Case study in Catholic school leadership strategy: The role of elementary school principals in recruiting students

Over the last several decades, Catholic elementary schools in the United States have suffered declining enrollments, Catholic market share, and total market share while non-Catholic private elementary school enrollments and homeschooled enrollments have both significantly increased. In the two geographic regions where Catholic schools have shown some recent reversal in enrollment declines, aggressive marketing of Catholic schools has been identified as a significant reason.; The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership role of Catholic elementary school principals in recruiting students. Four research areas were addressed; what strategies and tactics are employed to recruit and retain students, how do these strategies and tactics align with overall organizational goals and vision, what is the personal involvement of the principal in student recruitment and retention activities, and what are the results of the efforts. Eight of the nine elementary school principals in the Diocese of Victoria in Texas were interviewed during the course of the study.; Results of the study indicate the leadership role of the principals was first and foremost defined by a general lack of priority. The low priority given to student recruiting was reinforced by the belief by most principals that the primary responsibility for student recruitment belongs to someone else. In addition, six of the eight principals interviewed reported that student recruitment was not discussed when they were hired. The environment may change as the diocese implements its strategic vision for Catholic schools over the next few years.; An assortment of strategies and tactics are being utilized to recruit students. An analysis of the strategies and tactics reveal the effort is not well focused on the two components of the enrollment demand curve that are controllable at the local school level, tuition and preferences. In addition, the efforts are largely passive efforts that do not actively seek to create enrollment demand. The efficacy of the individual recruitment efforts is not known, almost guaranteeing a waste of precious resources.; Overall, the recruitment efforts have not been very successful. Five of the eight schools in this study had essentially flat or decreasing enrollments.