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The school's website also promotes 'the joy of learning' and a collection of videos taken by teachers and students helps visitors imagine this experience (www.southfield-school. org). While the school's target enrollment is 40 students at each grade level, the elementary levels (preK-2, preK-3, preK-4), kindergarten, and sixth grade are the only ones.

Literature

Review

The Values Associated with Parent Decision-Making about

When making school choice decisions, parents may be more concerned with perception and identity than their child's interests (Cucchiara & Horvat, 2014; Olsen Beal & Hendry, 2012). Parents' decision-making about choosing a school is broad and complex, often involving consideration of the child's interests, the family's values or goals for the child, and the family's social role in the school and community.

Does Economic Value Play a Role in Independent School

Independent schools are just one of the many private school options available in the United States and occupy a relatively small space in the market. When there is no shortage, it is difficult to sell the school as a premium product in the school market.

Does Availability of Schools Influence Decisions?

Epstein (2010) states, "the way schools care for children is reflected in the way the school cares for children's families" (p. 7) which may be an area where independent schools have an advantage over many other types of schools. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has played a role in increasing enrollment at some independent schools that offer in-person tutoring.

Do Social Factors Influence Decisions?

The CATO Institute recently reported that 12 independent schools have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic (2021). Harris and Robinson (2016) suggest that “the benefits associated with parental involvement appear strongest for younger children (grades 1 through 5)” (p. 187) and offer another look at how parents help children to to flourish at school.

Looking at Louisiana

Conceptual

Framework

Research

Questions

1 Why do parents

Why do parents choose to exit or leave this

Data

Collection

Why do parents choose this school?

For example, the survey asked parents to rank their reasons for choosing Southfield School, and the focus group was asked to provide a more open-ended answer to the same question: "why did you choose Southfield School?" The data collection plan in Table 2 provides further details about our data collection methods around this question. In addition to the above methods, we have mapped the school from other elementary and middle schools in the area (Appendix G) using Google Maps to better understand the natural environment and the neighboring community and to determine exactly how many schools are within two miles and a radius of five kilometers from the school. We asked the school to select parents who represent the school's population in relation to different grade levels.

Surveys were also sent electronically to parents who had recently left school to collect data explaining why parents leave a school they entered mid-program (Appendix D). Mid-program is defined as leaving school at any time from enrollment to the culmination of the program in eighth grade. We wanted to investigate whether the parents chose and left the school for similar reasons, or whether they chose the school for one reason and left the school for another.

The data collection plan in Table 3 provides additional details about our methods for data collection around this question.

Table 2: Data Collection Plan: Why do parents choose this school?

Why do parents choose to exit or leave this school?

The past parent survey matched the current parent survey, which asks parents to rank the same nine factors to answer the question: Why did you leave Southfield School? In both surveys, we used the same nine factors to assess the responses of the two groups for significant differences in rankings. Previous parents were also given the opportunity to add additional information on the open-ended response.

Collecting information on new schools allowed us to analyze the number of attrition group families who attended another local school versus those who moved out of town. The responses also measured previous parents' satisfaction with the new school compared to Southfield. Of the 22 previous parent responses, 19 parents added open-ended response comments regarding their survey placements.

Of the 22 previous parent responses, 20 parents chose to answer the final question on the survey which asked them to compare their current school with South Field.

What role does the school, as a system, play in retention or attrition?

Data

Analysis

The third column highlights our original open coding results and shows some areas where themes emerged from the research.

Table 6 illustrates a sample of our co- co-debook and highlights our decision making around coding our focus group data

Research Question #1: Why do parents choose Southfield School?

Findings

Parents choose Southfield primarily for academic reasons

Finding #1

Fifty percent of 135 current parents said academics were the top reason for staying at Southfield, while only 12% of former parents felt academics were the top reason for leaving Southfield. My child has not struggled academically as some of the public school kids I know. State data do not provide evidence of the academic strength of non-public schools, but parents relied on accreditation from the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) as an indicator of Southfield's academic success in our findings.

As this parent talks about the "logo," she's referring to a well-known shorthand for the mission statement. The repetition of the mission statement in full or condensed form seems to indicate its importance to many parents. We had two more schools to tour later in the day, but because of the face of the school, we were totally sold.

