How School Leaders Can Earn Enrollment Advocacy from Both Parents and Students

By Dr. Harry Bloom, Founder and President, Benchmarking for Good, Inc.

Jewish day schools thrive when families don’t just enroll—they advocate enrollment to friends and family members. But advocacy isn’t automatic. It’s earned through trust, relevance, and experience. And while parents and students both care deeply, they value different things.

A recent analysis of thousands of survey responses reveals a clear roadmap: if school leaders want both groups to recommend their school, they must understand what drives each—and invest accordingly.

🔍 What Drives Advocacy?

What School Leaders Must Do

1. Elevate the School Climate

The most powerful universal driver of advocacy is a positive, nurturing environment. It influences both student enjoyment and parent trust more than any other factor.

🧮 And here’s the data-driven impact: if families rate this part of school life just one level higher on a typical 5-point satisfaction scale—for example, moving from “Satisfied” to “Very Satisfied”—the likelihood they’ll recommend the school increases by approximately 60%. That’s a massive return on even modest cultural investment.

✅ Action: Focus on warmth, emotional safety, inclusivity, and support across classrooms and leadership interactions.

2. Build Two Dashboards

Parents and students evaluate schools through different lenses. Leaders need separate metrics:

• Parent Dashboard: Communication quality, values formation, family experience, and confidence in student preparation.

• Student Dashboard: Joy, belonging, academic support, and visibility of leadership.

✅ Action: Track both sets of metrics, act on what matters to each audience, and share progress transparently.

3. Make Student Joy Strategic

School enjoyment isn’t fluff—it’s the strongest predictor of student advocacy.

✅ Action: Create student-led councils, run pulse surveys, and recognize peer contributions to foster a joyful, engaged culture.

4. Showcase Readiness for the Next Stage

Parents want to know their children are being set up for success—academically, spiritually, and socially.

✅ Action: Make preparation visible with alumni outcomes, college advising, and intentional values-based programming.

5. Customize Communication

Parents value responsiveness; students value relevance. Messaging must match audience needs.

✅ Action: Use CRM tools, train staff in differentiated communication approaches, and set clear response standards.

🧭 Final Thought: Advocacy Is Built, Not Assumed

The data gives school leaders more than insight—it offers direction. Advocacy grows where experience is supported, values are shared, and leadership is strategic. When schools invest wisely in what matters most to both parents and students, they don’t just inspire satisfaction—they build reputations that last.

How Benchmarking for Good Can Help

Benchmarking for Good’s no cost grants to qualified schools offer insightful research that can provide school leaders with data informed insights that can enable your school to achieve higher levels of advocacy among both parents and students. Achieving this can make your school a destination of choice for parents and students. Contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org to inquire about how your school can apply for a no cost Fall/Winter 2025 research grant

What Makes Students Love School? New Research Reveals Surprising Answers

By Dr. Harry Bloom, Founder and President, Benchmarking for Good, Inc.

This analysis examined survey responses from 1,421 students across multiple Jewish day schools, using Pearson correlation analysis to identify factors most strongly associated with students' reported enjoyment of their school experience. All correlations reported achieved statistical significance at the p ≤ 0.05 level.

When administrators and educators ask themselves how to make students genuinely enjoy coming to school, the answer isn't what many might expect. A comprehensive analysis of survey responses from 1,421 Jewish day school students reveals that the strongest predictors of school enjoyment have less to do with academics and more to do with relationships, environment, and belonging.

The Leadership Factor Takes Center Stage

The single strongest factor correlating with student enjoyment is how well administrators create an environment that helps students learn (correlation coefficient r = 0.530 with student enjoyment). This finding suggests that effective educational leadership—administrators who actively foster supportive learning conditions—accounts for approximately 28% of the variance in how much students enjoy their school experience.

"What we're seeing is that students can sense when leadership is invested in their success," explains a day school administrator. Students who feel their administrators are creating conditions for learning report significantly higher levels of school enjoyment compared to those who don't perceive this administrative support.

Environment Beats Curriculum

The second strongest predictor is students' satisfaction with their school's positive and nurturing environment (r = 0.515), followed closely by their sense of belonging at school (r = 0.509). These environmental and social factors consistently outperformed purely academic measures in predicting student enjoyment.

This pattern challenges traditional assumptions about what drives student satisfaction. While factors like teaching quality and curriculum certainly matter, the research suggests that how students feel at school may be more important than what they learn.

The Belonging Revolution

Perhaps most striking is the prominence of social connection in the findings. Students who feel they belong at their school are dramatically more likely to enjoy the experience. This sense of belonging correlates more strongly with enjoyment than factors like extracurricular activities, academic feedback, or even having trusted adults available.

The research identified several moderate-to-strong predictors of school enjoyment:

• Role models and mentorship (r = 0.465): Students who see staff as excellent role models report higher satisfaction

• Social community strength (r = 0.448): A strong social community among students predicts greater enjoyment

• Classroom engagement (r = 0.444): When lessons are engaging, students enjoy school more

• Teaching style alignment (r = 0.432): Matching teaching approaches to learning needs matters significantly

Academic Quality: Important But Not Primary

Interestingly, while academic factors do correlate with school enjoyment, they don't dominate the list. Classroom engagement ranks sixth overall, and the quality of teacher feedback ranks tenth. This doesn't diminish the importance of academic excellence, but rather suggests that academic quality works best when embedded within a supportive, nurturing environment.

