During our 2017 Summer Institute, private-independent school administrators from around the world gathered in Wilmington, DE to develop effective strategies, create action plans, and network with their peers and colleagues. It was an extremely successful event with administrators participating in 26 different workshops throughout the four-week conference.

It’s time to start thinking about preparing for the fall semester. And whether you’ve spent the summer relaxing or hard at work, there is still time to get through a good book or two before the school year begins.

August is rapidly approaching and you know what that means—it’s time to put your school year planning into high gear. Starting the school year with a clean slate is an opportunity to set new goals and take on fresh challenges. Whether this is your first year in your position or you’re a seasoned pro with decades of experience, everyone can use these strategies to begin the year on the right foot.

In a recent survey of more than 1,000 education technology vendors, only 56% encrypt login and personal information—such as usernames, passwords, and other personally identifiable information—on their websites. This is a stunning statistic. As schools embrace new technology, it’s clear that the burden to ensure data privacy and mitigate risk falls at the school level.

ISM believes that private-independent schools must practice distributed leadership. By this we mean all professionals in your school—school administrators, faculty, and staff—are leaders in their own right. Every individual in your school is responsible for strategic leadership in his or her respective role, contributing to the overall well-being of your school’s direction.

The Internet has democratized how we share information unlike anything before it. Educators and administrators can share ideas, best practices, and advice with their global peers from the comfort of their school, leaning on each other to refine their strategies and techniques.

When asked if increasing tuition would scare away current and prospective families, many school administrators might be tempted to respond with a resounding “Yes!” But our latest findings show that’s not necessarily the case. ISM, Measuring Success, and the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) recently collaborated on the third iteration of a study originally deployed in 2006 to study the impact of tuition increases on private-independent school enrollment.

Your Board holds the responsibility for developing your school’s financial aid policy. The Board should write a strong statement that sets fundamental policy, based on your school’s particular mission and budget guidelines, as well as careful calculations of per-pupil cost, retained earnings, and incremental costs.

Over the years, ISM’s Institutional Assessment visits (now called Strategic Performance Analyses) have uncovered a disconcertingly broad range in the completeness of the organizational history provided by school documents and individuals’ memories. Your school’s “strategic history” provides both constraints and opportunities for its strategic future.

“Fidget spinners have descended on my classroom. Last week, two students had them. This week, everyone had one!” Sound familiar? One of the hot toys this spring was the fidget spinner, a circular device with a bearing in the middle that allows users to spin it around their fingers. But what role does it play in the classroom?