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.
Make Deliberate Choices When Fundraising With Special Events
Volume 47 No. 1 // January 1, 2022
As Development Director, you frequently coordinate special events that raise money for your school. Such events include auctions, trivia or casino nights, book fairs, “fund-a-need” giving days, carnivals, and other community-building experiences. Determining your event’s fundraising purpose can be particularly challenging if there is a lack of clarity about the school’s strategic needs or special interest groups on campus dominate the discussion.
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Assumptions and Your High School Schedule
Volume 47 No. 1 // January 1, 2022
Exploring a new high school schedule requires you, the School Head or Division Head, to encourage open-mindedness and flexibility from your faculty.
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Want a Great Board? Start With Strong Committee Chairs
Volume 47 No. 1 // January 1, 2022
As Board President, you are aware that committees are the linchpins for your Board of Trustees. The Board operates effectively when there is a foundation of effective, well-led committees. When Board meetings are well-attended, purposeful, and gratifying, that, too, usually grows out of understanding and implementing the principles of establishing committees the best way.
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Developing a Pre-Employment Screening Process
Volume 47 No. 1 // January 1, 2022
Exempli Gratia Academy, ISM’s fictional coed K–12 school, needed to fill a bus driver position. The Business Manager ran an advertisement, conducted interviews, checked previous employment and references, and hired a candidate. A month later, the new driver crashed into a telephone pole and several students on the bus suffered injuries.
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Coaching Your Leadership Team
Volume 46 No. 10 // December 1, 2021
As School Head, you have been asking questions your entire professional career, but have you ever considered why targeted, insightful questions are so important? Well-developed questions play a crucial role in enabling people to innovate, solve problems, and achieve goals. This is especially true in the coaching role School Heads fill for their Leadership Team.
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Curriculum-, Adult-, or Student-Centered: Through Which Lens Does Your School Make Decisions?
Volume 46 No. 10 // December 1, 2021
The lens by which a school determines and organizes the day and year often affects the school environment. Ultimately, that lens impacts the school experience and influences important student and school outcomes, such as student satisfaction, enthusiasm, performance, well-being, and ultimately enrollment demand. Through ISM’s many years of working with schools, we have encountered three types of lenses dominating school environments: curriculum-centered, adult-centered, and learner-centered. Which environment exists in your school?
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Elevate Your Culture of Giving and Getting Involved With Your Annual Report
Volume 46 No. 10 // December 1, 2021
As Development Director, you want to be sure your donors and volunteers feel appreciated for the commitments they have made to your school through their philanthropic and volunteer support. You also want them to know their commitments have made a significant difference to your students and faculty. Your school’s annual report is an essential tool as you seek to recognize and steward your donors and volunteers effectively and for you to keep them engaged with your school’s mission, programs, and people.
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Make the Most of the Accreditation Process
Volume 46 No. 10 // December 1, 2021
Before, during, and after your next accreditation team visit, bear in mind there are two significant areas that you, as School Head, are in a position to influence strongly. The first deals with the institutional “tone” of the self-study and of the accreditation team’s visit itself. The second deals with the effects of the accreditation team's recommendations on the long-term financial health of your school.
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17 Core Questions to Ask Before Purchasing Real Estate
Volume 46 No. 9 // November 1, 2021
As long as schools are actual and not virtual institutions, real estate will remain critical to sustainability. Your Board of Trustees must always be aware of the possibility of purchasing property for growth and investment.
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Creating Your Development Action Plan
Volume 46 No. 9 // November 1, 2021
As Development Committee Chair, you know the committee must fulfill your Board’s strategic plan’s development goals in a timely manner.* Your development action plan, with the school’s strategic plan, becomes a valuable tool for completing those goals. Create your 18-month plan by setting goals that fall into three distinct categories.
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