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.
Prepaid Tuition, Gift Taxes, and Your School's Bottom Line
Volume 31 No. 9 // July 17, 2006
The Wall Street Journal recently featured an article titled “IRS Backs Novel Way to Avoid Gift Taxes” (February 15, 2006). The IRS ruled that individuals could choose to pay tuition to private schools and colleges for family members for multiple years in advance. These payments do not have to be reported to the IRS, are not subject to gift tax rules, and do not count toward the taxpayer’s annual exclusion amounts available for other gifts. These protections make this strategy attractive to those wishing to transfer their assets without any tax consequence. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants also endorsed this strategy as a method to minimize tax consequences while protecting the taxpayer’s annual exclusion amounts available for other gifts.
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Tapping Your Advisory Program's Strategic Potential
Volume 31 No. 9 // July 17, 2006
The School Head maintains a dual focus on strategic matters that includes: the goals outlined in the annual administrative agenda (derived from the current planning document) and the marketplace variables—Price, Product, Process—that, with relative degrees of emphasis, define the school.
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Compensation Negotiations With Your (Excellent) School Head
Volume 31 No. 8 // June 30, 2006
When the conversation about renewal of the School Head’s contract approaches, recognize that the two main components of this negotiation—performance evaluation (including setting the objectives for the next year) and the compensation package—need equal consideration. This article focuses on the compensation element of the negotiation process, when the Head has performed well and contract renewal is desired by all.
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The 2005 School Head Compensation Survey: Health and Other Insurance Benefits
Volume 31 No. 8 // June 30, 2006
Where comparable 1992, 1997, and 1999 data are available, the trends for health insurance benefits for School Heads are generally positive. Today, 97% of our respondents receive or are offered health insurance from their schools (see Figure 1), up 7% from the 1992 response. However, fewer than half (49.2%) of the current Heads surveyed receive 100% coverage for their individual health insurance premium.
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Purpose and Outcome Statements: Characteristics of Professional Excellence
Volume 31 No. 8 // June 30, 2006
The third ISM-recommended component of your Purpose and Outcome Statements (along with your mission statement and your Portrait of the Graduate) is your list of Characteristics of Professional Excellence. This is a 10- to 15-item list comprising your operational definition of faculty excellence. The items will relate both to your mission statement and to your Portrait of the Graduate, but differ because they focus on the specific behaviors, values, and attitudes that must be present in strength within your faculty in order for the mission to come alive and the portrait to be realized.
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Protect Your School With a Separation Agreement and General Release When Paying Severance
Volume 31 No. 7 // June 3, 2006
Most School Heads and administrators will face the task of terminating the employment of a faculty or staff member. While most faculty will not be terminated mid-year, there are circumstances in which this may occur. Although emotional aspects of a termination are often unavoidable, schools can help reduce their legal and financial risks by using a “separation agreement and general release.” There are, however, important considerations when crafting such documents.
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Faculty Autonomy and Collegiality: A Leadership/Management Challenge
Volume 31 No. 7 // June 3, 2006
Autonomy: An attitude that may include a sense of professionalism, competence, entrepreneurship, individuality, self-reliance, independence, and (negatively) self-centeredness, closed mindedness, and arrogance. Collegiality: The collection of behaviors that may include the following ideas: cooperation, collaboration, teamwork, sharing, cross-disciplinary actions, tolerance, and (negatively) intrusion, interference, not recognizing boundaries, “group thinking,” and inefficiency.
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Purpose and Outcome Statements: Portrait of the Graduate
Volume 31 No. 7 // June 3, 2006
In an earlier I&P article, ISM introduced the concept of Purpose and Outcome Statements. These statements include three definitive documents: the mission statement, the Portrait of the Graduate, and Characteristics of Professional Excellence. In combination, they guide the school in capturing the core reasons for its existence, distinguishing it from other schools, and defining its educational purposes. This article, the second in the series, explains the purpose and development of the Portrait of the Graduate.
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Your Parent Education Plan: Predictability and Support
Volume 31 No. 6 // May 10, 2006
In a previous article, ISM stated that the goal of a Parent Education Plan (PEP) is to move today’s parents from a "contract" mentality to a "sense of community" mentality. It is important to understand the precise meaning of the phrase “sense of community” before attempting to implement an effective PEP. Though possessing several programmatic elements, a strong PEP focuses on augmenting and facilitating a healthy parent culture. This culture (more than the various programmatic elements) will draw parents into a closer orbit around your school.
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The Top 12 Federal Employment and Benefits Laws Every School Administrator Should Know
Volume 31 No. 6 // May 10, 2006
As a School Head or private-independent school administrator, a myriad of legal and regulatory issues flash across your radar screen on a regular basis. With the barrage of administrative tasks, staying up-to-date on human resources laws may not seem a priority. However, having a solid understanding of the regulations pertaining to employment and benefits issues may make the difference between adroitly nipping an issue in the bud and allowing a situation to fester into an expensive lawsuit that could threaten the viability of your school.
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