The Sustainability of Small Independent Schools

Abstract

Sustainability is a major topic for independent schools and has been for at least the past decade, as discussions emerged after the 2008 financial crisis with tuitions continuing to rise. In 2022, many school leaders find themselves in a challenging financial situation and having similar discussions surrounding sustainability. It appears that in particular, small independent schools may face unique challenges that larger schools do not encounter, or when they do face the same challenges, the impact is greater due to the school’s size. The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) seeks information about the current state of small schools, with the goal of providing tailored resources to support small schools. This capstone study examines the landscape of small NAIS-member schools today, as well as how small independent school leaders help their schools to become or remain sustainable in a competitive educational marketplace. Research Questions 1. What is the landscape of small schools in terms of types of schools, enrollment trends, and financial factors? 2. What are small schools’ most pressing challenges surrounding sustainability? 3. What approaches, activities, and strategies have worked for small schools to support sustainability? We define sustainability as having access to the resources, financial and otherwise, necessary to achieve the organization’s mission in both the short and long term. To answer these questions, we used a mixed methods approach with both qualitative and quantitative data collection. We used data from the NAIS Data and Analysis for School Leadership (DASL) database to assess the small independent school landscape from the years 2007 to 2022. All data is self-reported by school leaders, and going back fifteen years added a level of complication to our analysis, as more schools reported more of the data over time. We then surveyed current heads of small schools to assess their perceptions of sustainability, what challenges they face, and what strategies they use to combat these challenges. Finally, we interviewed five school heads from schools with different characteristics, to learn more about how these challenges might look in the different environments and what approaches leaders have taken that other schools might emulate