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.
A Sample Strategic Plan (Including a Capital Campaign)
Volume 35 No. 2 // July 28, 2009
Strategic plans focus on the viability-related issues implicit in school finance, governance, and management. To meet ISM’s criteria for strategic plans, the planning document items must (1) display cost estimates, (2) indicate projected revenue sources, (3) be sequenced by year of expected implementation, and (4) be charged to a responsible person or entity.
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Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)—How It Differs From Current Labor Law
Volume 34 No. 9 // July 2, 2009
During the Obama administration’s first 100 days in office, several initiatives became law that have had an impact on private-independent schools. One bill of interest to employers, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), appears likely to come before Congress this summer but has received little attention in the private school community. As EFCA may significantly impact the way school employees and administrators interact, this article highlights the main features of the bill, considers key ramifications, and recommends ways to positively reinforce elements of your school culture that could be affected by EFCA.
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Recognize Your Faculty’s Excellence and Boost Student Retention.
Volume 34 No. 8 // June 12, 2009
Among the unsettling findings in ISM’s recent 37-school survey was this one: Less than 61% of the parents surveyed agreed that “The school rewards and recognizes excellence in its faculty.” 1 Only 24.44% “strongly” agreed. As School Head, consider your own situation. How would your own parent body be likely to respond to that item?
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Moody’s Independent School Outlook: The Implications
Volume 34 No. 8 // June 12, 2009
Each year, Moody’s Investors Service rates private-independent schools and the outlook for their ability to sustain debt (and, therefore, the advisability of an investor to support that debt). In the most recent ratings of the 52 schools it currently tracks, the service assigned stable outlooks to 94% of the schools, a positive outlook to 2%, and to 4%, a negative outlook.
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The Student Culture Profile and Your Purpose and Outcome Statements
Volume 34 No. 8 // June 12, 2009
ISM's Student Culture Profile has been in use for four years. Designed for use with middle and upper school students, the instrument can serve a useful purpose in your efforts, as School Head, to monitor the extent to which your student culture conforms to your school's core purposes and outcomes.
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Managing Faculty Culture in Times of Turmoil
Volume 34 No. 7 // May 12, 2009
In extraordinary times, leaders need to employ extraordinary insight. There is no school that we know of that is not contemplating or undergoing considerable change, and some of the change is negative—letting faculty go, eliminating raises, reducing or cutting programs and support services, increasing work loads.
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Revenue-Performance Bonuses
Volume 34 No. 7 // May 12, 2009
For schools that have frozen salaries for the upcoming school year (i.e., have awarded increases of 0%–2%), a system of Revenue-Performance Bonuses (RPBs) may be worth consideration.
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Avoid the Pitfalls When You Must Downsize
Volume 34 No. 7 // May 12, 2009
In difficult economic times, schools with declining enrollments or other financial pressures may feel the need to downsize their faculty and staff. ISM cautions schools to carefully consider the significant negative impact that downsizing can have on a school’s culture. When downsizing cannot be avoided, however, it is vital that a school conduct this process in a way that is legally compliant, doesn’t provoke discrimination claims, and attempts to minimize the negative cultural aspects as much as possible.
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Two Sarbanes-Oxley Regulations Your School Must Address
Volume 34 No. 6 // April 23, 2009
Soon after the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), I&P recommended that private-independent schools adopt the “principles embodied in SOX” as “guidelines for schools to use in ensuring that their management of financial affairs instills confidence.” Private-independent schools, acting as nonprofit institutions, are not required to observe most of the regulations found in SOX. However, there are two regulations they must follow.
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A Proactive Use of Cash Reserves
Volume 34 No. 6 // April 23, 2009
In the current economic climate, it is easy for schools to ignore an enormous potential source of strategic funds. The first of the ISM Stability Markers® is cash reserves, and ISM urges schools to set aside an amount equivalent to 15% of their operating expenses. This means, for example, that a school with a $4.5 million budget should have a cash reserve of $675,000. This is strategic money that has three major purposes (and a variety of other applications):
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