Learn practical strategies to handle emerging trends and leadership challenges in private schools.
No matter if you’re a School Head, Admission Director, Development Director, Board member, or any other private school administrator—Ideas & Perspectives, ISM’s premier private school publication, has strategic solutions for the pervasive problems you face.
- Tuition not keeping pace with your expenses? In I&P, explore how to use strategic financial planning to create your budget and appropriately adjust your tuition.
- Enrollment dropping off? Discover how to implement the right admission and enrollment management strategies that engage your community—and fill your classrooms.
- Trouble retaining teachers? Learn how you can best support your teachers using ISM’s Comprehensive Faculty Development framework. Your faculty members will become more enthusiastic about their roles—which ultimately improves student outcomes.
- Fundraising campaigns not as successful as you’d hoped? Implement ISM’s practical advice and guidance to build a thriving annual fund, construct an effective capital campaign, and secure major donors—no matter your community size or location.
- Not sure how to provide professional development—for you and your staff? Learn ways to develop and fund a successful professional development strategy. You can improve teacher-centered satisfaction and growth, which in turn strengthens student-centered learning.
- Problematic schedule? You can master the challenges of scheduling with the help of ISM’s practical advice, based on our experience with hundreds of schools and our time-tested theories.
- And so much more.
I&P has shared targeted research, up-to-date insight, and sound theory with school leaders since 1975. More than 8,500 private school decision-makers find the answers to their schools’ administrative and governance matters in our advisory letter. We give you the strategic answers you need.
As an ISM Silver or Gold member, you not only receive issues online and in print 10 times a year, but you have access to more than 600 articles in our web archive. Need help? It’s at your fingertips! Learn more and sign up for ISM's membership here.
Search
See the articles from our latest issue of Ideas & Perspectives.
Terms for Board Members and Officers
Volume 39 No. 1 // January 20, 2014
As Board President or Chair of the Committee on Trustees (COT), you may ask whether or not ISM has evidence that the length of Board terms is an institutional difference-maker. ISM’s answer is no, but the following observations may be useful.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
Faculty Motivation, Schedule Change, and School Change
Volume 39 No. 1 // January 20, 2014
Schools continually talk about their schedules. The typical targets are the sense of constant rush, the recognition that incremental annual changes have fragmented the schedule, a desire for more effective teaching time, and an interest in collaboration. It can be a frustrating conversation. It is easy to identify issues that need attention, but difficult to persuade faculty to adopt potential schedule changes. Everyone knows change is necessary, but few want to risk jumping from the frying pan into the fire! ISM has previously stated, “The skill of the School Head will be sorely tested as he/she moves faculty culture from a place of semidependency (“just tell me what to do”) to a place of organic vibrancy that bubbles up creative, critical, and innovative ways to maintain a freshness that continues to enable the school’s mission to be practiced in a hyperchange environment.” Scheduling is a change mechanism, whether moving to a six- or seven-day cycle, rotating classes, lengthening periods, and so on. Typically, this mechanism is intentional in three ways, including:
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
Endowment: Concepts and Tactics
Volume 39 No. 1 // January 20, 2014
Many schools have endowment programs. Even more do not. Whether your school should have an endowment is not an easy question to either formulate or answer in a meaningful way. Schools that have them believe that they are a critical part of their futures. Many school leaders think that endowment has to be a part of their ongoing planning. Clearly, if you have an endowment, it can be an enormous plus for the school’s ability to deliver its mission. But it is not as simple as it seems.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
The Life Stages of a School
Volume 39 No. 1 // January 20, 2014
As School Head, understanding your school’s stage in its ongoing maturation can be helpful in providing you with clear insight as to what is—and is not—possible. The stages outlined here are intended to help provide encouragement for schools early in their growth, praise for those that have reached maturity with excellence, and warning for those in peril of old age.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
Faculty Culture Profile II and Student Experience Profile II, Spring 2012–Spring 2013 Data Summaries and Commentary
Volume 38 No. 16 // December 16, 2013
