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.
Tablets for Learning Roundup
School Heads // October 4, 2012
From the beginning, the apple of Apple’s eye was the education market when the first Apple IIs started blanketing school computer rooms. And now, the iPad is the “standard” in the classroom. In July, edweek.com reported that schools bought 1 million iPads in the second quarter of 2012, outselling Macs 2 to 1. It’s the powerhouse of the education market, as more and more schools see tablets as a replacement for textbooks and netbooks. They can be more cost-effective than constantly purchasing new textbooks. Plus, they are user-friendly and have the "cool" factor that a textbook doesn't.
Read MoreOctober Is National Bullying Prevention Month
Private School News // October 2, 2012
Bullying is a serious issue for many schools, affecting 11% of all students. According to the PACER Center, 160,000 U.S. students stay home from school each day due to fear of being bullied. However, there is hope on the horizon.
Read More21st Century Teaching Without Technology? Yes!
Private School News // October 2, 2012
In an era when most schools are scrambling to find funding for technology and teachers are worried they will be replaced by digital options, one school is refusing to compute—and it’s in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Read MoreMake Your Next Open House Exciting and Effective
Advancement // September 28, 2012
Some campuses have better luck than others with open houses. On the ISM e-Lists, people have shared their successes as well as their frustrations concerning their open-house events. The one thing everyone agrees on is that if you can get families to tour your campus, and you have taken the time to plan and practice, an open house can be a profound event.
Read MoreAttention-Getting Facebook Content
Advancement // September 28, 2012
As Admission Director, you’re responsible for keeping your families, alumni, and faculty engaged with your school. You do this through multiple communication channels, which most likely includes social media sites. If you take advantage of free social media platforms, your plan probably implements Facebook as a resource for connecting your school’s events and news to your audiences. Significant changes have been made to Facebook over the last year. Are you maximizing these advances?
Read MorePop Record Debuts From Mars Curiosity Rover
Academic Leadership // September 24, 2012
On Tuesday, August 28 at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, pop music got another first…a song debuted from the Mars Curiosity Rover. Singer-songwriter-producer will.i.am, best known as a member of the group Black Eyed Peas, released his single "Reach For the Stars", carried live on NASA’s online live TV channel during a Jet Propulsion Lab Mars Special.
Read MoreBuilding a Risk Management Team (RMT)
Business and Operations // September 24, 2012
Risk management is everyone’s responsibility. However, it inevitably comes down to the School Head as to whether there is a proper risk management plan in action or not.
Read MoreTraining to Lead
Academic Leadership // September 24, 2012
Here’s a question for you: Why did you become a Division Head? You probably have a mix of reasons—maybe you just enjoy leadership activities, or you wanted a new challenge, or you wanted the chance to impact a larger number of students, or you wanted a better salary, and so on and so on.
Read MoreCrisis Planning–It’s Your Job
Business and Operations // September 24, 2012
We have written on this topic before, but continue to see it as one of the biggest risks schools face today—the absence of serious crisis planning. At a time when the amount of and types of risks are increasing (e.g., cyberbullying, cyber-risk, issues of facility safety, discrimination suits, etc.), it is critical that schools take crisis planning seriously, and plan for a variety of risks.
Read MoreDelegation = Trust
Business and Operations // September 20, 2012
A recent episode of The Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible,” reaffirmed an important lesson about managing: employees want their bosses to trust them, and there’s nothing like delegation to show trust. Conversely, when trust isn’t present, it can crush an employee’s spirit … and his/her performance right along with it.
Read More