Give Your Parents a Grade

Our schools run on grades. We grade our students on their homework, exams and report cards. While we constantly grade our students, have you ever thought about giving your parents a grade?

As a way to be proactive in your re-enrollment effort, you should give your parents a grade. You can simply grade your parents on their likelihood to return for the 2011-12 school year.

The grading system that has worked really well is the FMS system. One of my former supervisors while I was the Director of Enrollment Management at Cornerstone University in Michigan, Dr. Jack Powell, is to be credited with this system. This system worked well for me then and I have seen it work for schools now.

The following grades can be used by you to get a snapshot of your parents and their likelihood to re-enroll:

  • F = Firm: Based on everything you know, the family will return for another year.
  • M=Moderate: There are some concerns about this family returning to your school; they are “on the fence” and could go either way.
  • S=Shaky: It doesn’t look good for this family to return to your school; every indicator leads you to conclude that they won’t be returning next year.

Using this simple model, you should give every family in your school a grade of “F, M or S” based on their likelihood to re-enroll and return for another year. By doing this, you will be able to focus your efforts on retaining those families that you graded “M” in this process.

So go ahead, give your parents a grade now before you break for Christmas. It’s one of the most important strategies that you can implement now.

By taking this simple step, you will know better where to target your retention efforts and you can hit the ground running re-enrolling your families in the New Year.

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