth Lowell (01852) 1,219 1,097 1,127

• 10.01%
• 7.5%

Tyngsboro (01879) 159 178 195 11.95% 22.6% Steady Growth Westford (01886) 421 411 414

• 2.38%
• 1.7% Small 2nd Grade

New Hampshire

Hudson (03051) 341 340 295

• 0.3%
• 13.5% Large drop from 5th to 1st

Nashua (03060) 1,064 829 928

• 22.1%
• 12.8%

Pelham (03076) 174 163 199

• 6.3%

14.4% Steady growth

Sample School Enrollment Projections New Students, Fall Term 2011

650 285 300 700 47% Applications Enrollees Acceptances Inquiries Deposits 93% 46% 95% 1,500

What If? Pessimistic

600 335 350 800 Applications Enrollees Acceptances Inquiries Deposits 53% 75% 58% 96% 1,500

What If? Optimistic

690 305 325 750 Applications Enrollees Acceptances Inquiries Deposits 50% 92% 47% 94% 1,500

What If? Realistic 2011

Market Research: Ratings Among Faculty & Staff

Percent Positive Rating* Program is Sufficiently Broad to Meet Student Needs

66.7%

Effective Communication of Important Information

66.6%

Sufficient Materials and Equipment to Meet Student Needs

63.0%

The School Enrolls Appropriate Students

62.9%

My Department Focuses on Program Continuity and Level Transition

61.1%

I Am Well Supported in the Use of Technology

55.5%

Faculty Given Opportunity to Participate in School Decision-Making

50.0%

Professional Time is Used to Discuss Issues of Teaching & Learning

44.5%

Admissions Communicates with Faculty about Admitted Student Strengths and Needs

27.8%

Adequate Time and Resources to Plan with Other Faculty about Individual Student Needs

27.8%

*Sum of participants answering “Strongly Agree” and “Agree.” Threshold criteria :< 70% of respondents answered “Strongly Agree” and “Agree” to the survey item.

Market Research: Alumni: Importance of Dimensions of High School Experience by School Quality

Importance

Scale: 1 = Not Important to 5 = Very Important

Quality

Scale: 1 = Very Weak to 5 = Very Strong

• 1. Academic reputation
• 2. College preparedness
• 3. Intellectual challenge
• 4. Small class size
• 5. Location convenient to home
• 6. Personal attention and guidance
• 7. Quality of faculty
• 8. Athletic programs and opportunities
• 9. Supportive environment for girls
• 10. Co-curricular opportunities
• 11. Spiritual growth
• 12. Community service opportunities
• 13. Variety of course options
• 14. Ethnic diversity of the student body
• 15. Opportunity to take advanced courses

28

Excellent alignment between alumni priorities and perceptions of school’s strengths

Creating a Feedback Loop

• Keep a close ear on what parents are saying – survey them

regularly, conduct periodic focus groups. They are your eyes and ears in the community.

• Cultivate “influencers” by seeking their advice.
• Build systematic surveys of admitted students into the

communication flow.

• What data is regularly shared by the XBSS by the Network

for school comparison purposes?

CREATING A RECRUITMENT AND ENROLLMENT PLAN

A Three-Year Enrollment Plan with a One-Year Action Plan

The first step in the development of a three-year marketing and recruitment plan is the establishment of clearly defined enrollment goals:

• What is the enrollment capacity of the school?
• What are the enrollment goals for freshmen and transfer

students?

• What assumptions can be made about retention?

Key Elements of the Plan

• Recruitment Strategy – Identify audiences and outline

specific activities intended to cultivate them and meet enrollment goals.

• Define audiences of interest (parents, students, influential

members of the community). Whom are we trying to attract? With whom must we communicate?

• What are our messages?
• What are our vehicles for delivering the message?
• Recognize importance of word-of-mouth

 Internal audiences are critical to success of recruitment efforts.  Continually monitor internal indicators of satisfaction/dissatisfaction.

Key Elements of the Plan

• Specific strategies:
• Building relationships with gate keepers:

 Teachers, principals, pastors, community agency staff, community organizers

• School visits and fairs:

 Designate primary, secondary, and tertiary priorities for visits

• Special events:

 Open Houses  Cultivation events for gatekeepers  Visibility at community celebrations

• Direct mail/advertising:

 Discuss cost/benefit

Key Elements of the Plan

• Developing Key Messages: What language and images best

convey and differentiate Xaverian Brothers Sponsored Schools?

• Totally dedicated teachers
• A safe and caring community
• A disciplined, respectful environment
• Beyond information to formation
• It’s a hard school, but it’s worth it
• Preparation for success in college and beyond
• Xaverian charisms: Humilty, Compassion, Sympathy, Trust, Zeal

Key Elements of the Plan

• Print and Electronic Recruitment Material – Web

presence, application forms, and printed admissions information all send important messages about the school and must help to position it in the eyes of students and parents.

• Calendar – Recruitment activities should be plotted on

a calendar, so that the enrollment team can control the timeliness of program execution and the frequency and mix of contacts.

• Budgets – Calculate the estimated expense of each

recruitment program within a given budget. If funds are inadequate, prioritize activities and/or lobby for additional funding. Support requests for increased financial assistance with data, and as part of a plan with quantifiable outcomes.

Key Elements of the Plan

• Evaluation – Assess the cost effectiveness of each

recruitment program.

• Summarize efforts
• Link results to revenue generation
• Determine which programs to retain and which can be

discontinued to free up funds for new ventures.

• Revised Plan – Recommendations from the evaluation

process should be incorporated into the next year’s marketing and recruitment plan.

QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION

CONTACT MAGUIRE ASSOCIATES www.maguireassoc.com Patricia Casey Senior Vice President 978-371-1775 x228