School branding and the strategy of "Only we..."

I attended the PEJE (Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education) conference in Baltimore last week--a fascinating group of schools and people unknown to us prior to this event. Special thanks to Mordechai Rosenstein, a Judaic artist upon whom we bestow the title of "favorite next-booth neighbor in fifteen years of independent school conference exhibits."

As is always the case, I try to attend at least one session at conferences if the exhibit hall schedule allows. The session I attended at PEJE had to do with creating and advancing a school's brand. The session was run by Dan Cohen from Full Court Press Communications who is Board Chair of a school in Oakland, CA. Among the many strategies Dan discussed, one was titled "Only We," with the premise being that schools can brand themselves around those qualities that are unique to them--an example being, "in our area, only we offer an IB program." But how does a school without a clearly quantifiable unique feature take advantage of such an opportunity? Certainly every school is unique, but some qualities and characteristics are difficult to articulate from a branding perspective. If the question is, what can a school do? The answer is, create from scratch a program consistent with the school's mission to make your school stand out from the crowd.

We know one school that built a 21st century energy lab for student-driven research on sustainability. We know a special needs school that sent their entire faculty to Chapel Hill to study with Dr. Mel Levine. A New England boarding school with a number of Asian students created an Asian studies program with visiting Asian faculty and a program to send their own faculty to Korea incrementally over a period of five years.

But what if your school doesn't have the financial resources to undertake an effort such as these? Answer: build upon a program already in place, and set clear goals with a standard of excellence at the top of the list. When you next have an opening in the English Department, why not hire a bona fide writer and begin building a fiction program, with a goal of having students publish nationally five years out. We knew of a school with a rather tired visual art department. When openings occurred, they hired artist/teachers with a goal of curricular overhaul. Within five years their 9 AP Drawing students earned 7 scores of 5 and 2 scores of 4 on the AP Drawing Portfolios. Sculpture soon followed and the school is today widely recognized for excellence in art--with no net increase in program cost. These are only a few examples and the opportunities are likely without limit. Needless to say, the potential for social media to broadcast such programs is virtually without limit as well. These programs require strategic planning and vision, and more than anything, patience...but at a time when fewer families are able to afford an independent school education, identifying and/or creating ways for your school to stand out should be a basic requirement.