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.
Influencer Positions and the ISM Circle
Volume 45 No. 14 // November 2, 2020
ISM defines “management positions” as those carrying responsibilities—under the delegated authority of the School Head—for hiring, evaluating, and, when necessary, dismissing those employees who report to them. In contrast, ISM defines “influencer positions”—those school administrators to whom no on...
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Indexed Tuition Programs: Removing the Financial Aid Stigma
Volume 45 No. 13 // October 19, 2020
Private-independent schools have, for decades, offered financial aid to those unable to afford the full cost of tuition. Using a need-based formula, schools have typically awarded financial aid as a discount for which an applicant applies. Schools have reported that, over the past decade, f...
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Create an Effective Development Committee
Volume 45 No. 13 // October 19, 2020
A key function of the Board is to plan for the school’s financial stability. In the development arena, the Board fulfills this responsibility through strategic decisions that provide the necessary foundational support for all elements of the Comprehensive Development Model—Leadership, Case for Givin...
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Socioeconomic Diversity and Your School’s Long-Term Financial Health
Volume 45 No. 13 // October 19, 2020
At ISM, we are hopeful the United States has begun a new resolve to end systemic racism. ISM’s leadership and consulting teams resolutely believe that matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are for our corporate good, and we pledge to do our part in finding solutions to end unfair practic...
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Price-Product-Process and the ISM Circle
Volume 45 No. 12 // September 21, 2020
Borrowing originally from concepts advanced within the for-profit sector, ISM has for decades taught a basic competitive marketing truth: private schools can compete based on price, product, or process, but not based on all three at the same time. And separately—also for decades—ISM Consultants have taught Boards of Trustees and senior administrators the implications of the ISM Circle, a unique approach to evaluating private school organizational structure. This article shows how to combine these related concepts into a unified set of ideas.
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The Paid-Time-Off Bank
Volume 45 No. 12 // September 21, 2020
A Paid-Time-Off (PTO) bank is a repository of hours on which employees may draw without differentiating among vacation days, sick time, or personal time. In its “pure” form, the PTO bank provides an employee unlimited freedom, within the PTO maximum, to decide not to be in the classroom, on the playing field, on the stage, in the administrative office, or anyplace else their responsibilities normally require. Is this a practicable concept for your school?
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Your Advisory Program After an Emergency School Closure
Volume 45 No. 12 // September 21, 2020
In an earlier issue of Ideas & Perspectives, we discussed how to maintain your advisory program during a school closure. The following article provides advice on how to handle your program after such an event.
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Running the Board Meeting: The Committee on Trustees and the Head Support and Evaluation Committee
Volume 45 No. 11 // September 8, 2020
As Board President or Chair of the Committee on Trustees (COT), you are keenly aware of the importance of the relationship between your Board and your School Head. The tenor of your Board meetings can contribute to, or detract from, the quality of this relationship. This quality is, in part,...
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Your Advisory Program During an Emergency School Closure
Volume 45 No. 11 // September 8, 2020
When your school closes for a sustained period during an emergency, as School Head or Division Head, you must make many prudent programmatic and other adaptations to serve your school community and its strategic interests. The continuity of your middle and upper school advisory program may well be i...
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Ensure Your Enrollment Contract Protects Your School During Forced Shutdowns
Volume 45 No. 11 // September 8, 2020
Despite your best planning and preparation efforts, your school may fall victim to events beyond your control that force a school shutdown. Crises such as fires, flooding, and pandemics have the potential to necessitate a suspension of on-campus operations and prevent you from delivering classroom i...
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