Virtual & Onsite Consulting Services


Ensure that your school’s governance and operations support your mission.
We work together with your leaders, teachers, staff members, and students to understand your school’s unique needs, strengths, and challenges. We help you create a plan to help you meet your goals.
Your team can then put these mission-appropriate recommendations into action to achieve increased cash reserves, higher enrollment levels, and long-term stability. At the end of the day, we all have a singular purpose—advance school leadership to enrich the student experience.
We offer personalized consultations for many leadership divisions of a private school—the Board of Trustees, School Heads, the Business Office, the Development Office, Enrollment Management professionals, Marketing professionals, and Academic leaders. Select the area of school leadership you’d like to further explore.

ISM’s Consulting Services can be conducted virtually, ensuring you get the support you need, no matter the circumstances. Learn more by contacting our School Success team.
Our Consulting Services
School Head
Whether you want to ensure that all school functions run at peak efficiency or are considering implementing new strategies and initiatives, lean on a trusted source of knowledge to increase the likelihood of long-term success.
Business & Operations
Take advantage of a full range of planning, facilities, and operations consulting services that give your school a solid footing for the future. Examine where your key operations work well, and where they can use improvement.
Academic Leadership
Your programs set your school apart. Explore how to create and build programs that pull families in and give them an experience they couldn’t have at another private-independent school.
Admission & Enrollment Management
ISM’s data-informed approach pinpoints what attracts families to your school and inspires them to stay. Receive customized solutions based on your school’s unique marketplace stance, challenges, and opportunities.
Fundraising & Development
Learn how to develop successful strategies to engage and bring donors closer to your institution. No matter your school size, history, or pedagogy, explore how to plan, implement, and evaluate your fundraising strategies to realize your full potential.
Marketing Communications
Explore how to share exceptional stories of student learning, engagement, and outcomes, and illustrate how these can become differentiators that distinguish your school from your competitors.
Board of Trustees
The Board must focus its efforts on governing, planning, and financing your school's future, while leaving everyday decisions to competent administrators. To do that successfully, your Board must think, plan, and act strategically.
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One-on-One Coaching for New Heads
Work with an ISM Consultant in your first years of Headship to set you on a path to success.
•Data-Driven Diagnostics •
• Coaching •
• Customized Support •
Help Your School Thrive
ISM members receive access to exclusive, research-based strategies for every leadership division of your school. Take advantage of guidance, savings, and much more.
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See articles for School Heads, Business & Operations, Advancement, Academic Leadership, and Trustees, in addition to Private School News.
Board Cultivation Is the Key to Long-Term Financial Stability
Fundraising // April 1, 2022
Your Board members and their involvement in your fundraising operation—as both donors and volunteers—are key to your program’s long-term stability. Your Trustees provide foundational support of your annual fund, your events, and your capital campaigns, not only while they serve but also as Board alu...
Read MoreLunch and Recess Time Crunch: How Does This Impact Your Students?
School Health and Wellness // April 1, 2022
School lunch is critical to student health and well-being and learning readiness. Lunchtime bolsters students with the nutrition they need to get through the day and learn to the best of their abilities. But most children are not given enough time to eat their lunch at school. As an independent s...
Read MorePlayground Drama: How to Build Resilience Through Conflict Resolution
School Health and Wellness // April 1, 2022
Resilience—the ability of an individual or a community to withstand, to adapt, and to recover quickly from stress and shock—is a dynamic and developmental process that strengthens over time, and is shaped and built by social determinants—including experiences, opportunities, and relationships—that d...
Read MoreFour Tips to Be a Holistically Healthy You
School Health and Wellness // March 17, 2022
No matter how hard you try, working toward your health goals almost always proves to be difficult—increasing your chances of giving up. One reason is that your health goals rarely address overall well-being and instead focus on one area, like weight loss or being on social media less.
Read MoreThe Fundraising Ask: What If Your Prospects Say “No”?
Fundraising // March 17, 2022
You’ve done all your research on a potential donor, found the perfect solicitors, completed a series of relationship-building efforts. Additionally, at the appropriate time, your “closer” made what you all thought was the perfect ask for support. But the answer was an unexpected version of “no”.
Read MoreNow That You’ve Hired Great People, Offer Them Great Pre-Onboarding
School Leadership // March 17, 2022
For most schools, the onboarding process typically starts during teacher and staff orientation. Has your school considered the “pre-onboarding” phase of hiring? Research suggests this process engages new hires during the uncertain phase from acceptance until their first day on the job.
Read MoreHow Admission Offices Can Partner With Teachers to Improve Enrollment Outcomes
Enrollment Management // March 4, 2022
Admission and enrollment are facets of private schools that require finesse. When recruiting new families, Admission Officers are tasked with communicating their school’s value proposition. The cost of private education continues to outpace inflation, and educational options are plentiful. Schools o...
Read MoreTeacher Turnover Rates Are Increasing—Will Your School Survive?
School Heads // March 4, 2022
Teacher retention and turnover have been conversation topics for decades. Since the 2020 school year, however, teachers are experiencing and adapting to unprecedented instruction methods, in addition to personal and global health concerns. Stress and burnout levels are high in the education profession, raising concerns about increases in teacher turnover and shortages.
Read More8 Things You Should Know If You’re a New Admission Director
Enrollment Management // February 17, 2022
Are you new to the role of Admission Director at your school? We rounded up several tidbits about what admission leaders should know, based on a question-and-answer session with Mary Yorke Oates, Director of Admission at Charlotte Latin School in North Carolina and leader of The New Admission Director workshop at Summer Institute 2022.
Read MoreA Case for Flexible Work Hours: An Educator’s Debate
School Leadership // February 17, 2022
If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that flexibility isn’t “nice” to have, it’s a necessity—especially when it comes to overall well-being. Because of the pandemic, working from home and flexible hours are much more common—maybe even demanded by many of today’s employees.
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