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What are the latest trends impacting private-independent school enrollment? How can you be the most effective in your role as an administrator? How can you help your school meet its mission and best serve your students?
Check out Community Corner, a free blog from ISM.
We cover such topics as how to communicate with your constituencies, work with your fellow school leaders, leverage new technology trends, utilize recommended reading and resources, implement new strategies—all to better serve your school's mission.
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See articles for School Heads, Business & Operations, Advancement, Academic Leadership, and Trustees, in addition to Private School News.
How to Virally Market Through the Clutter
Advancement // February 27, 2013
Getting your school’s message out there is easy. Getting your school’s message heard through the clutter of everyone else’s is the tricky part.
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Zero Tolerance and Young Children: What’s the Common-Sense Answer?
Academic Leadership // February 20, 2013
Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut, school administrators and parents are on edge. The tragedy has thrust gun control and school security issues to the forefront of the national conversation, and zero-tolerance policies are once again in the news.
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A Lincoln Teaching Tool, Courtesy of Hollywood
Academic Leadership // February 20, 2013
Daniel Day Lewis’s striking portrayal of Abraham Lincoln as he works the political maze to pass the 13th amendment to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude in the film Lincoln will be coming to all public and private school middle and high schools as soon as the DVD hits stores.
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Ask Michael
Business and Operations // February 18, 2013
Q: I’m the Business Manager/HR person for a midsize school (50 employees). I’d like to automate our HR record-keeping functions, and I’ve started to look into what our payroll provider offers. Is there a software program or vendor that you would recommend?
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Examples, Examples, Examples
Business and Operations // February 18, 2013
In the 12 months since we released the new ISM Evaluation and Growth Cycle model, we’ve been asked to compare this to other approaches that schools currently use. We’re happy to address one particular theme concerning evaluation rubrics.
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Rebuilding Working Relationships
Business and Operations // February 18, 2013
Looking at the calendar (and observing the cold, gray weather here in the Northeast), we know that we’ve reached the winter doldrums—the time of year when measures of enthusiasm, engagement and morale bottom out in schools (and most other organizations, for that matter). Part of the collateral damage often involves a fraying of working relationships between groups as well as individuals.
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Engaging Your Facebook Fans
Advancement // February 14, 2013
If your school has a Facebook presence, but you’d like to see more wall banter, why not have some fun? Facebook isn’t just for posting cat pictures! Give your Facebook fans something to comment on, just for the sake of commenting. After all, engagement it what it’s all about, and it’s a painless way to engage your alumni.
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Aim for Sticky Messages
Advancement // February 14, 2013
SUCCES. No, it’s not a misspelling. It’s the acronym for what authors Chip and Dan Heath call “sticky messages.” In their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, the Heaths outline six key principles that are the recipe for messages that resonate. Consider how to adapt SUCCES into your marketing message.
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School Environment Health Programs
Board of Trustees // February 12, 2013
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed voluntary guidelines to assist K–12 schools in establishing and implementing environmental health programs in accordance with the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007. In carrying out this statutory mandate, EPA, along with its federal partners, developed these guidelines to help states establish the infrastructure needed to support schools in implementing school environmental health programs.
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Ask the Consultant
School Heads // February 6, 2013
Q: It has recently been suggested that we should stop using employment contracts with staff employees. Do you agree with this advice? And, if we discontinue using contracts, we have to communicate their new salaries to employees in some way. What do you suggest?
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