The Mirror Test · A first look for heads of school
What does a family's AI say when it goes looking for a school like yours?
A parent asking an AI for help does not type your school's name. They describe their child, and the AI decides which schools to mention. This exercise lets you watch that happen for a child you serve well, then see what an AI can find on your own website.
Why this is on a head's desk
Chapter 8 of the Head of School Field Guide to AI argues that a head should hold an independent, current picture of the school's market, not only relay the enrollment report. Part of that market now forms before a family reaches your website. In my fall 2026 test of eight private schools, ten conversations each, the school was named in 48 of 80 conversations when the parent described the child without the school's own word for itself, and in 70 of 80 when the parent added it.
This page is not that full test. It is a ten-minute first look, three runs instead of ten, so you can see it happen for your own school and bring a specific question to your enrollment director. The full test is theirs to run.
It ends with a short note you can send to your enrollment director.
What you need
An AI assistant that can search the web. The free version of ChatGPT is what I used for most of my testing.
A private browser window, logged out, or a temporary chat. Your own account may know where you work, and then the answer is about you.
This page keeps your notes in your own browser. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere.
Step 1
Describe a child your school serves well
Write three or four sentences the way a parent talks on a tour. Start from a real family and retell it in a parent's words, with no names and nothing that would identify them. Say what the parent is hoping for.
Families who board often do not live near the school, so ask the way a family from home would. Use a city your students come from. A family that has never considered boarding is seldom shown it, so expect fewer mentions in Step 2. Step 3, with the word "boarding," is the one to watch.
Leave out your kind of school. The parent who most needs to find you is the one who does not yet know your word.
✓Good to go. Your description doesn't name a kind of school, so the AI has to decide on its own. That is what this test needs.
Step 2
Ask the way a parent would, three times
Copy this, paste it into a fresh private chat, and read the whole answer. Then close the chat, open a new one, and ask again. Three chats in all.
Fill in Step 1 and your question appears here.
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What came back
Why three and not one: in my October 2026 test of eight schools, the same question asked ten times named the same school anywhere from 0 to 10 times. One run is a coin flip.
Step 3
Now add your word, and ask three more times
Everything stays the same except the last few words, which now name your kind of school. Again, a fresh chat each time.
Fill in Step 1, including your kind of school, and this question appears here.
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What came back
At the two schools in my test where the word mattered most, that one change moved the count from 0 of 10 to 10 of 10.
Step 4
Send it to your website with a family's errands
Once a family has your name, the next questions are practical. Ask the AI to find three things on your site, the way it would for a parent, and to show you where it looked.
Use the grade from your Step 1 description. This is a fresh chat, so the AI needs the grade to find the right tuition.
Add your school's name and this request appears here.
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What it found
In my test, when asked what a school costs, the two AI assistants went to the school's own page in 16 of 16 answers and got the tuition right in 15. Your own website is the source the AI trusts for the number, so it is worth seeing what it finds there.
Your first look
Fill in the steps above and your result appears here.
Send this to your enrollment director
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What this first look can and cannot tell you
Three runs is a first look. The full test is ten runs with and ten without your word, and it comes with five things the count points you to. It is written up in What I Would Do About AI Search.
My own numbers on this page come from eight schools I chose, tested in October 2026. The assistants change quickly, and your results today may differ from mine.
The boarding version, asking as a family from a city your students come from, is new in this first look. It was not part of my October test.
This shows you what an AI answered. It does not show you how any real family searches, or what they decide.
A school that is named less often has been left off a list. The exercise cannot tell you whether the schools listed were better fits.