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.
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See the articles from our latest issue of Ideas & Perspectives.
Revisit Your School's Policy Concerning Child Sexual Abuse
Volume 30 No. 7 // June 1, 2005
A recent draft report, “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature,” commissioned by the U.S. Education Department, concludes that, while far too little is known about the prevalence of sexual misconduct by school employees, likely millions of children—including those in private institutions—are being affected by such abuse during their school years. Although critics of the report say the numbers may be “a bit extreme,” the author maintains the report’s credibility, stressing that at the very least, the report shows that further study is needed, and that the issue of sexual abuse in schools cannot be taken lightly. ISM has long recommended that schools take clear steps toward preventing sexual abuse—both for the sake of their students and the long-term well-being of their institutions
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The Head Support and Evaluation Committee: What Does 'Support' Actually Mean?
Volume 30 No. 7 // June 1, 2005
The Head Support and Evaluation Committee (HSEC) links the school's planning document (and Board agenda) to the School Head's plan. Once it is clear what the Head is being asked to do for the coming year, the question the committee must ask is: How can we support the Head to ensure success and thus the continued strategic motion of the school?
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Managing Complex Change in Private-Independent Schools
Volume 30 No. 4 // March 31, 2005
When you know that a complex change is about to be presented at your school—maybe through a new strategic plan, the intent to introduce technology in a significant way, the addition of a new division, the building of a new art center, the reinvention of teaching practices in the middle school, or the production of a Parent Education Plan, as examples—focus not on the change itself, but on how that change is going to be implemented by real people.
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A Comprehensive Development Model
Volume 30 No. 4 // March 31, 2005
The Board of Trustees has the duty to ensure the multi-generational, long-term success of the school by establishing and maintaining a comprehensive development infrastructure to support the school’s strategic and long range plans. Whether your school is large or small, new or old, day or boarding, elementary or K-12, ISM has found that success is built on having six key development elements securely in place. Your enhancements and big dreams will achieve realization through the income-producing, donor-centered programs of the Comprehensive Development Model, while your day-to-day operations expenses should be covered with tuition and other hard income.
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Why You Should Have the Head of a Noncompeting School on Your Board
Volume 30 No. 3 // March 7, 2005
As Chair of the Committee on Trustees, you understand that one of your committee’s primary tasks is to identify, interview, and nominate new members whose capabilities fit the Board's profile. As your committee reviews the qualifications of potential members, be cognizant of a candidate who might be overlooked despite the implications of your Board profile template—the Head of a noncompeting school.
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Focus on Your School's Unique Family Demographics
Volume 30 No. 3 // March 7, 2005
Private-independent schools are service organizations, designed by their missions to meet families’ educational needs. Yet schools seldom take the time to understand who their families really are and what they truly value. They also may not have a clear picture of what income brackets these constituents comprise.
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The Administrative Culture Profile
Volume 30 No. 1 // January 17, 2005
ISM’s study of School Head leadership has, by the nature of its findings, implied the creation of an instrument comparable to the Faculty Culture Profile for use at the administrative level. This instrument, the Administrative Culture Profile, is designed for use with academic administrators: i.e., administrators who oversee instructional programs directly or indirectly, including the School Head. It may be used in the following ways.
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The Symptoms of a Toxic Schedule—And the Remedy
Volume 30 No. 1 // January 17, 2005
The schedule is expected to provide an environment in which students can gain access to the rich program your school offers. As School Head, you may notice that the schedule serves student interests less and less well as the program becomes more complex. Both students and faculty become more harried.
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Advisory Programs:What Does the Future Hold?
Volume 29 No. 16 // December 22, 2004
The most distinctive difference between students’ educational experiences in most private-independent schools and those of students in their strongest public school competitors is the level of personalized attention they receive—attention guided by the multiple human values embodied in school mission. In lower schools, this kind of attention is fostered by relatively low student-to-teacher ratios, often in self-contained classrooms. In middle and upper divisions, the advisory program is the primary “delivery system.” The most significant, programmatic difference-maker in serving private-independent schools’ strategic interests—in both fulfillment of mission and development of competitive advantage—is the vigor, authenticity, and professionalism of their advisory programs.
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15 Administrative Actions and Approaches Compatible With the Findings of ISM’s Head Leadership Study
Volume 29 No. 16 // December 22, 2004
In a previously published I&P article, "ISM Research Report: 16 Characteristics of Head Leadership," ISM reported the results and implications of its fall 2004 leadership study. Those findings were arrayed in two eight-item lists (see Tables 1 and 2). The following 15-item list provides a sampling of the kinds of actions and approaches you, as School Head, might take to move forward with implementation of those findings.
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