It is interesting to consider merging ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977) with organizational systems theory (Grimsley, 2017) and applying both theoretical models to the ecosystems in which the school-aged child is enveloped. What makes this an interesting exercise is the examination of the influences upon and within the systems, and to gauge their collective impact upon a child. In fact, what happens at the public school down the road does affect the private school child.

How so? Consider the systems’ layers as illustrated by concentric circles. To begin, the innermost circle represents the school itself as an ecosystem, composed of students, teachers, and headmaster. The next layer of the ecosystem is the child’s community, which is composed of the student’s family, neighborhood, and other schools in the community. The outermost layer of the system houses the agencies (city, county, state) which impact the operations of the student’s school. (For suggested inputs, throughputs, and outputs, see the matrix below.)

While on a day-to-day basis an elementary school is a stable ecosystem, changes within external ecosystems can exert influence on the student. A recent example can be seen in parents’ protests at Virginia’s Loudoun County School Board meetings and their influence on Glenn Youngkin’s election; simply put, parents argued against the teaching of a controversial values education (critical race theory) and the controversy was made a campaign issue (Zitner & Belkin, 2021). The protests directly affected all Virginia schools; boards of education were challenged and private school enrollment increased. This series of multi-layered influences affected both private and public school students ecologically and organizationally, by curriculum modifications and/or enrollment shifts, on city, state, and national levels