Student handbooks contain all the policies, rules, and regulations that outline expectations for everyone at your school. However, they’re often notoriously dry documents that can be dismissed by folks not paying attention. Sure, you can send home a “contract” stating that the student (and his or her parents) have read the handbook and will abide by the policies, but that’s hardly a guarantee of painstaking attention to every detail.
So for our September 2016 issue of The Source for Academic Leadership, let’s take a moment or two to discuss your school’s plan for policy dissemination to your students.
The Advising Role in Your Faculty Hiring Process
For a comprehensive approach to the faculty hiring process, include the advising role you require of your middle- and upper-school teachers. Your advisory program and advising role(s) should be not merely included but also highlighted in the process. Candidates should walk away from their campus visits with a clear sense of the role, some understanding of how it supports school mission, and, ideally, some enthusiasm for taking it on. Failure to inform (even inspire) prospective teachers in this way implicitly undermines, from the outset, a sense that the role is taken seriously at your school.
The Rhetoric of Rigor II: Stress, Schedules, and Fun
In a previous article, “The Rhetoric of Rigor,” we argued that schools should abandon the use of the word “rigor” in their marketing messages because of its ubiquity and ill-defined nature. We encountered then—and continue to encounter—schools that adhere to educational practices they know need change (e.g., AP program, homework policies). But they fear those changes because those practices were once provided as evidence of academic rigor. Fear stands as a barrier to change as schools often see “academic rigor” as their competitive advantage.
The Faculty Experience Survey and Matrix: An Update
In two previous Ideas & Perspectives articles, ISM introduced the “ISM School Culture Matrix” concept and scoring instrument. Schools use our Faculty Experience Survey to measure their teachers’ attitude and opinions regarding the level of predictability and support they experience from their administrators. This article updates readers on our current conceptualization, scoring, and practice using the instrument.
First, we replaced the words “School Culture” with “Faculty Experience” in the survey and matrix. This more accurately reflects the focus of the instrument—to measure the faculty’s experience of predictability and support from their administrators and describe, collectively, the resulting likely organizational characteristics.
Teach the Teachers: Four Flexible Professional Development Ideas for Summer
Professional development for teachers is often scheduled at this time of year, with the idea that since class is out, teachers have more time to devote to educational intensives. That’s not always the case—67% of teachers in New Jersey had some form of summer gig in 2015, according to one informal survey, and only a third of teachers reserve time from second jobs and family obligations for ongoing education.
With that in mind, we rounded up this list of creative, low-stress—and flexible—professional development ideas to pass to your teachers to keep their minds sharp and their spirits high for the Fall 2016 semester.
2016 Summer Reading List for Division Heads
We hope your summer is as sunny and joyous as it has been here at the ISM headquarters, where we’re in the middle of hosting our Summer Institute workshop series in Wilmington, Delaware. Even if you haven’t been able to join in the professional development opportunities with your peers, we don’t want you to let this relatively calm period of the school year slip past without investing in yourself. So, we asked our Consultants to assemble this list of go-to books, and here’s what they recommend.
The Annual Strategic Scheduling Meeting
A school’s schedule is not simply tactical. A strategic element of the school, the schedule facilitates the delivery of the school’s mission as it fosters high-quality graduates. Great schedules put students in the best learning environment and deploy its resources (time, people, space and program) in alignment with the school’s Purpose and Outcome statements (mission, Characteristics of Professional Excellence, and Portrait of the Graduate). A well-designed schedule makes a positive difference in students’ lives and provides the school a strategic advantage in its market.
Six Bipartisan Ways to Address the US Presidential Election at School
The United States presidential election has certainly heated up in the last month, and it doesn’t seem to be calming down any time soon. Chances are, the current political climate will still be as hot a topic in August as it is now. Considering how inflammatory rhetoric can seep into classrooms, we thought it best to take a moment to prepare for potentially difficult conversations with students without taking advantage of young minds’ malleability to leverage personal political opinions.
Effective Initiatives That Help Keep Your Students Off Drugs
Last issue, we discussed public service announcements (PSAs) that were ineffective by modern standards for various reasons, including unclear calls-to-action and inaccurate scare tactics that irreverent teenagers were more likely to mock than to heed. Therefore, we thought we’d take some time in this issue to talk about the ways in which schools can help their student body achieve change.
From Toxic to Healthy: How to Move Your School’s Culture
A healthy school culture is the core of school management. ISM research shows that a healthy faculty culture significantly relates to student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm.1 This culture is also a top characteristic that leads parents to choose your school. As School Head, when you find your school culture is unhealthy (or even toxic), you must improve its health decisively and immediately. This article outlines a three-phase model to improve your school’s culture.