Meridian is a unique benchmarking tool designed to help school leaders make data-informed decisions that strengthen mission-driven plans.
When launched in 2025, the first phase of Meridian focused on teacher compensation. The 2026-2027 school year data collection includes administrator compensation data and board structure.
The entirety of the SAIS membership contributes data during the annual membership renewal process. This collective effort reflects the full diversity of our association across geographic settings, operating budgets, enrollment sizes, religious affiliations, and grade levels.
For nearly half of our schools, access to comparable data at a national level has been challenging. Meridian fills that gap, offering a shared point of orientation and direction for every member school across the SAIS network.
Meridian Features
Benchmarking for Orientation & Direction
Dashboard Access
Access for each member school has been granted to the head of school and primary financial contact.
This access control allows the school to control who can view their data, ensuring data privacy.
Using the Dashboard
Review your school’s information
Set filters to review peer schools
Compare your school against peer schools
Ask questions, spark discussions
Filtering Options
Meridian allows for a variety of means of filtering, from enrollment and operating budget to grades served, school type, and more.
Start with one, then apply multiple filters together.
Start with broader ranges and narrow down as needed.
Empty results don’t always mean no data exists.
Filters will not return records less than 5 to protect anonymity of the individual school.
Enrollment
Operating Budget
Religious Affiliation
Grades Served
School Setting
School Type
State
Metro Area
Accessing Meridian
Meridian is available exclusively to SAIS member schools. To access this dashboard, you must be logged in as part of an SAIS school membership and have a designated status as head of school or primary financial contact in the SAIS membership database. In most cases, the primary financial contact is the school’s CFO when applicable. Please contact research@sais.org for access assistance.