In recent years, private schools have rightfully shifted from a narrow focus on moving families through the traditional admission funnel to implementing an enrollment management model.

While every private school has a distinctive mission, all schools focus on student development and preparation. On graduation or completion of a school’s top grade, parents expect their children to be prepared for the next academic level and next social environment. What is the best evidence schools are providing the preparation parents expect and students need?

Discounting, whether your school uses a need-based financial aid approach or a sliding-scale approach, is a complex task. Determining to whom and for how much to reduce tuition can be less complex if you build a discount model to more thoroughly understand and assess applications, giving your award team confidence in their decisions. As the first step, the School Head should appoint a modeling task force and ask the Business Officer to lead this endeavor.

Parents who believe in your school’s mission and are vocal advocates for your program, faculty, and outcomes can generate excitement among other parents and in the broader community. As Admission Director, you likely know that word-of-mouth referrals are the major way new families first learn about private schools, including your own.

Knowing that careful recognition and stewardship of their donor’s gifts lies at the heart of building strong relationships with donors, the Development Office must take care to maintain complete, accurate documentation—electronically and on paper—of all gifts received by the school, whether a gift to a fundraising campaign, a planned gift, or a gift of tangible personal property.

Early in the COVID pandemic onset, ISM published an I&P article discussing the merits of a school making a marketplace shift—decreasing tuition to be more accessible to a broader socioeconomic population. That article discussed our concerns and recommendations for carrying out a primary market stance shift from high tuition to low tuition.

One hallmark of ISM’s Faculty Growth and Evaluation framework is that, with evaluation separated from growth, many can share the growth coaching role. This makes it more likely the growth coaching role will be carried out well and consistently than when this crucial and time-consuming responsibility lies exclusively with you, the supervising academic administrator. However, training and supporting your growth plan coaches are critical in this model’s success.

Among the many factors that drive families to choose private schools are safety and security, academic outcomes, and mission-alignment. But, as School or Division Head, you recognize that retaining families requires more than small class sizes and an impressive next-level placement record. Your faculty, in fact, is a primary reason your families stay at your school (or not).

Annual giving is the foundational program from which all other development efforts grow and flourish. Not only is annual giving a revenue source for enhancing your school’s programs, but it is also the starting place for many prospects as they begin and sustain their philanthropic relationship with your school.

As School Head, you have devoted time, effort, and likely paid a hefty placement fee to a search firm to find the perfect candidate for an open Division Head position. The new person is accomplished, experienced, and confident. However, within a few months—and maybe even weeks—there is apparent friction between the new Division Head and the teachers they are expected to lead