S.W.O.

T for Independent Schools -

2013

Patrick F. Bassett
bassett@nais.org
Independent School Strengths
Strongly-branded as the best & most successful
college-prep schools: highest SAT-scores;
disproportionately represented in the most selective
colleges and universities (and in the honors programs of large
universities: Hope Scholars in GA, Jefferson Scholars at UVA, Morehead
Scholars at UNC, etc.)
Best college matriculation and college graduation
rates
More diversity of every kind than other school
systems
Safe and achievement-oriented “intentional cultures”
Good kids whose talents & strengths we find &
nurture
Independence in admissions, hiring, programming
Constituent loyalty – demonstrated in the recession
Independent schools leading innovation
What else?
Independent School Weaknesses
Persistent public perception as elite and inaccessible in
every way – especially financially and socially
Underinvested in marketing, understaffed in
advancement, under-represented in social media
Slow to change & history of resistance to
experimentation
Boards inexperienced in high level governance, leading
to misdirected micromanaging of daily operations
Administrators expected to manage more than lead
Ineffective or immature processes for recruiting,
training, and maximizing value of trustees and for
diversifying the board
Unsustainable growth in financial aid and too often too
little strategic analysis of target and outcomes of it.
Helicopter parents & Tiger Moms making life difficult
Difficulty with “the difficult conversations.”
What else?
Independent School
Opportunities
Converting the home schooled to independent
schools
Maximizing return on physical capital (plant)
Redefining a “new normal” in terms of drivers for
financial sustainability: workload; student:staff ratios
Overseas Partnerships/ Sister Schools & Satellite
Schools
Online School Consortia (Online School for Girls & Global Online
Academy)
Public Partnerships (NNSP)
Staffing up & sticky messaging for advancement
What else?
Independent School Threats
Declining percentage of families who can afford ever-
increasing tuitions
“Free and good,” well-marketed magnet & charter
schools
Less expensive “for profit” private schools
Disruptive innovation of online schools
Disruptive innovation of “competency-based”
assessment
Dilution of “independent” brand
Desperate and broke local governments eyeing
currently untaxed non-profit assets and seeking Pilots
and Silots
Weak and weakening pool of prospective teachers
Growing sense of “entitlement” among all
constituents
Risk Management: More risks, longer tail, costly
judgments.
What else?
The End(game)

Keep in Mind:
 Weaknesses and threats can and do
paralyze organizations…but
 Every weakness can be converted into
strength, and every threat can be
transformed into an opportunity.

See Related Slides in Appendix

Are your
images and
mottoes
archaic,
suggestive of a
moat around
the castle?

Return
Pockets of Innovation Spreading: STEM
Cosmopolitanism: Cross Cultural Competency

Return
 3 R’s of talent
management:
• Recruitment
• Reward
• Retention

Return
Marketing Hyde
Schools
Portland, ME
Elevator to Baggage
Claim
 Play

See clips at…

0:00 – 6:06

Sir Ken Robinson

Return
Risk Management Just Got Riskier

Return
Breaking News

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Helicopter Parents
Helicopter Parent Quiz
Helicopter

Parent Quiz
Return
Return
Return
Return
Return
Return
Return
 Three Levels of Board Governance
Source: Bill Ryan, AISNE Governance Workshop, Oct 23. 2007

Analogies revealing some level of dysfunction:

“Our board is to our school as…

• Loose steering wheel is to auto

• Fingernail is to blackboard
• Hamster is to wheel
 Three Levels of Board Governance
(Adapted from Board Member, May 2004, Chait et al.)
Board as Control Board as Direction Board as Meaning
Mechanism Setter Maker
Dam : River Compass : Navigation Inspiration : Poet
Curbstone: Road Headlights : Auto Values : Choices
Border Collie : Herd Guidance System : Designer : Work of Art
Satellite
Traffic Tower: Pilot Spirit : Higher Purpose
Periscope : Submarine
Governor: Engine Lighthouse: Ship
Flight Planner : Pilot
Landlord: Tenant
Rudder : Ship
Anchor: Ship
Return
Fiduciary Oversight: Strategic Foresight: Generative, Visionary
“Doing things right” “Doing the right things” Insight: “Leave a legacy”
Move from micromanagement is macroengagement.” Chait on level of involvement.
Employ the 3 lens rubric to problem-solving: Rising benefit costs? Adding Chinese?
Rightsizing?
 1. Difficult Conversations:
TitleHow to Discuss What
Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen

You’re You’re a jerk.

How’s the I hate you.
holding project
me up. coming?
Fine,
thanks.

Levels: Stated vs. Implied. Business at hand vs. Threats to my image.

 Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What
Title
Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen

The Spouse/Partner Version

She doesn’t
get what my You think you’re only
work busy one?
. it wait?
Can
demands.. You don’t love me.
I’m busy
Fine.

Return

Puzzle: Mishandled conversations create the very outcomes we dread.

Return
NAIS Strategic Planning: Breakout Groups (partnerships;
school of future; sustainability, etc.)

Return

Why doesn’t anyone want to sit at the innovation table?

 What Some Parents (5%) Need that
Schools CAN’T Provide cf. Time, 2/21/05 “Parents
Behaving Badly”; Wendy Mogel’s The Blessings of a Skinned Knee;
Michael Thompson’s For the Sake of the Children: An NAIS Guide to
Successful Family-School Relationships.

2005 MetLife Survey of The American

Teacher: Public school teachers report very
satisfied in working with students = 68%; in
working with parents = 25%

NAIS Parents Segmentation: 1. Parents Who

Push; 2. Success-driven Parents; 3. Parents
Whose Kids Are “Special”; 4. Character–driven
Parents; 5. Public School Proponents

Return
Safe Schools =
A “counter-
cultural”
oasis from the
corruptive and
base
popular media

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 College %Public %Private
Amherst 58 41 Northwestern 78 22 The Path to Highly
Bowdoin 51 49 Pomona 64 35 Selective Colleges
Brown 58 39 Princeton 61 39 Source: WSJ, Oct. 2006 &
CAPE Outlook, Nov. 2006
Columbia 57 43 Stanford 67 33
Note: Private schools in
Cornell 69 23 Swarthmore 63 29
general educate 10% of
students; independent schools,
Dartmouth 66 34 UC-Berkeley 87 13
1%.
Duke 68 32 Univ of CHI 64 29
Need blind college
Georgetown 49 51 Univ of PA 52 48 admissions favors…whom?

Middlebury 53 47 Yale 54 46

MIT 69 21 Avg = 35%

from private
schools Return
 Return

Note: Data worse when consider all 18 – 24 year olds: Less than 40% of 18 year olds get to college; under
20% graduate within six years; only 28% of US jobs require a college degree ( 2012—US Bureau of Labor)
“St. Louis Magnet Schools
offer an EXCITING,
TUITION FREE alternative
for students of all ages
and abilities.”
 Run Clip

5 Cs in the Best Public Schools Return