

Learn practical strategies to handle emerging trends and leadership challenges in private schools.
No matter if you’re a School Head, Admission Director, Development Director, Board member, or any other private school administrator—Ideas & Perspectives®, ISM’s premier private school publication, has strategic solutions for the pervasive problems you face.
- Tuition not keeping pace with your expenses? In I&P, explore how to use strategic financial planning to create your budget and appropriately adjust your tuition.
- Enrollment dropping off? Discover how to implement the right admission and enrollment management strategies that engage your community—and fill your classrooms.
- Trouble retaining teachers? Learn how you can best support your teachers using ISM’s Comprehensive Faculty Development framework. Your faculty members will become more enthusiastic about their roles—which ultimately improves student outcomes.
- Fundraising campaigns not as successful as you’d hoped? Implement ISM’s practical advice and guidance to build a thriving annual fund, construct an effective capital campaign, and secure major donors—no matter your community size or location.
- Not sure how to provide professional development—for you and your staff? Learn ways to develop and fund a successful professional development strategy. You can improve teacher-centered satisfaction and growth, which in turn strengthens student-centered learning.
- Problematic schedule? You can master the challenges of scheduling with the help of ISM’s practical advice, based on our experience with hundreds of schools and our time-tested theories.
- And so much more.
I&P has shared targeted research, up-to-date insight, and sound theory with school leaders since 1975. More than 8,500 private school decision-makers find the answers to their schools’ administrative and governance matters in our advisory letter. We give you the strategic answers you need.
As an ISM Silver or Gold member, you not only receive issues online and in print 10 times a year, but you have access to more than 600 articles in our web archive. Need help? It’s at your fingertips! Learn more and sign up for ISM's membership here.
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See the articles from our latest issue of Ideas & Perspectives.
The Power of Survey Data: Common Mistakes and Solutions
Volume 50 No. 8 // October 15, 2025
ISM's latest edition of our Stability Markers
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The Dashboard Trap: When Data Feels Strategic But Isn’t
Volume 50 No. 8 // October 15, 2025
Dashboards can make management appear strategic, even when there is no meaningful strategy at work.
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What Makes a Healthy Giving Culture?
Volume 50 No. 8 // October 15, 2025
ISM’s Stability Markers™ 6.0 help schools strengthen their culture of giving — linking board engagement, annual giving, and community involvement to long-term financial sustainability and mission-driven success.
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Celebrating 50 Years of Ideas & Perspectives
Volume 50 No. 8 // October 1, 2025
Note From Our President This month, the print issue of Ideas & Perspectives featured the cover of our first-ever issue, from 1975. This issue marked the beginning of our flagship publication and the founding of Independent School Management by W. Rodman “Rod“ Snelling. Through the y...
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From Applications to Advocacy: Rethinking Enrollment Health
Volume 50 No. 8 // October 1, 2025
Stability Markers 6.0 recognizes that schools thrive when internal marketing and enrollment demand are intentionally connected.
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Is an Independent School a Business?
Volume 50 No. 7 // September 19, 2025
Independent schools don’t need to be run like a business. They need to be led like a mission-driven institution with fiscal intelligence, ethical governance, and a human-centered culture.
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Annual Giving: Setting and Meeting Data-Driven Targets
Volume 50 No. 7 // September 19, 2025
Learn how setting clear, data-driven gift targets transforms annual giving from sustaining support to driving meaningful growth for your school.
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The Staff Culture Profile
Volume 50 No. 7 // September 18, 2025
The popular phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” encapsulates the powerful role that culture plays in a business’s success. A toxic culture will undermine the best articulated plans. Conversely, a culture aligned with the company’s purpose and strategy is not only fundamental to realizing a business’s goals, but it can also elevate the company’s success beyond what was thought possible.
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The Cost of Culture Erosion in Independent Schools: Strategic Implications
Volume 50 No. 7 // September 18, 2025
Culture is not a backdrop to the work of schools. It IS their work. Institutions that attend to culture proactively are more adaptive, more trusted, and more resilient.
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The School-Parent Partnership: Send a Welcome Letter
Volume 50 No. 6 // June 1, 2025
As a school, one of your most important partnerships is with your students’ families. But the nature of that relationship has evolved dramatically over time. A generation ago, parents enrolled their children and largely trusted the school in all facets of its work with students. Today, the typical p...
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