How a Good Old-Fashioned Pro/Con List Can Help You in the School Search Process

November is the month to start combing through school websites, rankings, and even the parent forums on Niche.com, NextDoor.com, Facebook.com, GreatSchools.org, and others to understand the why behind the why. Using the lenses below, we’ll help you formulate a pro/con list that will help families navigate the private school landscape and disentangle fact from fiction.

Create Your Lenses

What to Look For:

• On school websites, take time to read the “About Us” tab. Read the introduction letter from the current head of school. What does he/she highlight? How do these items connect back to your value system you’ve identified yesterday?

• Read the Mission Statement. Every school has one. With that lens in place, now pursue the school website, looking for direct links of academic, extracurricular, and student life activities that should relate back to the mission statement.

• Find the Strategic Plan. Is it visible on the website? This resource provides forecasting into a 5, 10 or 15-year plan and direction of the school. How will their objectives impact pedagogy, teacher facilitation, student interaction, overall learning, and administrative leadership? How will the strategic plan sculpt innovation, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity across all grades?

• Dig to uncover Core Values. You’ve identified yours yesterday in Treat #3. Now it’s time to bring back to Venn Diagram to see overlaps between your family’s values and a prospective school’s. Where is the common ground? Where do your non-negotiables end up?

• What is the school’s emphasis? Sure, every school is striving to be “whole-child focused” and implement a “holistic” education, but each school leans towards an individualized emphasis. Is it athletics? College planning? Fine arts? Incredibly innovative science labs? Global exchange programs? Leadership development? Hone in on each school’s emphasis and then look for overlaps within your values.

How to Use the Lenses

• First, identify your non-negotiables? As you picture your family’s new school home, what are some non-negotiables? Do you want a strong college counseling program? Are you seeking sports? Is service learning important to you? What about study abroad? Test scores and college acceptances/placements? By identifying what’s important to you, you’re able to streamline the content in a way that’s relevant for your family.

• Next, create a pro/con list, using just 5 lenses that are important to your family (we suggest Academic, Geographical Location, Extracurriculars, Sports, and Community). Take a look at the suggestion below:

Note that this hypothetical school pulls information and anecdotal evidence from 5 predetermined categories (Academic, Geographical Location, Extracurriculars, Sports, and Community). These groups are historically 5 of the most popular categories listed by clients. In this case, we've listed some evidence in each category (hypothetically drawn from school visits, open houses, campus tours, website research, conversations with admissions and faculty), and made appropriate notes. We encourage each client to do the same.

Again, these final two categories are simply hypothetical, but they do draw from common conversations we have with clients when it comes to “narrowing down” what’s important to their unique family needs.

Using the T-Chart of Pros and Cons template above, we encourage each family to take stock of their chosen elements when it comes to identifying their next school home. We recommend that each family comes together and identifies they 5 non-negotiables. Next, have each family member fill out a blank Pros and Cons list with anecdotal evidence that impacts them. Come together and share responses, comparing each member’s feedback within the chosen categories.

Leave us a comment or send us a DM on social media to let us know how it turns out!