Strategic academic planning ensures your team stays aligned on priorities, has the resources it needs, and achieves your goal of providing a well-rounded education for your students. But this isn’t a static process—it’s an innovative system requiring consistent iteration and innovation. Discover the fundamental steps of developing a Strategic Academic Plan to ensure you have a sound path to follow into an uncertain future.

When it comes to private school admission, your recruitment and re-recruitment efforts are paramount to your school’s long-term viability. Build an effective Admission Office team that understands and utilizes the admission funnel so you can generate more applications and inquiries from day one. Learn best practices and the key roles within an Admission Office with the goal of building an effective team.

Learn the ins and outs of the Athletic Director role so you can effectively promote and maintain your school’s athletic program. Discover how to create and implement physical education initiatives that encourage students to lead happy and healthy lives, while maintaining policies that protect their safety.

Department Chairs must act as an essential bridge between a school's Leadership Team and the faculty. Explore strategies for exercising leadership, communicating openly, and running your department effectively. Discover how to facilitate change and support your colleagues to deliver your mission with excellence.

Your school, whether large or small, can run a successful capital campaign—with the correct preparation. Explore the dynamics of independent school fundraising to support your school’s ability to make a difference for your students. Become more confident in your own role and understand how to maximize the capacity of your volunteer and donor base.

Strategic planning helps reset a school’s direction and brings about meaningful institutional growth. Understand the important elements that are required to create an effective strategic plan. Discuss effective Board structure, explore your school’s marketplace stance, and learn how to quantify your school's perceived value. Discover the steps you must take now to protect your school for the future.

Examine the latest research in scheduling and classroom instruction to guarantee a strong, healthy schedule that enhances the quality of your graduates. Return to your school with incredible quantities of up-to-date research and modern scheduling strategies, and an action plan that walks you through improving your school’s schedule design and process.

Discover how to excel as a Marketing Communications Director. We’ll share our proven strategies, in-depth knowledge—inviting you to participate in hands-on activities. Create a marketing communication action plan you can immediately implement.

Whether you’re a brand-new Head or one who wants a refresher on fiscal management, discover how to develop a financial success framework to ensure school success. Rely on ISM’s tools and strategies to help you feel more confident in financial conversations and contribute positively to the long-term financial viability of your school.

Discover the truth: ALL the factors challenging your enrollment can be fixed, and most “fixes” cost you nothing! Don’t suffer from unpredictable enrollment outcomes anymore. Unveil the root causes for declining or flatlining enrollment at your school. Learn how to collect and use data to determine the nature of the decline—and to pinpoint specific strategies to address the contributing factors.

The foundation of your school’s culture of philanthropy begins with a strong annual fund. Discover how to build a thriving annual fund strategy that drives relationships, generates enthusiasm, and raises dollars—enabling your school to go above and beyond in delivering your mission to your students.

If you’re considering a move into private school administration, gain the tools and strategies to be successful. Examine what it means to be an academic administrator in a private school, your leadership vision and motivations, and how to make the move effectively. Discover how to prepare and what to expect so you can make sound decisions for your future.

Running effective digital ad campaigns that actually generate mission-appropriate leads is easier said than done. Learn exactly how to run Facebook and Instagram ads that generate new family leads, inquiries, and applications.

Feel confident in your new Headship with strategies and tactics backed by research and used by successful Heads. This six-month cohort is for attendees of ISM’s New Heads Accelerator workshop or Dollars and Sense for School Heads workshop. Extend your time with ISM by engaging in monthly group sessions and one-on-one meetings with ISM Consultant Shannan Schuster from July through December to ensure your first years as a Head are successful.

Manage every aspect of your ever-growing role as an upper school Dean of Students. Fulfill your responsibilities with confidence, keeping students first in everything you do.

Explore your personal leadership style while analyzing and reflecting on strategies for evaluating faculty, navigating school change, promoting a healthy school culture, and designing an up-to-date schedule. Gain the tools you need to work with colleagues, support faculty growth, and foster a healthy, dynamic culture in your upper school division.

Department Chairs must act as an essential bridge between a school's Leadership Team and the faculty. Explore strategies for exercising leadership, communicating openly, and running your department effectively. Discover how to facilitate change and support your colleagues to deliver your mission with excellence.

A successful advisory program is a difference-maker for middle and upper school students. How does yours rate? In this highly interactive workshop, educators explore core concepts for focusing, enhancing, and building (or rebuilding) the advisory program so it reflects and supports the mission of the school.

Turn your lower school division into an exceptional environment that provides a stable, student-centered learning community through ISM’s research-based strategies. Discover ways to build and sustain a healthy staff of administrators and faculty that allows your school to deliver its mission with excellence. Start your school year well-equipped to lead your division to greater heights with a self-designed action plan ready to implement on day one.

The role of the executive or administrative assistant is vital to school operations. In many ways, you are the glue that holds your school together. But this job also comes with its challenges. Become a valuable leader by partnering with ISM for professional development and peer networking.

Middle School Heads and administrators must provide support for their students, as well as fair and thoughtful discipline leading to character development. Create an experiential and practical roadmap to help support these goals and more. Leave with an action plan on how to move your middle school community forward—and a group of peers to provide support and collegiality long after the workshop concludes.

This past year demanded steady and decisive vision and management, all the while challenging leaders with unrelenting uncertainty. Identify the strengths that you bring to your administrative or Leadership Team, and how to create team excellence when managing up, down, and among peers. After this course, you'll reap the results of strong leadership, healthy cultures, clear purpose, and powerful relationships.

Learn strategies and tactics to excel in your new position as Development Director. Whether you’re new to the position or need to adapt your current skills to a private school context, this workshop provides training and support as you define your priorities—creating an action plan for the coming year.

Middle School Deans wear many hats: teacher, advisor, disciplinarian, coach, administrator, and more. Learn how to set goals, satisfy the needs of multiple stakeholders, communicate effectively, and find time for self-care. Participants will be asked to bring resources from their schools to help create an action plan for the first 100 days of the school year.

If you’ve just hired a teacher who has never worked in independent schools before, this workshop provides tools for success. Attendees develop a foundational understanding of how independent schools work, how a school’s mission influences each teacher’s role, and how to flourish from the first day in a new school community.