The FACE of Catholic Education

     When some experts speak of "enrollment" or "admissions," it's oftentimes lumped together with "retention," since retained students + newly enrolled students = total enrollment.  Being one to "buck the system," I would suggest that the process of retention is distinct from enrollment.  Enrollment is the process of changing a mindset of a parent from that of an external constituent to that of an internal constituent.  The process moves the parent from hearing about the school, visiting it, attending activites and events, and discerning the best educational option for their child to becoming an active participant in the school community, knowing that they are now partnering with the institution they've chosen to form their child.

     Enrollment presents the challenge of constant and meaningful communcations with the parent in the manner the parent is most comfortable - email, letters, phone calls, etc.  Retention, however, employs an entirely different strategy - one that we have to be willing to FACE.

     FACE is the acronym created by the four areas of importance in retention - faith, academics, community and experience.  While these can also be considered to be important in the enrollment process, the parent is only getting glimpses of these aspects during that time.  It's seeing the package as a whole that will help a parent to judge the value of the experience in relation to the hardship the tuition places on the family.

     A quick glance at these four areas:

• Faith - "Catholic Identity" is paramount.  While it's important that students know the basic tenets of our Catholic faith, the ritual of the Mass, and all that follows through Christology, Sacramentality and Spirituality, one cannot forget that actions speak louder than words.  A commitment to service by living out Gospel values in a spirit of social justice allows the word to become flesh right here, right now.
• Academics - A high-quality, rigorous and relevant curriculum in a Catholic school is considered a "given" by most, if not all, parents.  To offer anything less is an insult.  Schools must remember that children will achieve to the level they are held accountable to.  In other words, just because a child is in third grade doesn't mean they must do third grade work.  Children take pride in accomplishing more difficult tasks, and seeing their success, are internally motivated to continue to achieve.
• Community - Do children feel that they are an integral part of the school - that it would be something "less" if they weren't there?  Imbuing a sense of self-worth in children isn't just to make them feel good about themselves; it's to make them realize they are important to the community.  This is ESPECIALLY important with today's millennial generation.  It's almost as if they are innate community builders, wanting to gather and "hang" with their friends.  They really don't care what they're doing with their friends - just so long as they're with their friends.  Consider yourself blessed if your children consider their family as their friends.  Indeed, they LONG to share meals around the table as a family...and if they can't do it with their family, you had better believe they'll do it with their friends.  Even when they're "by themselves" on the computer, they're connected with the communities they've created through socialization technologies like myspace, facebook and IMing via AOL.  If those last few terms are foreign to you, not only are you missing the boat, you're not even at the dock yet.
• Experience - Perhaps most important, it's all about the "experience."  What kind of experience are your children having in the classroom?  Are they engaged learners, interacting with one another to accomplish small group projects, or does the teacher make them sit in neat rows, keeping their eyes on their own papers, lecturing incessantly day after day?  Here's the litmus test - are the children generally enthused about coming to and being a part of the school, or do they sit at their desks, elbow on the desktop, chin and cheek resting on their hand, staring up at the ceiling, or looking for something to "DO" rather than being forced to sit and listen for 40 minutes at a clip?  Not only the children, but the parents - what is their "experience" of your school?  Do they feel they are part of the educational process, that they are partners with the teacher and the school...or are they viewed as "helicopter" parents, always hovering over their children, and, in the teacher's mind, hindering their children's education.  If a teacher says, "I wish these parents would just leave me alone," that's an indication to watch the retention numbers of the children that matriculate to the next grade from that class.  If that's the experience that parents and children are having, next year's tuition bill arriving in the mail is usually the stepping stone to withdrawal.

© Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2007

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