Achieving the Impossible: Parents Who are Very Satisfied with Value/Tuition

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

Getting day school parents to indicate they think a school offers strong value relative to tuition is a REALLY tough job. Based on an analysis of parent satisfaction survey responses on this issue, the schools with the highest satisfaction focus on the following issues which statistically correlate with strong perceived value relative to tuition.

Strongest Predictors of Value Satisfaction (and their correlation percentages)

1. Curriculum Innovation (r = 0.585) The factor with the strongest correlation with high perceived value satisfaction is parents’ perception of how innovative a school’s curricula are. This suggests that parents who feel they're getting cutting-edge education view the tuition as more worthwhile.

2. Academic Excellence in General Studies (r = 0.577) Strong secular academics shows nearly as high correlation with value perception, indicating parents strongly connect academic quality with tuition value.

3. Enrichment Programs for Advanced Students (r = 0.545) The availability of programs that challenge high-achieving students significantly impacts value perception.

4. Faculty Quality (r = 0.502) How parents rate the school's ability to hire and support quality teachers strongly predicts value satisfaction.

5. Individualized Learning Approaches (r = 0.502) Parents who feel the school adapts educational methods to individual student needs are much more likely to rate the tuition value highly.

Note: In social sciences and education, correlations of 0.5+ are often considered practically important

Summary and Next Steps

If a school wants to strengthen parents’ perceptions that it offers strong value for tuition, it should conduct regular research that probes how satisfied parents are with its performance on the abovementioned factors, and, if necessary, work to strengthen performance and its communication of that performance.

If your school would like to enhance parents’ perceptions of its value for tuition and explore Benchmarking for Good research grants to that end, please contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org

#Day schools   #tuition   #parent satisfaction   #education    #perceived value