The Special Challenges of Small Private Schools and Grants to Overcome Them

By Dr. Harry Bloom, President, Benchmarking for Good

The Need for Intervention

Ahead of its Fall 2023 Grantmaking Cycle, Benchmarking for Good, Inc. analyzed the state of small private schools. What we discovered has shaped our upcoming round of grants. Specifically, we discovered that in 2022/23, smaller private schools continued its long term trend of manifesting an attrition rate significantly higher than that prevailing in larger private schools.

Pain of High Attrition

This elevated level of attrition is harmful from two key standpoints. Financially, losing such a large percentage of the student body takes a major toll on revenue and drives up cost per student--which is relatively fixed in nature.

Compensation Gaps

In fact, smaller schools generate 12-25% lower net tuition revenue per student than larger schools. And, as a consequence, smaller schools’ faculty compensation trails that of larger private schools’ by 5-14%, driven heavily by lower benefits spending.

While compensation is a negative inducement to work in a smaller private school, one offsetting factor that might promote a desire to work in a smaller private school is a slightly lower student to faculty ratio.

Grants to Study and Develop Corrective Action: Be in Touch

So, what is driving higher attrition in smaller private schools? We are not certain but it might relate to one or more of the following factors. Our intention is to launch a Grantmaking effort involving research and expert consulting targeted at associations of small private schools, beginning in the Fall. We invite interested school associations to visit our website, review our Grant opportunities page, and complete our Contact Us form. A member of the Benchmarking for Good team will be in touch to discuss next steps.

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