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.
Just What Are the Board’s Major Responsibilities?
Fundraising // March 1, 2020
No matter how conscientious and well-intentioned, Trustees (and the Board as a whole) must continually guard against involvement in day-to-day school management. When the Board allows its responsibilities to cross over into the school’s operating plane, it creates a major obstacle to building and upholding a healthy, harmonious Board-Head relationship.
Read MoreSchool Spotlight: Stratford Hall Gains Clarity to Take Its Efforts to the Next Level
Advancement // March 1, 2020
See how Stratford Hall created a unified plan for success to improve recruitment, retention, and fundraising efforts.
Read MoreHow to Prepare for an Effective Meeting
Academic Leadership // March 1, 2020
When you call a meeting, everyone in the room spends time they could use to work on other responsibilities. How do you ensure that time is well-spent?
Read MoreHow Can Schools Help Reduce Student Stress?
School Heads // March 1, 2020
A concerning trend observed over the last few years shows students and faculty both reporting high stress levels. What can school leaders do to help reduce student stress?
Read MoreSchool Spotlight: How The Cambridge School Doubled New Enrollment
School Heads // February 23, 2020
Leslie Yoder, The Cambridge School’s Director of Enrollment Management, is passionate about her school’s mission. But in her second year on the job, she noticed that the school had experienced a one-year enrollment dip.
Read MoreThree Ways Not to Announce a New Schedule
Academic Leadership // February 23, 2020
The research has been completed and your school’s new schedule has been designed. Now the chance announcement is on the horizon. How you announce it could make or break your community’s reception. We have broken down three key errors to avoid when making such an announcement.
Read MoreRecruiting Board Members? Don’t Overlook Experienced Trustees
Board of Trustees // February 23, 2020
As Chair of the Committee on Trustees, you have worked with your fellow Board members to complete the Board’s profile, identifying the skills and experience needed to bring the next stage of the school’s strategic plan to fruition. Now it’s time to determine who can best fill those roles. Sc...
Read MoreBuilding a Safer School
Business and Operations // February 23, 2020
Creating a safer school requires a holistic and intentional effort on the part of the school-wide community to identify risk in multiple areas; essentially creating a risk inventory. This work is then followed by the creation of processes and procedures to both mitigate, and where possible, prevent untoward events from occurring in the first place.
Read MoreTrends Your School Should Prepare for Now
School Heads // February 16, 2020
Planning ahead (and for the worst) is never an easy task. But we believe that planning ahead for a potential marketplace shift and how it could affect your school is integral to long-term viability. We have found that roughly 200 private schools close per year, even during strong economic times. How do you keep your school from becoming one of them?
Read MoreWhat Can the Board Do to Correct the Potential ‘Skills Gap’ in Your School’s Faculty?
Board of Trustees // February 16, 2020
A recent report from EdChoice, The Private School Teacher Skills Gap: What K-12 Private School Educators Know and What They Need to Know, sheds some light on the deficiencies many private schools have when it comes to recruiting, nurturing, and retaining quality, mission-appropriate teachers.
Read More