Gowan Group was founded to lead schools. Our mission is to Investigate, Communicate, and Elevate. Although we find ourselves living in rapidly changing times and unprecedented activity with COVID-19, our mission remains strong, and we will continue to be an excellent resource for independent schools. 

To remain at the forefront of our industry, Gowan Group continues to speak with schools every day. We understand there is tremendous uncertainty. We have never witnessed nor responded to a virus like this, and we do not yet have the benefit of hindsight to assist in decision making. Schools are at a loss on how decisions should be made. They are experiencing a temporary loss of immediate community. They are fearful about admissions and how a potential drop in enrollment will affect the budget. They are very scared about what their International population is thinking, and how current travel bans will affect them. They are concerned about how their students and families are faring at home. They wonder about the emotional state of their students who may lose their spring term, graduation, favorite sport season, and their friends. And so much more…

Gowan Group’s research and analysis department is praised as being among the best in the country. We are here to help. We are here to research and collect community data specifically for you. We are here to offer admissions strategies. We are here to help mitigate any enrollment downturn your school may experience. Having the right information from your faculty and students means making decisions with confidence and foresight. 

The following are action steps Gowan Group is taking to help schools across the country.

1.     Tiered survey work to know exactly what the community is thinking about how your school has handled COVID-19 and distance leaning so far. Census data, Pulse surveys, basic decision-making surveys, comprehensive survey and analysis process are all available and customized to fit your unique community needs. 

Our research department is anchored by John H. Pryor, who has an extensive background in education research. In addition to his previous work directing an education research institute at UCLA and the lead researcher on higher education outcomes at Gallup, John has experience working with institutions in emergency situations. At Dartmouth, John led a team of researchers working with the CDC to stop a campus health crisis. You can read the paper published in the Journal of American College Health here.  He also recently worked with a college that had been evacuated due to a hurricane. 

We are developing tools to help gather critical information from your faculty and students on the transition away from face-to-face learning to an online modality. This is not to evaluate how well your faculty are performing. The intent is to gather information to help you anticipate problems and expand upon your successes.  

How are your faculty working with the tools that are available to them? Are there needs that are not being met? What kinds of trainings do they think would be most useful? What are they seeing from their students right now? What do they think is working well, and what needs to be improved?  

How are your students adapting? What technology is working and what is not. Are they struggling with certain pieces of the online conversion? What are they worried about beyond classes? Do they have suggestions to improve the process? How can we best continue to provide leadership and community to them in this new configuration?

It’s important now to find out how your faculty and students feel about the initial stages of moving online and to understand their experiences with an initial assessment tool. Then, as the learning experiences continue and you adapt your approaches, we recommend periodic “pulse” surveys that provide real-time information that you can use to fine tune.

2.     Collected Data that will include national norms, so your school can assess how it is performing in response to COVID-19 compared to peer schools. 

As more institutions participate in this information loop, we can provide anonymous peer comparison data so you can benchmark your experiences against other schools.

Once enough schools take advantage of our data collection process, we can begin to identify national norms on school closings, distance learning, admissions trends, what faculty, parents, and students need to be successful, what schools will consider in the near future.

3.     Researched strategies on how to mitigate enrollment downturns, both Domestic and International. 

Gowan Group will become closely involved with your admissions teams and develop unique strategies to positively affect recruitment and reenrollment numbers for Fall 2020. We will offer strategies for both Domesticate and International markets. We understand that schools whose International population exceeds 20% are concerned. Schools with International populations over 50% might need to enlist severe changes. 

These are unprecedented times and may call for triage methods to ensure solvency. This may involve new and reassuring messaging, financial incentives, or new recruitment strategies. 

New income streams may be necessary to balance out the budget. 

4.     Answers on how the International Market will affect Independent Schools based on CDC , World Health Organization, U.S. State Department, and International SOS understanding.

We don’t have all the answers, and the current status changes every day. We promise to find the answers, learn the status of foreign countries and how the current travel bans may affect enrollment. You can pose questions to us through our website, and we promise to get back to you with critical information and potential strategies.

5.     Concrete suggested steps on how to better understand student’s emotional state and strategies on how to provide assistance and understanding. 

6.     Available online community via Facebook for chatroom sessions to talk live with our consultants and your colleagues.

We are setting up chatrooms on our Gowan Group facebook page. You can find us here and follow us to become an active member of the conversation. 

We continue to work closely with our current clients to complete ongoing projects. Our understanding is that schools will continue to operate, even without students on campus, and they will continue to work with us on new projects. We now have an added important focus on leading schools through this unprecedented time.

Please reach out to us to discuss any of the above offerings and how your school can benefit from them. And click on the above links to visit our blog and learn more about each offering. You can reach us at cpryor@thegowangroup.com or through the contact page on our website.

Please be safe, stay healthy, and reach out to us for anything you may need to remain focused on student achievement, community building, and school solvency. 

For Gowan,

Chris Pryor