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.
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See the articles from our latest issue of Ideas & Perspectives.
Is 360-Degree Feedback Useful in Private-Independent Schools?
Volume 31 No. 15 // November 22, 2006
A review of evaluation literature—particularly in corporate practice—soon brings up the topic of 360° or multi-rater feedback. This evaluation process is increasingly being referenced among private-independent school educators. Teachers are being rated by their students; School Heads are being rated by their direct reports and by faculty; parents are being asked to give feedback concerning school personnel and Trustees. If such a process is being considered at your school, whether bought from a company or developed in-house as online surveys, it should be understood and used appropriately. A 360-degree process should be used for professional development purposes and might lead to performance objectives, but should not be used for evaluative purposes in and of itself.
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Roofscaping: The Benefits of 'Green Roofing'
Volume 31 No. 15 // November 22, 2006
Keeping your school’s facilities cool during warm weather can present a financial challenge. You may be spending an excessive amount for electricity to run air-conditioning each year—especially if you have a dark-colored roof that absorbs heat. One solution to this problem is to install reflective roofing materials. Another option is to employ roofscaping, also called green roofing.
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Use the Portrait of the Graduate to Empower Your Advisory
Volume 31 No. 14 // November 6, 2006
As School Head, you are keenly aware of the strategic value of a strong advisory program. As a realist, you are also cognizant of the ease with which an advisory program can veer off course, becoming a collection of activities rather than a coherent program anchored in the school’s mission.
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Replace, Repair, Renew: Why a Facilities Audit Helps
Volume 31 No. 14 // November 6, 2006
A facilities audit will provide much of the data you need to create this schedule, as well as help you design a carefully staged implementation plan. The audit is a precondition for future planning.
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Admission Office Challenges During Campus Construction Projects
Volume 31 No. 14 // November 6, 2006
Campus construction, whether a new building or renovations to existing facilities, can be a wonderful and exciting experience for a school. The promise of enhanced educational opportunities for students (or more suitable administrative space) is a sign of a school that is healthy and growing. Students, parents, faculty, and staff who have endured inadequate classrooms or offices now look forward eagerly to the improvements.
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Faculty Evaluation, Student Performance, and School Leadership:An Update
Volume 31 No. 13 // October 15, 2006
Ten years ago, ISM carried out the Research for School Management (RSM) International Model Schools Project, a six-year study that involved 51 schools. The research demonstrated that it was possible to intervene in the operations of a school and directly impact student performance, enthusiasm, and satisfaction. Two of the key characteristics concerning student performance derived from the research included: – a strong sense of community (predictability and support) within the school: students, faculty, and administration; and – student perception of instructional and administrative fairness, to include perceived fairness both in discipline and in grading.
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Pricing and Affordability: Where ISM and NAIS Differ
Volume 31 No. 13 // October 15, 2006
The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and ISM have long had differing perspectives on issues related to the pricing and affordability of private-independent schools. Some of these differences are the natural result of overlapping, yet quite distinct, membership/client lists. Other differences are more complex in origin. A blog article by NAIS Executive Director Patrick Bassett has again provided an opportunity to highlight some of these divergent points.
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Scheduling and Tracking
Volume 31 No. 12 // September 29, 2006
The matrix we call scheduling—that complex interrelationship among time, space, program, and people—is not just a mere description of what is happening in your school. It should also provoke the reflection necessary to understand how the elements of excellent education interact and enable the prime conditions for optimal learning.
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Contents of a Board Handbook: A Checklist
Volume 31 No. 12 // September 29, 2006
As the Board Chair, you have been on the Board long enough to have often heard questions such as: “Don’t we have a policy on that?” “Didn’t the Development Committee consider that two years ago?” “What do the bylaws say?”
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The Third Iteration of ISM Stability Markers: A Self-Scoring Process
Volume 31 No. 11 // September 4, 2006
The ISM’s Stability Markers® are those variables that are associated most strongly with a private-independent school’s ability to sustain excellence in its student programs. ISM has noted in the past that “there is a specific relationship between the ISM Stability Markers and the approach to planning that you, as Board President or School Head, should consider. To help you determine the planning ‘avenue’ that best suits your school’s current status (based on the Stability Markers), ISM has developed a selfscoring process.”
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