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.
The Case for Publishing Tuition on Your Website
Volume 44 No. 10 // August 12, 2019
With the help of search engines, social media, and school review sites, prospective parents conduct intensive research and make educated comparisons about your school and its competitors before they ever contact the Admission Office. If they do call your Admission Office directly, it is likely that, based on their research, they believe your school is a good “fit” for their child and want to confirm this belief by visiting your campus. In other words, the family that scours your website and follows up with a phone call or campus tour has self-identified as a qualified lead and is undoubtedly worthy of your time and attention.
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Building and Maintaining Cash Reserves
Volume 44 No. 10 // August 12, 2019
The number one marker in the second-tier of the ISM Stability Markers® is cash reserves, and it has been continually ranked in the top two of correlates for a school’s long-term sustainability over a period of decades. The technical definition for ISM’s Stability Marker for “cash reserves” is actually a formulaic mix of cash reserves, debt, and endowment. A school’s high score on this means there is excess cash, at levels of 25% /or more of the total operating budget, and low (or no) debt.
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How to Maintain the Status of Student Visas
Volume 44 No. 10 // August 12, 2019
As many private-independent schools build and bolster international programs, properly retaining those international, nonimmigrant students already enrolled is a critical element of enrollment management. Schools therefore have a vested interest in ensuring their international students maintain status of their student visa.
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Five Key Performance Indicators for Private-Independent Schools
Volume 44 No. 10 // August 12, 2019
As the Marketing Communications Director, you understand that second only to word-of-mouth, your website is your most important marketing tool. Therefore, you may be investing a considerable amount of time and money in enhancing your website while simultaneously moving away from traditional and print marketing tactics. One of the best parts about shifting to a comprehensive digital strategy is the ability to measure the efficacy of your efforts.
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The Two-Year Rolling Contract for Your School Head
Volume 44 No. 9 // July 22, 2019
In an earlier article about the School Head’s contract, the two-year rolling contract was briefly described as follows. “ISM recommends two-year, rolling contracts. Each contract is agreed upon the year before the expiration of the current contract. … The new contract should supersede the remainder of the first contract and continue through the following academic year. This sequence ensures that the agreement never shrinks to less than a 12-month span.” This article provides further detail regarding this ISM-endorsed approach to your Head’s contract cycle.
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Review Your School’s Employee Infectious Disease Policy
Volume 44 No. 9 // July 22, 2019
A rumor spreads at Exempli Gratia Academy (our fictional K–12 day school) that one of the employees has tested positive for Zika virus. Bombarded with questions, the School Head turns to the infectious disease policy in the employee handbook—and finds it all but worthless. The situation spurs the Leadership Team to take a look at this specific item as the first step in a full-scale policy review.
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Build Family Engagement With a Guide to Giving and Getting Involved
Volume 44 No. 9 // July 22, 2019
As a Development Director, you may seek ways to better engage your school’s parents—as volunteers and donors. Parents who are connected to your school’s activities, programs, and mission are your strongest word-of-mouth advocates and your most loyal philanthropists.
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Board-Faculty Relationships: 10 Do’s and Don’ts
Volume 44 No. 9 // July 22, 2019
Teacher A: “Our Board members are never here at school, so they have no idea what we do. How can they possibly understand what they should be doing on the Board?” Teacher B: “I know! And none of them has ever been a teacher! Why are they on the Board in the first place?” Have you overheard...
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The Sixth Stage of the Donor Cycle: Steward
Volume 44 No. 8 // June 24, 2019
Stewardship is at the heart of development. It culminates all the efforts you have made to build relationships with your donors—an ongoing, year-round process that continues to involve them, connect them, and honor them for their support.
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Structure the Schedule Change Committee for Success
Volume 44 No. 8 // June 24, 2019
As a school explores a schedule change, leadership often appoints a committee to oversee the process. ISM’s research found 63% of schools formed a “schedule change committee” before revising their schedule, whether they used ISM to design their schedule or not. They do this for at least one of three reasons: to gather data, to cultivate ideas and perspectives, and to facilitate teacher “buy-in.” A committee or its members might collect survey data, visit other schools to observe an “innovative schedule” in action, attend an ISM scheduling workshop, and run discussion groups. It may also be charged with developing and modifying prototypes, and then recommending a design to the leadership.
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