Understanding how your current parents feel about your school is essential—it is so vital that you should never let a year go by without some systematic collection of parent opinions. But even more important than frequency is your ability to understand what you are hearing from constituents and to interpret these opinions accurately. Only with sound interpretation can you take wise actions based on survey results.
Understand Your School’s Economic Engine
“The buck stops here!” was popularized by President Harry S. Truman, who kept a sign with this phrase on his desk as a brazen reminder of his authority as chief executive. Truman believed that he was the head of an administrative bureaucracy, to be sure. But as President, he shouldered everything as his own responsibility. That’s noble leadership.
Do Language Classes Need to Meet Every Day? It’s Time to Dispel the Myth
ISM advocates student-centered schedules. As we define it, a student-centered schedule is grounded in (1) an understanding of how students learn and (2) a commitment to actions that support student well-being.
In practice, student-centered schedules are marked by several characteristics:
Planning for Your Next Annual Giving Season Starts Now
Annual Giving is the foundational program from which all other development efforts grow and flourish. Creating a sequential, assignable, and measurable plan for your annual giving campaign is essential for success.
In this webinar, ISM Consultant Michael Christopher, IAP-L, will walk through the 15-month process of planning your annual giving campaign from beginning to end.
Five Areas of Risk Assessment Every School Head Must Examine
Do your school's current insurance policies leave you vulnerable? It’s easy to assume your policies have you covered, but do you really know what’s hidden in the fine print?
Join Scott Wilson, ISM Consultant and Executive Coach and former Head of School, and Alicia Clingan and Connor Murphy, two insurance experts from ISM, for this insightful webinar. They’ll discuss key questions every School Head, CFO/COO, and Board should ask about these five areas of insurance coverage:
Self-Insured Employee Benefits: Starting the Conversation
Want to learn how schools are tackling the question, “How can we keep the cost of employee benefits low while NOT compromising on the quality of care our employees receive?”
Self-insurance, often an overlooked and misunderstood opportunity, has gained traction in recent years as a game-changer in the realm of employee benefits.
Accommodating Students Who Are Neurodivergent Inside and Beyond the Classroom
As an admission officer, you receive this email: “Do you accept students with dyslexia?” Or this: “My child has ADHD. Can you help?” Or: “What services can you provide our child, who (according to a former teacher) is probably ‘on the spectrum’?” Your answers depend not only on your school’s mission, but also on your capacity to identify, accommodate, support, and educate many kinds of students, including those who are neurodivergent.
Designing a New Schedule? Form a Task Force to Lead the Process
If your school is considering a new schedule, a dedicated task force will ensure success in research, planning, and implementation.
Discover how a thoughtful, collaborative task force can work to transform your schedule into one that promotes student learning, well-being, and engagement. In this webinar, Andrew Taylor, ISM Consultant, will outline strategies for creating a scheduling task force.
Planning Holiday and Vacation Care for Your Students
Families need and value before- and after-school care for their children on regular school days. Some families may also require full-day child care for times when school is not in session—holidays, snow days, teacher in-service days, and during the summertime, outside of whatever academic session your school might already offer during the summer months.
Meaningful Service Learning Programs: Serving, Not Saving
At many private-independent schools, community service is embedded in the mission or core values. That is one reason independent schools have long incorporated service learning programs in their cocurricular programming. Such activities give students the chance to engage in meaningful service to others while gaining a deeper understanding of societal issues and a sense of social responsibility.