Practical Implications for Schools

The findings point to several actionable strategies for schools seeking to improve student satisfaction:

Invest in administrators and administrative training focused on how to create learning-supportive environments. The data suggests this single factor has the highest potential impact on student enjoyment.

Prioritize culture over curriculum in school improvement efforts. While both matter, the research indicates that environmental factors may offer greater returns on investment in terms of student satisfaction.

Develop belonging initiatives such as mentorship programs, student clubs, and community-building activities. The correlation between belonging and enjoyment is too strong to ignore.

Focus on role modeling by ensuring staff understand their impact as examples for students extends far beyond academic instruction.

Statistical Validation

All correlations reported reached statistical significance (p ≤ 0.05), meaning these relationships are highly unlikely to be due to chance. The strongest factors show correlations above 0.5, which researchers classify as "strong" relationships that explain 25-28% of the variance in student outcomes.

Looking Forward

These findings suggest a fundamental shift in how schools might approach student satisfaction. Rather than focusing primarily on academic programming, the most effective path to student enjoyment appears to run through relationship-building, environmental design, and community creation.

The research offers hope for educators: creating conditions where students love coming to school may be more achievable than previously thought, requiring investment in areas that are largely within schools' direct control—leadership development, culture building, and fostering belonging.

As schools continue to navigate changing educational landscapes, this research provides a data-driven roadmap toward one of education's most important goals: helping students not just learn, but love learning.

Benchmarking for Good Can Help Your School

Through its no cost research grants. Benchmarking for Good can help your school become a place students enjoy being. This will pay off in strong word of mouth advocacy--the best kind of marketing, more enrollment, and happier parents. Contact Dr. Harry Bloom to explore our Fall/Winter 2025 research grants at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org

The Keys to Retaining General Studies Faculty at Jewish Day Schools

By Dr. Harry Bloom, Founder and President, Benchmarking for Good, Inc.

There is little disagreement over the fact that having a stable group of talented and committed teachers can make or break a school’s quality and reputation.Therefore, teacher retention is an extremely high priority for the Heads and Principals of Jewish day schools and day schools in general . There is also hard evidence from Benchmarking for Good research conducted with 1400 Jewish day school parents that the quality of General Studies academics is one of their top school choice criteria. 

How Successful are Jewish Day Schools At Retaining General Studies Teachers? 

The answer is decidely mixed! Career retention rates for General Studies faculty in Jewish day schools range from a low of 34.6% to  a high of 78.0%, while the average number of years General Studies teachers spend at their schools ranges from a low of 3.4 years to a high of 13.6 years.

The graph above shows how 22 Jewish day schools perform on both factors. The vertical access indicates the percentage of General Studies  teachers’ careers they have spent at their current school while the horizontal access indicates their average number of years at their school. 

High performing schools average over 65% career-wide retention of General Sfudies faculty. 

Key Findings: Factors Correlating with High Tenure Among General Studies Teachers

Based on Benchmarking for Good analysis of the career paths and preferences of 600 General Studies teachers, we found 7 statistically significant positive correlations between years spent at the current school and various satisfaction factors. Here are the key results:

🔥 Strongest Correlations (Statistically Significant)

1. Mission Alignment (r=0.126, p≤0.01)

   • Teachers with longer tenure feel more aligned with the school's mission

   • This is the strongest predictor of tenure length

2. School Recommendation (r=0.111, p≤0.01)

   • Veteran teachers are more likely to recommend the school to families

   • Indicates higher organizational commitment

3. School Pride (r=0.108, p≤0.01)

   • Longer tenure correlates with greater pride in being a staff member

   • Suggests emotional investment grows over time

4. Job Satisfaction (r=0.095, p≤0.05)

   • Overall job satisfaction increases with years at the school

5. Work Tools Satisfaction (r=0.086, p≤0.05)

   • Veteran teachers are more satisfied with their tools and resources

6. Colleague Collaboration (r=0.086, p≤0.05)

   • Longer tenure correlates with better collaborative relationships

7. Staff-Student Interactions (r=0.082, p≤0.05)

   • Teachers with more years report better staff-student relationships

Key Implications

For Retention Strategy:

• Mission alignment is the strongest factor - investing in cultural fit and values alignment may improve retention

• Collaborative culture matters - fostering collegial relationships appears to support longer tenure

• Resource investment correlates with tenure - adequate tools and support may encourage staying

For Leadership:

• Veteran teachers (11+ years) represent 25.8% of staff and show highest satisfaction

• The positive correlation suggests that experience with the school environment leads to greater appreciation

• Long-term teachers become better ambassadors and are more likely to recommend the school

  
  

Bottom Line and How to Strengthen Your School's Performance

Teachers who stay longer at the school tend to develop stronger emotional and professional connections, suggesting that retention efforts should focus on cultural alignment, collaborative relationships, and adequate resource provision.

If your school would like to participate in no cost Benchmarking for Good Staff Climate research program that will give it the information it needs to be a destination of choice for General Studies faculty members please complete this brief grant interest form or contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org

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