Data, Design and the Future of Enrollment

Mike Flanagan is a recognized leader in the independent school community, bringing over 30 years of experience in nonprofit association management and educational technology leadership. Most recently, he served as CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC), where he advanced innovative approaches to student assessment and credentialing. Prior to MTC, Flanagan was CEO of School and Student Services (SSS) at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), where he led the NAIS Services division and oversaw the delivery of the SSS Financial Aid solution to more than 1,700 schools. In May 2025, Flanagan assumed the role of CEO of the newly merged organization formed by EMA and ERB, which will officially rebrand as E3n in early 2026.

Net Assets: In March of this year, the Enrollment Management Association (EMA) and the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) announced their merger. Why was this the right time for this new chapter? 

MIKE FLANAGAN: The word that keeps coming to mind is pressure. Independent schools are facing growing pressure on multiple fronts, such as declining student populations and growing scrutiny over the return on investment. Colleges, for instance, are being asked to prove their outcomes around employment for graduates. And in a world where more families are questioning the value of that pathway, the ripple effects are significant for schools that have long focused on preparing students for college. Layered on top of that, many schools are under heightened political and legal scrutiny, driven by shifting policies at the federal level. 

So what can help school leaders as they navigate all these issues? I think what’s most helpful is reliable data: data that can help inform, and, if necessary, defend tough decisions. And it’s this area of data and insights that has me most excited about the opportunities created by the merger. EMA and ERB bring complementary strengths to the table. EMA has deep expertise in all aspects of pre-enrollment, and ERB’s solutions generate insights across both admissions and post-enrollment learning. 

Taken together, we can provide schools with a unified, data-driven experience that supports smarter decisions and clearer communication with families. In today’s climate of heightened scrutiny, schools need reliable data to confidently justify their financial and strategic choices. 

Net Assets: Independent school business leaders would be interested to learn more about how data can inform a better school experience, be it operationally or academically. Can you tell us more about that potential? 

FLANAGAN: Independent schools are already doing a pretty solid job of leveraging data, and organizations like NBOA and NAIS provide valuable data insights. What sets E3n apart is that we’re not just collecting data; we’re generating it. Because we interact directly with students and families through assessments, applications and surveys, we’re able to produce unique, real-time data that schools can’t get elsewhere. 

Our aspiration is for E3n to be highly user-centric, in the sense that we’re designing for two key audiences: school leaders and families. 

Our aspiration is for E3n to be highly user-centric, in the sense that we’re designing for two key audiences: school leaders and families. Rather than focusing solely on schools, we also engage directly with students — whether they’re taking a test, completing an application or responding to a well-being survey. These touchpoints give us the opportunity to design intuitive, responsive experiences that serve the whole community. 

I’m a big proponent of agile design, which is a mindset that shapes how we approach problems and user experiences. I’ve been radicalized, to a certain extent, by my time at Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC). It showed me that innovation isn’t exclusive to independent schools. In fact, public schools, driven by urgent challenges like chronic absenteeism and graduation rates, have outpaced our independent school sector in terms of innovation. They’re forced to take bold risks and rethink traditional models because of the pressing nature of their issues. That realization was eye-opening. For independent schools, the lesson is that we must stay attuned to agile innovations happening elsewhere and consider how they can inform and improve our own practices. 

Net Assets: When you think about the future of enrollment, tuition pricing and financial aid, what’s your main takeaway for school business leaders? 

FLANAGAN: When you look at what’s happening with the current presidential administration, they are having conversations about whether to fund the department of education or not, right? What you’re seeing there is a tilt back from more centralized management and funding of schools to much more decentralized funding. And what I think that will do is create opportunities for different kinds of schooling models that our school leaders today don’t think of. So, yes, let’s acknowledge that all schools are facing rising costs and an uncertain economic landscape. And it’s in climates like these that you’re most likely to see disruptive innovation. 

The educational landscape is evolving rapidly and becoming far more competitive. To stay relevant, independent schools will need to embrace disruptive innovation and/or get very clear and concrete about what they deliver value. 

When we talk about independent schools, we often picture traditional country day schools and preparatory academies. But are we also considering the rise of micro schools, virtual learning models and AI-driven tutoring? Are we considering funding models like education savings accounts that make funding more portable? The educational landscape is evolving rapidly and becoming far more competitive. To stay relevant, independent schools will need to embrace disruptive innovation and/or get very clear and concrete about what they deliver value. 

Net Assets: You just announced that the new organization, when merged in early 2026, will be called E3n. How will E3n build on the partnership between business officers and enrollment professionals while bringing academic leaders into the mix? 

FLANAGAN: If we are journey mapping the independent school experience, it would begin with a family discovering and touring schools, followed by the student applying, enrolling and ultimately progressing all the way to graduation. At each touchpoint, leadership from business, enrollment and academic departments converge with the shared goal of working to ensure students and families stay supported, engaged and enrolled. That’s where we see opportunity. E3n is positioned to support not just enrollment professionals, but to develop tools and services that help schools strengthen key revenue streams. 

Net Assets: With your long background in nonprofit leadership, how are you approaching the task of uniting once disparate teams in a time of transformation? 

FLANAGAN: We’ve got two organizations that have been doing amazing work for decades. When you’re going through a merger process where you have two organizations that have evolved their own cultures, you have to be really intentional. It’s all about building a new culture together. And that works in a couple of different ways. You can’t build culture, in my opinion, top down. 

Just as a body can reject a foreign organ, an organization will resist a culture that’s imposed without care, collaboration or alignment with its existing values. Culture has to be nurtured, not dictated. 

The bad example is a leader who comes in and says, “Hey, guess what everybody? Here’s our new culture — it’s a ten-point bulleted list, and I wrote it up myself.” That’s the equivalent of performing an organ transplant without preparation or compatibility checks. Just as a body can reject a foreign organ, an organization will resist a culture that’s imposed without care, collaboration or alignment with its existing values. Culture has to be nurtured, not dictated. 

Here’s another, more fun example. I am a big fan of the Food Network show, Top Chef. There’s an episode every season called “Restaurant Wars.” They split the chefs into two teams and challenge them to launch a restaurant from scratch. After watching 22 seasons, I’ve noticed there are two consistent ways teams lose: First, when every chef just makes their own dish without thinking about the overall concept. The food might be great individually, but it doesn’t feel like a cohesive restaurant — it lacks identity. Second, when chefs hold back. They have strong ideas but don’t speak up. The result? A menu no one really believes in — what I call “sad food.” 

The sweet spot is what I’d call productive advocacy, a healthy creative struggle. Each person brings their non-negotiables to the table, says, “Here’s what matters most to me,” and then the team works together to preserve those priorities while adapting. That’s how you end up with something greater than the sum of its parts. 

Net Assets: So what are your non-negotiables when it comes to organizational culture? 

FLANAGAN: That the culture we create will be one in which everybody does their best work. And that cuts both ways. Part of it is the organization’s responsibility to provide infrastructure, support and freedom to allow everyone to do their best work, in the sense that everyone is empowered to do it. But it also means the performance expectation is very high — doing things that are “just good enough to get by” isn’t the standard. Great is the standard. If you have those two elements in place, and in healthy tension, then you can create a culture of decentralizing hierarchies and empowering people to do things. 

Net Assets: We’re excited for this new chapter in the independent school community. 

FLANAGAN: Thank you. This position feels like coming home to me. My wife, an independent school enrollment professional, and I first met when we were both new teachers at Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Since then I’ve spent many years at different independent school associations. So it’s refreshing to be back with new eyes.