What Enroll26 Revealed About the Work Ahead
Last week’s Enroll26 conference (formerly known as the EMA Annual Conference) in San Diego was a chance to reconnect with colleagues, present alongside two of my favorite people, Andrew Weller and Christina Dotchin, and spend time thinking about the challenges schools are working through.
On the flight to the conference, I had time to read all of the session descriptions and choose which ones I’d attend. It wasn’t easy. In many time blocks, there was more than one session I wanted to see.
What struck me this year, more than I remember in past years, was the overlap. Different topics kept leading back to similar questions: Who owns the decisions that shape enrollment? What helps a family feel confident choosing a school and staying there? And how do we make meaningful progress with the people and time we have?
And because I love a list, here are three trends I noticed, and why I’m still thinking about them.
1. Schoolwide enrollment responsibility needs to become specific.
“Enrollment is everyone’s job” is a familiar statement in independent schools. I’m pretty sure our Outreach Team started presenting on “Whole School Enrollment” back in 2012 at SSATB…so I’m torn between being glad it’s still resonating and frustrated that it still needs saying. Either way, making that statement useful requires some specificity.
What does enrollment responsibility look like for an academic leader? A business officer? A teacher? What decisions do they make that affect whether a family applies, enrolls, or returns?
This was central to the session Andrew, Christina, and I presented, too. We explored how persistent enrollment challenges can be shaped by policies, processes, programs, and decisions across the school, and how to identify the people who can influence those underlying conditions.
Several other conference presentations explored those connections. Supporting admissions might mean helping at an event. Owning a piece of enrollment could mean addressing a scheduling issue that makes the school difficult for families to access, improving a division transition, or clarifying a policy that repeatedly creates confusion or friction.
Those decisions live across the school. Admissions often sees their effects first.
When the same enrollment challenge keeps returning, I want to know who influences the experience behind it and who has the authority to change it. Bringing those people into the conversation gives a school more options and a better chance of solving the problem. It’s just not happening fast enough.
2. Small classes. Strong community. So what?
Value and affordability surfaced repeatedly in sessions. Families are weighing tuition against other priorities, comparing a wider range of options, and asking what their child will gain from the experience.
Schools need a clear answer. Small classes, caring teachers, and a strong community may all be true, but what school can’t claim that? And those are features, not benefits. From my work with schools when we deep dive on this- it’s the hardest habit to break. It’s so easy to rely on a list of features. But if you can’t explain what those features make possible at your school, families will struggle to see you as anything different than the school down the street.
This also requires looking inward. If we promise that every student is known, how consistently do our practices support that? If we emphasize preparation for whatever comes next, where can families see students developing independence, judgment, and confidence?
I keep coming back to the connection between what a school says and what it delivers. Communicating value well requires admissions, marketing, academic leaders, and faculty to understand that connection together. The strongest stories come from being specific about what students experience and why it matters.
3. Schools are using AI…but only scratching the surface
AI was everywhere at Enroll26. Sessions explored drafting communications, analyzing data, researching competitors, and building AI assistants. There were examples of more strategic applications, too. But my impression was that many schools are still using it primarily to take something they already do and get it done faster.
That’s useful. If AI helps you draft an email, summarize meeting notes, or prepare a report, you’ve gained some time in an already crowded day. We can all use more of that.
But I’m interested in what else it can help schools see…
Schools have information sitting in admission databases, surveys, financial reports, and meeting notes that rarely get examined together. AI can help connect those pieces, surface patterns worth investigating, and explore questions schools haven’t had the time or tools to ask. Used thoughtfully, it can make deeper analysis more accessible to teams with limited time and capacity.
But access to more information brings its own challenge: knowing what to ask, what the answers mean, and what to do next. A tool can surface a pattern. Turning that insight into a useful decision requires context, judgment, and the capacity to act.
That’s where I have found schools needing support. There’s real value in having a strategic partner who knows the school well enough to understand its context, but has enough distance to question familiar assumptions and see connections across the work. Someone who can keep asking, “What does this mean for us, and what should we do next?” I love getting to be that person alongside a school’s leadership team.
As schools explore what AI can do, I hope we make room for that next conversation: what we’re learning, which decisions it should inform, and what it will take to act on it.
Different energy
The energy felt different this year, though I’m still trying to find the words for it. There seemed to be a greater seriousness about the work and more openness to tackling it together with colleagues, peer schools, and outside partners. I also noticed a real desire for coaching: someone to think things through with, challenge assumptions, and help navigate the decisions and responsibilities of leadership.
Alongside that energy, I heard fatigue. Talented, experienced professionals are carrying a lot, and some are at risk of burning out. They want to teach, coach, and model the skills the next generation of leaders will need, but the daily demands of their jobs leave too little time for that work. Schools need to make room for it, both to develop future leaders and to sustain the people leading now.
Many outside partners, myself included, spent years doing this work inside schools and now provide support in areas like financial aid, technology, marketing, coaching, and strategy. I love seeing schools draw on that expertise to add capacity, strengthen their teams, and give leaders room to lead. No one Head, Dean, or Director can be an expert in everything. If we hope to keep talented professionals in their seats, we have to support them.
That openness to partnership left me encouraged. Enroll26 was an energizing and validating way to begin the school year, with a growing recognition that moving our schools forward takes expertise, shared effort, and support for the people doing the work.
