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The Gordon School

Making substantial, sustainable change

above: Gordon administration present Family Individualized Tuition to over one hundred professionals, from schools ranging from Vermont to New Jersey, at an April workshop organized with the Association of Independent Schools of New England

Forty-four professionals, from twenty independent and parochial schools in ten states across the country, will travel to East Providence later this month to learn more about Gordon's innovative approach to tuition. Participants in the Tuition Institute include representatives from regional leaders in Massachusetts and New York as well as schools as far afield as Virginia, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Washington and California.

In 2015, Gordon’s Board of Trustees took action to rethink the independent school tuition systems of full price and financial aid. The goal was to create a more transparent, equitable, and predictable tuition system that included all families and supported the school's work in equity and inclusion. The work demanded that Gordon face, head-on, enrollment challenges seen by schools across the country.

The result was Family Individualized Tuition. The school is now entering its third admissions season with FIT fully implemented, and the positive impact on the life of the school has been dramatic.

"The traditional independent school tuition model can establish a school culture with two different experiences, one for families who are receiving financial aid and one for everyone else." says Head of School Noni Thomas López. "This dynamic can prevent every family from fully participating in the life of the school. With FIT, every single family at Gordon is investing to the best of their ability, in their children, in their education, and in their community."

Family Individualized Tuition has come at a time when independent schools are finding that their decades-old tuition models aren't working and people are looking for an authentic, sustainable alternative. Gordon administrators have been sought after for workshops, webinars, conferences and podcasts, and the Tuition Institute is the school's effort to bring all that energy and curiosity under one roof.

"The response to our work has been tremendous among the community of independent and parochial schools," explains Gordon's Chief Financial Officer, Tom Cicatiello. "By convening this group of education professionals, I'm hoping we can plant the seeds for a community of schools who are interested in making a substantial, sustainable change in the way schools approach tuition."

There is room for ten more professionals at the institute. Know a school that might be interested? Send them to www.gordonschool.org/tuitioninstitute

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