2011-12 Day School Enrollment Data Demonstrate Stability and Commitment
Source: AVI CHAI
Just-released research by Dr. Marvin Schick provides 2011-12 enrollment data for all schools outside the yeshiva world and Chassidic sectors. While the data provide but a snapshot of the day school enrollment situation, they indicate that day school enrollment, aside from that of the Solomon Schechter schools, has remained fairly stable, despite the continued stresses of the economy.
This year’s essentially flat enrollment suggests that on the whole day schools have thus far weathered the economic crisis, notwithstanding the strains on both parents and scholarship budgets.
The enrollment trends differed sharply from movement to movement, however. While enrollment increased 1.8 percent at centrist Orthodox schools and was stable in nondenominational schools, the situation at Modern Orthodox, Conservative and Reform schools was less favorable. Continuing a pattern of the past decade, the Conservative movement’s Schechter schools lost 3.8 percent of their students. Modern Orthodox school enrollment dropped by 0.1 percent, but such schools are still more numerous and enroll more children than Centrist Orthodox ones. Reform day schools, by far the smallest sector of the day school world, saw enrollment drop by 4.8 percent.