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.
The Distinctions Between Endowment, Quasi-endowment, and Reserves
Volume 50 No. 2 // February 1, 2025
Private-independent schools rely on several specific financial strategies to ensure their long-term sustainability while fulfilling their educational missions. Among these, endowments, quasi-endowments, and reserves play distinct roles. Understanding these concepts can help school leaders and boards...
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Strengthening the Head-Board Partnership for Effective Crisis Communication
Volume 50 No. 2 // February 1, 2025
Crises can emerge at any time, catching even the most prepared schools off guard. For private-independent schools, crises bring unique challenges that require a strategic and unified response. Whether responding to a deepfake scandal or a natural disaster, school heads and boards must work collabora...
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The Board President: Responsibilities
Volume 50 No. 2 // February 1, 2025
Originally published December 15, 1980 In most schools, the only reference to the duties and powers of the board president occurs in bylaws, as in the following statement: The board president shall preside at all meetings of the board and shall appoint all committees that are n...
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Creating a Culture of Giving and Getting Involved: Research Report
Volume 50 No. 2 // February 1, 2025
As a private school development director, you have two primary responsibilities: meet your goals for raising funds and play your part in achieving the aims of the school’s strategic plan and strategic financial plan. To measure whether your development operation reflects industry-recommended prac...
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Tuition and Financial Aid: How Much Can a Family Afford?
Volume 50 No. 1 // January 1, 2025
Financial aid committees often focus on getting the award “right.” By that, they usually mean providing just enough financial support to meet a family’s demonstrated need, but not a penny more. But recently the ISM consulting team posed a different question: What percentage of its annual income shou...
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Navigating 2025: Top Trends and Challenges for Independent School Boards
Volume 50 No. 1 // January 1, 2025
As 2025 begins, private-independent schools should prepare for continuing shifts in donor expectations, cultural priorities, and operational landscapes. To remain effective stewards, school boards must adapt to both emerging trends and long-term challenges. Here are five areas to prioritize in the c...
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Contemporary Athletic Programs and Mission Alignment
Volume 50 No. 1 // January 1, 2025
Many private-independent schools, especially those with upper schools, struggle with the place of athletic programs within the overall scope of their educational missions. Schools reflect the reality that sports exert a pervasive influence in American culture. Few school leaders dispute the educa...
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From Vision to Reality: Implementing Your Strategic Plan
Volume 50 No. 1 // January 1, 2025
If you, as board chair or school head, have completed the process of creating a strategic plan and a strategic financial plan, you have experienced an exciting and possibly transformative event for your school. You have set forth dreams for your students, and the actions to realize those dreams, in ...
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A Senator Speaks as a Trustee...to Trustees
Volume 49 No. 10 // December 1, 2024
l would like to conclude with a few thoughts from one who has been a Trustee, to other Trustees. This is such a marvelous opportunity I can’t let it go by. Now these are not necessarily things that I have done successfully or things in which I participated, but they are things that ...
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The Case for Faculty on the Admission Committee
Volume 49 No. 10 // December 1, 2024
Several factors are critical contributors to a healthy enrollment, but the top four are a thorough understanding of target families, a marketing message confirmed by research, a detailed outreach plan, and a system for gathering and interpreting enrollment information. New technological solutio...
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