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.
Storytelling as a Tool to Teach Emotional Literacy in Lower School
School Health and Wellness // May 21, 2023
Classrooms are places for social education as much as they are for academic education. By building classrooms centered on emotional literacy, teachers show students how to establish meaningful relationships with others and, ultimately, how to feel more in control of their lives. That might sound ...
Read MoreGetting Your Trustees on Board With Advancement Initiatives
Marketing Communications // May 21, 2023
A private-independent school’s sustainability is inextricably linked to its advancement efforts—that is, its ability to attract and retain aligned students and families and to raise philanthropic gifts that help fulfill its mission and vision. In many schools, advancement is synonymous with devel...
Read MoreVaping and Drug Use Prevention: How to Reach a Teenage Audience
School Health and Wellness // May 21, 2023
Substance abuse in the adolescent populations has soared over the last several years. Media reports of this upward trajectory suggest a hopeless battle. But targeted prevention efforts are showing significant success, and it all starts at school. Get the Facts Marijuana is now legal across muc...
Read MoreShould You Consider Midyear Enrollment for Your International Student Program?
School Leadership // May 21, 2023
Admission, Enrollment Management, and International Program Directors constantly look for new ways to attract international students while also guaranteeing that the influx of new students will benefit the school and the educational program. Midyear enrollment is a viable strategy. In this articl...
Read MoreHomestay Programs: Tips for Retaining and Recruiting Families
Enrollment Management // May 21, 2023
For many schools, the viability of their international student programs depends on the support of host families. Finding and keeping reliable host parents is a common challenge. Juggling the recruitment and retention of homestay families, and mitigating your program’s risk can quickly become over...
Read MoreProtecting Your School: Why Directors and Officers Insurance Is Essential
Business and Operations // April 30, 2023
School administrators are responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, managing the faculty and staff, and ensuring their students receive the best possible education. However, with these responsibilities comes the risk of potential liabilities and lawsuits that can have long-lasting negative i...
Read MoreAsking Constituents What Matters: Take the Guesswork Out of Surveys
School Leadership // April 30, 2023
Understanding constituents’ needs, opinions, and concerns is critical for a school to effectively serve its students, parents, Board, alumni, and other community members. Surveys are one of the best and most effective ways to gather this information. Surveys can help schools: gain valuable ...
Read MoreCoping Skills Are Life Skills. Is Your School Fostering Them?
School Health and Wellness // April 30, 2023
There are countless ways to handle a stressful situation. One person might go for a run while another turns to their yoga mat or a coveted chocolate stash. For adolescents—especially in our post-pandemic world—having access to healthy coping skills is critical. And while sometimes school itself i...
Read MoreDon’t Forget Your Crisis Communication Strategy: Here’s Why
Marketing Communications // April 30, 2023
A successful marketing communications office plays a critical role in the trajectory of the school—ranging from increased enrollment and giving, to building a positive reputation in the local community. When a new Marketing Communications Director joins the school staff, they should be profession...
Read MoreHelp for Teens Is Achievable When Data Leads the Way
School Health and Wellness // April 16, 2023
Depression and anxiety among young people were on the rise when the pandemic hit. Already experiencing mental health challenges, adolescents faced the realities of a global medical crisis—isolation, fear, illness, and sometimes death. More than 140,000 children in the U.S. lost a primary or secondar...
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