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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.
Assessing the Quality and Impact of a Faculty Growth Goal: A Rubric
Volume 46 No. 6 // June 1, 2021
ISM’s growth and evaluation framework for teachers clarifies that growth itself is not to be evaluated. This frees teachers to try new things and take risks without fear of failure. The Essential Expectation is only that they “authentically engage in self-reflection and development of a growth and renewal plan. This includes written goals and progress toward those goals.”
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Empower Your Teachers to Be Frontline Re-Recruiters
Volume 46 No. 6 // June 1, 2021
Among the many factors that drive families to choose private schools are safety and security, academic outcomes, and mission-alignment. But, as School or Division Head, you recognize that retaining families requires more than small class sizes and an impressive next-level placement record. Your faculty, in fact, is a primary reason your families stay at your school (or not).
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Create an Effective Annual Giving Plan
Volume 46 No. 6 // June 1, 2021
Annual giving is the foundational program from which all other development efforts grow and flourish. Not only is annual giving a revenue source for enhancing your school’s programs, but it is also the starting place for many prospects as they begin and sustain their philanthropic relationship with your school.
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The Headship: Leadership and the ISM Circle
Volume 46 No. 5 // May 1, 2021
The number-three ranking ISM Stability Marker—School Head leadership—is measured by the ISM Executive Leadership Survey.3 The first five items of the survey are shown here by example. Your review of these will inform the discussion that follows.
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Faculty Growth Plans: An 11-Stage Process to Ensure Authentic Engagement
Volume 46 No. 5 // May 1, 2021
One of ISM’s Essential Expectations on which faculty are evaluated is that teachers must “authentically engage in self-reflection and annual development of a growth and renewal plan, to include written goals and progress toward those goals.”1 To determine whether faculty members are meeting this expectation, ISM’s growth framework provides a clear process, developed to ensure “authentic engagement” while allowing for the risk-taking and failure required for meaningful growth
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When a Crisis ‘Goes Social’: Be Prepared to Respond
Volume 46 No. 5 // May 1, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic gave every private school a crash course on adapting and responding to a rapidly changing and difficult situation. Likewise, many schools found themselves immersed in the Black@ social movement, which necessitated consequential conversations with students, alumni, and other stakeholders in a public setting with unlimited reach.
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Preparing for the Unforeseeable
Volume 46 No. 4 // April 1, 2021
Economic downturns, natural disasters, and worldwide pandemics—events not only unforeseeable but sometimes interrelated and feeding off one another—will not be going away. As Board President or School Head, seize the opportunity in times of relative normality to keep these facts of institutional life in mind when your Board assembles for its regularly scheduled strategic planning sessions.
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Document the Identification and Age of All Applicant Students
Volume 46 No. 4 // April 1, 2021
Admission Directors often wonder what documentation they should require of applicant families to ensure the most mission-serving outcome for the school. There are obvious requirements, such as students’ transcripts or annual report cards, teacher references from students’ current teachers, and copies of relevant attendance and discipline records. But what about the school’s need to certify the identity and date of birth (DOB) of applicant students? There are important considerations for not only the Admission Director, but also the School Head, Business Manager, Athletic Director, and International Program Director.
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When Enrollment Drops: Eight Strategies to Reverse the Decline
Volume 46 No. 4 // April 1, 2021
When enrollment declines occur, it is critical that the Leadership Team reacts quickly to begin a thorough investigation to understand and correct the missteps that have caused the reduction in numbers.
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Midyear Enrollment of International Students
Volume 46 No. 4 // April 1, 2021
You, as School Head or Admission Director, may find new enrollment interest from international families at any point in the school year. Those families’ interest in your school may or may not conform to the early fall enrollment tradition. Your response to this kind of interest should be well-planned and addressed not only in your written and published enrollment policies but also in your strategic financial planning documents.
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