Survey of 129 Schools

We took the temperature on admissions processes for next year at the end of April 2020, with 129 schools participating and 58% of respondents being admissions officers, and the rest Heads of School or Principals. We also asked a couple of member school leaders, Nanci Kauffman, Head of School, Castilleja School (CA) and Sue Sadler, Head of School, Bryn Mawr School (MD) to comment; they framed their comments around Tables 2 and 3 that detail responses on priorities of school attributes that need to be highlighted and outcomes that parents want.

In Table 1, we see that there appears to be changing emphases towards the value of standardized admissions tests and teacher recommendations: with the former, only 52% see the admissions tests as having the value they had in the past and this is probably largely attributable to the dramatic swing nationwide and at the college level against the SAT and ACT for inequity. OESIS has advocated that schools go test-optional for the SSAT or ISEE. Teacher recommendations are rising in emphasis and this…