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This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.

Welcoming new students is one of the most important components of marketing your school. First impressions shape not only student satisfaction but also retention, parent advocacy, and long-term enrollment growth. Financial costs and school comparisons remain key considerations for families, but increasingly, the quality of the transition experience plays a decisive role.

According to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, private school families are placing greater emphasis on communication, personalization, and student support than in previous years. Schools that create a structured and engaging welcome process are better positioned to build trust early and strengthen their reputation.

Things You Should Consider and Compare

Depending on where families live, local schooling options can compare to private schools in several ways. Nearby schools may offer strong academics and extracurricular opportunities. However, the onboarding and community experience often differentiates private schools.

If you are evaluating how your school presents itself to new families, compare these important considerations:

• Attention to students - smaller class sizes help teachers engage every student in the classroom.
• Quality of faculty - many private school teachers hold advanced degrees in their subject areas.
• Quality of resources - facilities, libraries, arts programs, and athletics are often significant differentiators.
• Challenging academics - students are encouraged to question and engage deeply with material.
• Broad and diverse offerings - AP courses, specialized programs, and extracurriculars remain central.
• College counseling - strong advising programs continue to be a major value point.

For

Will your child be going to high school in a few years? Are you looking at the academic options available in your local public and private schools? If so, then I recommend that you take this IB quiz. It will help you decide the best college prep approach for your child.

In education, one size does not fit all because children learn differently. Some children do well in a school offering a curriculum centered around Advanced Placement courses and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) preparation. Others thrive in the non-traditional educational experience that progressive schools provide. Finally, some children find that the substantial academic experience that the International Baccalaureate program offers is the right option for them. Your answers to the following questions will help you make the right decisions about your child's academic future and preparation for college.

Why should I consider a school that offers the International Baccalaureate® Diploma Programme?

For several reasons, you should consider sending your child to a school that offers the International Baccalaureate® Programme, or IB as it is affectionately called. First of all, you have decided that you want your child to learn how to do serious academic work in high school so that she is well-prepared for the rigors of tertiary-level academic work. Secondly, you are uncomfortable with her only learning how to do well on tests. Thirdly, you want her to develop superior writing and research skills.

Where is the IB Diploma Programme offered?

Most American public and private

Myths About ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

What are private schools like anyway?

• Even if you're starting your private school research, there's a good chance you already have an impression of private schools.
• Perhaps you have read or . Or maybe you saw or . These stories, while entertaining, offer a picture of private schools that is quite different from what you will find today.
• Just as universities and colleges in the United States have evolved in the past several decades, private schools have also evolved.
• Unfortunately, while the perception of private schools is changing, there are still some lingering myths.

Myth 1: You must be very wealthy to go to a private school.

Approximately a third of all private school students receive financial aid.

• Financial aid grants can represent a significant portion of tuition, depending on the school and your family's situation.
• Students now increasingly come from public schools and a wider range of family income levels.
• In general, boarding schools do their best to make their programs accessible to your family through financial aid grants, loan programs, and .

In the past ten years, the emergence of K-12 private school loans has also made boarding school education more accessible.

• Today's families that send

We parents want to keep our children safe from anything and everything. That's always our biggest worry. When I was raising our children, keeping my daughters safe meant showing them how to cross the street and how not to speak to strangers. But, fast forward to the 21st century, and keeping children safe comes with a whole set of digital challenges, besides the analog challenges of crossing streets safely. Smart TVs, tablets, computers, and smartphones can consume vast amounts of a young person's time when we allow that to happen. However, what concerns me most is the quality of the material available on all those digital devices. We don't want our children watching inappropriate content or playing violent games on their smart devices, do we? That's the rationale behind controlling our children's screen times. So, here are a couple of tips on making that happen.

Create healthy screen habits.

Children are curious. Insatiably so. They want answers. They want to explore. And they want to have fun doing it. Create healthy screen habits by configuring your child's smart devices to be tools for learning and exploration. That will open up vast worlds for them to explore. The kid who dreams of building a robot can find tons of information about robotics. The same with the arts, sports, literature, languages - you name it, her smart device will have it. The trick is to configure her smart devices so that she can only access the good stuff, not the