ISM believes that the primary job of academic administrators (e.g., Division Heads and Department Chairs) is to coach and mentor faculty toward outstanding performance. The question that this begs is: Who is supposed to coach and mentor the coaches?

Bullying is nothing new to kids, but it has come into sharp focus, with stories of cyberbullying, text threats, and what seems to be the growing number of victim suicides. Schools and school districts are beginning to deal seriously with bullying, and are putting anti-bullying policies into place.

As Division Head, you have Department Heads reporting to you—and their duties could range from selecting text books and doing paperwork to hiring, coaching, and mentoring faculty members. Indeed, the potential responsibilities of a Department Head can range far and wide, and vary by school.

ISM recently published a new teacher evaluation model for private-independent schools. Today’s lead article describes how you can implement this type of an evaluation approach in your school.

As the semester winds down, we know that your schedule ramps up—often without a moment to spare. Following from last month’s practice, we wanted to offer a selection of performance-related quotes and resources culled from recent Twitter and blog postings, to encourage and support you.

Q: I keep reading news items about the “NLRB” and social media policies. Since we’re not unionized, does this affect us in any way?

There’s a new social media giant in the making, and it’s one you might want to consider taking some time to familiarize yourself with—Pinterest. Just what is Pinterest? If you’ve already acquainted yourself with Twitter, then you’re aware of the power of social media and how easy it is to share your school’s events, successes, and news with your followers. If your school has included social media as part of its marketing plan and development practices, then you might also be aware of how profitable social media can be. Just a few minutes a day can go a long way. However, for the visual thinkers out there, Twitter can be visually unpleasing regardless of custom backgrounds and the adoption of Twitpics.

10 Tips for Reusing Plastic Milk Jugs According to the National Geographic documentary Human Footprint, Americans consume about 989,985,594,240 half gallons of milk over the course of a lifetime. Good news—Americans clearly enjoy this healthy beverage. Bad news—waste is a growing issue for all of us.

With the school year starting to wind down and renewal contracts being negotiated, sick time is likely one of those things your school is taking a look at. Allowing faculty and staff to accrue sick days is often seen as an added benefit in many schools—one that is perhaps cheaper than offering Short Term Disability (STD) insurance. But is it really cheaper? Let’s take a closer look.

Establishing good indicators of the current state of school crime and safety across the nation—and regularly updating and monitoring these indicators—is important in ensuring the safety of our nation’s students. This is the aim of Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2011, just released in February of this year. This is the 14th report in a series of annual publications produced jointly by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in the U.S. Department of Justice. This report presents the most recent data available on school crime and student safety.