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See articles for School Heads, Business & Operations, Advancement, Academic Leadership, and Trustees, in addition to Private School News.
Life After Newtown
School Heads // April 9, 2013
The mass shooting at Newtown Elementary School in Connecticut back in December, resulting in the death of 20 young children and six adults, fanned the flames of the gun control/second amendment rights debate nationwide. You more than likely took another look at your school’s safety policies and precautions—especially since ISM research has shown that keeping their children in a safe haven is the top reason parents choose private schools.
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Hangout: How to Build Ties to Young Donors
Advancement // March 29, 2013
Millennials—young people born between 1979 and 1993—are likely part of your alumni base. Derrick Feldman and Kari Dunn Saratovsky, in their new book Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement, share what their research shows are the keys to attracting those young donors and volunteers. The alumni/ae of your school are often a great untapped source of support, and young alumni have the freshest memories of their experience as your students.
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Cybertools for Easy Communication
Advancement // March 29, 2013
Recently in ISM’s e-list for Admission Directors, one director wondered if anyone had used Eventbrite.com to promote open houses. Others offered up a recommendation for Paperlesspost.com. Both of these are online-only tools for greetings, notes, and invitations—communications that traditionally involved paper and postage. On one hand, communicating in cyberspace is cheap (mostly free), instant, and can be managed 24/7. On the downside, it may seem sterile, get lost as spam, and … can be managed 24/7. (If you can do your work round the clock, will you give yourself permission not to?)
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Ask the Expert
Advancement // March 29, 2013
Q: “Should a Development Director’s salary be based on a percentage of funds raised?”
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Exit Interviews and Attrition Surveys
Advancement // March 29, 2013
The design of your survey is critical. A poorly designed survey can result in ambiguous, irrelevant, or unreliable data. If your school is designing the survey in-house, make sure that someone with a solid background in survey design is involved in the project.
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Things to Remember as a Division Leader
Academic Leadership // March 27, 2013
In his latest blog for EdWeek.com, elementary school principal Peter DeWitt poses the question “Why Would Anyone Want To Be a School Leader?” A public school leader himself, he touches on issues public school leaders face. However, some of the basic issues resonate for both public and private school educators.
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Dark Chocolate: It’s a Good Thing
Academic Leadership // March 27, 2013
With the spring holidays here, chocolate candy is everywhere! Yes, it’s a source of fat, sugar and calories. But research has shown that dark chocolate has some health benefits, too. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s philly.com Web site gives you permission to indulge in some dark chocolate.
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Ask Michael
Business and Operations // March 19, 2013
Q: We’re planning to dismiss a long-serving teacher at the end of the school year. We don’t have any documentation, though. Should we start a “warning” process now?
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Considering Merit Pay: Motivation, Fairness, and Retention
Business and Operations // March 19, 2013
There has been considerable discussion and debate in private school board rooms, administrative offices, and faculty lounges in recent years regarding “merit pay” (also known as “pay for performance”). While this type of pay arrangement is common in virtually every environment outside of schools, it is still a relatively novel concept in the private-independent school world. Today, we’d like to take a look at issues of motivation, fairness, and retention with respect to merit pay systems.
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Preparing the Ground (or Risking Failure)
Business and Operations // March 19, 2013
As the first signs of Spring appear in many parts of the country, thoughts turn to the reawakening Earth, planting of fields and flowers, and all things that speak to growth. With this as our theme, we want to share with you a story—based on true events, as they say—that sheds some light on the need to “prepare the ground” when launching any significant change event.
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