As School Head, you have selected the best candidates to visit your school for the Admission Director position. They are all qualified. Knowing you must establish a comfortable working relationship with the new Admission Director, you use the interview to choose the applicant with the best “chemistry.” However, having a friendly relationship with the candidate is not everything. Moderate disagreement might help the school sharpen its approaches to marketing and student recruitment. Too much agreement often leads to “group think,” while too much disagreement can prove too discordant. 

ISM’s growth and evaluation framework for teachers clarifies that growth itself is not to be evaluated. This frees teachers to try new things and take risks without fear of failure. The Essential Expectation is only that they “authentically engage in self-reflection and development of a growth and renewal plan. This includes written goals and progress toward those goals.”

The COVID-19 pandemic gave every private school a crash course on adapting and responding to a rapidly changing and difficult situation. Likewise, many schools found themselves immersed in the Black@ social movement, which necessitated consequential conversations with students, alumni, and other stakeholders in a public setting with unlimited reach.

The number-three ranking ISM Stability Marker—School Head leadership—is measured by the ISM Executive Leadership Survey.3 The first five items of the survey are shown here by example. Your review of these will inform the discussion that follows.

One of ISM’s Essential Expectations on which faculty are evaluated is that teachers must “authentically engage in self-reflection and annual development of a growth and renewal plan, to include written goals and progress toward those goals.”1 To determine whether faculty members are meeting this expectation, ISM’s growth framework provides a clear process, developed to ensure “authentic engagement” while allowing for the risk-taking and failure required for meaningful growth

When enrollment declines occur, it is critical that the Leadership Team reacts quickly to begin a thorough investigation to understand and correct the missteps that have caused the reduction in numbers.

You, as School Head or Admission Director, may find new enrollment interest from international families at any point in the school year. Those families’ interest in your school may or may not conform to the early fall enrollment tradition. Your response to this kind of interest should be well-planned and addressed not only in your written and published enrollment policies but also in your strategic financial planning documents.

Economic downturns, natural disasters, and worldwide pandemics—events not only unforeseeable but sometimes interrelated and feeding off one another—will not be going away. As Board President or School Head, seize the opportunity in times of relative normality to keep these facts of institutional life in mind when your Board assembles for its regularly scheduled strategic planning sessions.

Admission Directors often wonder what documentation they should require of applicant families to ensure the most mission-serving outcome for the school. There are obvious requirements, such as students’ transcripts or annual report cards, teacher references from students’ current teachers, and copies of relevant attendance and discipline records. But what about the school’s need to certify the identity and date of birth (DOB) of applicant students? There are important considerations for not only the Admission Director, but also the School Head, Business Manager, Athletic Director, and International Program Director.

A previous I&P article described the evaluation component of ISM’s Growth and Evaluation Framework for Heads, administrators, and nonteaching staff members. Evaluation provides a stable, consistent environment through clear expectations and a process for accountability throughout your school. This gives your employees the security to take on ambitious growth goals, which requires taking risks.