ISM published its Student Experience Study (SES) outcomes in January 2012, and published related articles in Ideas & Perspectives throughout that spring. Among the features in the report were a revised Faculty Culture Profile (ISM’s longstanding measure of the quality of a school’s faculty culture) and a revised Student Culture Profile (renamed the Student Experience Profile). The report also included the study’s statistical findings and an instrument for use as part of any school’s approach to faculty evaluation, the Characteristics of Professional Excellence II. Beginning with the spring 2012 data collection period, ISM has published quarterly data summaries of both the Faculty Culture Profile II (FCP II) and the Student Experience Profile II (SEP II). This is the first annual analysis article, one that reviews the previous quarterly data summaries and provides commentary regarding the implications of those summaries.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
Facilities: When You Run Out of Money
Volume 38 No. 16 // December 16, 2013
Consider this case study drawn from a real example in 2012. A school has positive enrollment and is committed to expanding facilities that reflect the school’s commitment to project-based learning, inquiry, and differentiation. The school is committed to diversity reflected in an admission policy inviting application from a wide range of students with a mix of educational needs. Class sizes are between 20 and 30. The faculty is excellent and has been involved in the facilities planning process from the start. The Board is enthusiastic about the new construction project, as is the parent body. The capital campaign kicks off with apparent success. Before all the money is in the bank, the school begins the building process. Unfortunately, the campaign is not as successful as was anticipated.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
How to Design Your Annual Fund as a Platform for Campaign Gifts
Volume 38 No. 15 // November 18, 2013
In recent years, partly because of the challenges in our economy and partly because the techniques are so successful, some schools use a capital campaign-style, personalized approach to donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship that has inspired many to give and others to continue to increase their level of giving. ISM now suggests that this become the norm, not just a response to special circumstances. The annual fund is the foundation of your fund-raising efforts. Like all development programs, its impact goes beyond dollars—the ultimate goals are to build relationships and to create a culture of giving in your school. Because the annual fund is broadly based and occurs regularly, it connects your school with the widest possible group of donors in your community. It also helps you identify individuals who later might become primary supporters of your capital, endowment, and major gift programs. A robust annual fund also provides a training ground for volunteers to identify, cultivate, solicit, recognize, and steward donors and prospects.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
Match Points Ease Scheduling Challenges
Volume 38 No. 15 // November 18, 2013
Creating a master schedule is challenging enough when you attempt to accommodate the basic demands of people, function, time, and space during the day. Those challenges multiply when you add the following factors to the equation. Faculty who teach in more than one division of the school. The need to create a schedule that is age-appropriate in each division without impacting the schedule of any other division. A single facility—most commonly a gymnasium or lunchroom—that must be shared by all divisions. Groups of students that must move a substantial distance between buildings—or even campuses.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
The ISM Faculty and Management Compensation Survey, 2012-13: School Head Salaries
Volume 38 No. 15 // November 18, 2013
The School Head is the sole employee of the Board, and management of the Head’s compensation is a high priority. Numerous entities are now asking how much compensation is too much for nonprofit CEOs. Never has it been more important that the Board be fully conversant about Head compensation. Only then can the Board determine what adjustments are needed to ensure that the school compensates competitively to retain the Head or enhance its ability to be competitive in its next Head search. Trustees must educate themselves about the marketplace and understand the complexities of the School Head’s job. ISM surveyed a random sample of I&P subscriber schools concerning compensation for faculty and administrators. This article focuses on the survey results regarding the salaries of School Heads at our participating day schools.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.
Erroneous Premises Employed in Tuition Setting
Volume 38 No. 14 // November 4, 2013
More than 30 years ago, ISM published a seminal article concerning the wrongful thinking often used when setting tuition. The article intended to help school leaders understand that pricing included a complex array of decision points, and that much of the “common wisdom” concerning tuition was incorrect. School leaders—notably the Board, School Head, and Management Team—must understand these variables to safeguard the school’s value proposition. Let’s re-examine four of the most prevalent erroneous premises.
1. Already a member? Click here to login.
2. Not a member? Click here to become a member.
3. Not sure? We'll help you figure it out.