We chose Southfield because of the small class sizes, the philosophy, the extra academic help, and the rigorous curriculum.

Table 8: Differences between parents who stay and go

Strong faculty increases student retention

Finding #2

Parents want to belong in the community

Finding #3

Shreveport is a small, close-knit community, and many people have gone to college and then returned to the community. And if they went to Southfield, they want their kids to go to Southfield and Southfield still continues some of the same things they did as students. Although the focus group data show that parents were very interested in the community and their relationships with other families and the relationships between staff and students at the school, the survey data shows 'relationships'.

Possibly, parents felt that many factors contributed to their decisions, and survey data were a reflection of the split interests parents feel when making school choice decisions. Regardless of these possible limitations, it was clear in our research that community belonging was an important theme in our focus group and open survey data. In both focus group discussions and open-ended survey responses, parents shared that they valued the school being a non-religious community.

Our research also found evidence that NAICS (2017) hired a school to help develop a well-rounded person who could make an impact in the world.

Southfield does not operate like other places, they do make you feel

Accepting others and developing an understanding of different cultures and people was found in our research. Looking at the forces that block or promote change (Figure 4), parents report in our research that they chose Southfield, or were drawn to Southfield, because of their preference for a non-denominational school and a desire for their child to be safe. Evidence of these pull factors can be found in focus group discussions as well as open-ended survey responses.

Southfield doesn't work like other places, they make you feel like family. It's really a family, it's really a community, and once you're locked up it's very hard to leave.” Hearing from former parents who have left, partly in response to feelings of not belonging in the community, is important information for the school to consider as it strives to retain current families and welcome new families. Our research helped identify three additional findings to answer the question: why do parents leave Southfield School.

Southfield doesn't work like other places, they make you feel like you're in other places, they make you feel like family. It's really a family, it's really a community, and once you close in, it's really hard to leave.

Research Question #2: Why do parents choose to exit or leave Southfield School?

Finances, and a competitive free option, drive student attrition at Southfield

Finding #4

One former parent said, “We went to a magnet school for kindergarten and our income was affected by COVID” (former parent survey, open-ended). Other former parents whose children now attend a magnet school in the Shreveport area said finances were the only reason for leaving. We had the opportunity to move our children to a consistently ranked public magnet school.

One current parent said: “We have a child starting next year and we are testing him for magnets because of the cost. Current parent survey, open-ended) as one parent in a focus group shared, “we're making a decision this year, I mean. Current parents looking at magnet schools in the area demonstrate a challenge for the school to show why Southfield is better than cheap competitors.

One scenario in which these kinds of value judgments might be made for former parents is if the child did not feel a strong desire to stay at Southfield, the tuition expense would no longer seem worthwhile—especially when combined with a strong free magnet school. near.

Table 9: Financial factor corrre- corrre-lated with other survey factors for past parent group

Family relocation affects Southfield’s student attrition rate

Finding #5

Leadership changes have increased Southfield’s student attrition

Finding #6

15 students relocated

32 students relocated27 students relocated

How to Solve

Recommendations

Recommendation #1: Revenue Quality

Investigate the layout of the school/classes to better maximize demand in the p2-SK sections (overbooking) in anticipation of reductions in grades 1 and 2. Investigate the cost of employing additional preschool staff to accommodate overbooking in the youngest grades. If the school recognizes that families will leave, it must make a plan to fill those places.

This role must keep the pulse of the entire community through data management and be ready to make data-driven decisions. While we understand that much of this was beyond the school's control, turbulence nonetheless ensued. Some of the school's greatest assets are also documented in our findings, including the community, strong faculty and high-quality academics, as well as the school's traditions and longevity over the past many decades.

In the early grades, consider access policies that favor a target audience rather than a first-come, first-served policy.

Recommendation #2: Customer Service

Rolling out the red carpet not only in the admissions process, but throughout the year as part of a retention strategy. While offering a variable tuition rate makes sense and demonstrates Southfield's commitment to providing opportunities for many families, in the earliest grades, where demand is greatest, you may consider fewer financial incentives, grants, and scholarship funds. reserving these funds for incentives in older, less busy classrooms.