It’s clear that there is much to do to build and sustain diverse and inclusive communities within private schools for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students and alumni. Even as schools become more intentional in their efforts, many still struggle with attracting and retaining BIPOC students.
How Schools Can Respond to the Black Lives Matter Movement
In recognition of Black History Month, we’re highlighting a webinar focusing on how schools can respond to the Black Lives Matter movement, originally held last summer. We think it is an important topic to revisit—addressing one of our generation’s most crucial issues.
Evaluation and Growth for Heads, Administrators, and Nonteaching Staff: Part One—Evaluation
ISM’s Comprehensive Faculty Development growth and evaluation framework for teachers was designed to ensure accountability and predictability while emphasizing support for growth. In many schools ISM has worked with, there is far more emphasis on evaluation and development for faculty than for administrators and nonteaching staff. A growth and evaluation framework for all employees that aligns with your process for teachers serves to bring everyone together as a stable, growth-focused community.
Goal Setting for Teachers Amid Uncertainty
A growth-oriented faculty culture is imperative for school success. Teachers who constantly strive to better serve their students are the backbone of their schools—they are the frontline, delivering missions with excellence.
Managing Complex Change
You, as School Head, contend daily with periods of rapid change in society and schools. Your ability to create a readiness for change and for understanding its impact will continue to be critical components in the success of your headship.
The School Culture Team
ISM has long advised School Heads to survey their faculty and students in grades 5 and up annually to measure and monitor the extent to which both groups are experiencing adequate levels of predictability and support. Predictability and support are consistently, positively correlated with enthusiasm, satisfaction, and performance for both the faculty and the students.
Faculty Evaluation: Corrective Action
ISM’s faculty evaluation framework is based on a set of Essential Expectations that teachers are meeting or not meeting. Regularly meeting all expectations is required to remain employed by the school. Meeting nine out of 10 of them or sometimes meeting them doesn’t cut it. While this may sound severe, teachers actually report that knowing the expectations provides a great sense of clarity, transparency, predictability, and security because:
It’s Time to End the Culture of More
As schools attempt to achieve greater excellence, provide more value to parents for their tuition dollars, and better prepare students for the future, the three most common tactics rooted in a “culture of more” include devoting more time, expanding program requirements, and scheduling curricular and cocurricular elements to allow students to “do more.”
Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many hardships for schools and families. However, a small silver lining of this time has been the moments of reflection it has afforded. When the pandemic drastically changed the very basics of education delivery, everything was upended. Now, nine months later, teachers and leaders can reflect on what does and does not work in schools today. As we share the silver linings we’ve discovered, we encourage you and your team to reflect on your own experiences to plan for the future.
The Critical Importance of a Well-Crafted Daily Schedule
When schools shifted to crisis-driven distance learning in response to COVID-19, we surveyed parents about school responses to the crisis and the virtual learning experience. Parents gave schools positive ratings for their response, leadership communication, teacher communication, and the virtual learning experience. Given no one was prepared for or anticipated the immediate campus closures and shifts to remote learning in March 2020, earning B’s for the remote learning experience should be viewed as a success.