Extended day programs that meet the demanding needs of middle school students are in short supply. According to a recent study, 34% of middle school students are unsupervised in the after-school hours; only 6% are in any kind of organized program.1 Existing programs that include 10- to 15-year-olds are generally only extensions of those for younger children—consequently, preteens and teens often refuse to attend.

Space is an expensive commodity in schools. Yet, without adequate and appropriate space, teachers will be hamstrung in developing and delivering excellence in programming. From a student access point of view, the right number of classrooms can make your scheduler’s job a pleasure! The design of your schedule will have a significant impact on how much space and how many classrooms you want. Finally, what you want to do in the 21st century classroom will drive the kind of space you require.

In a previous article, ISM suggested that a fourth plank in the 21st Century School is “the individualization of the content and delivery of curriculum, which meets the needs and passions of the learner at the rate best suited to that learner, using blended learning as the means.” This was applied exclusively to middle and upper schools, leaving the question as to what part technology plays in the lower school. Subsequently, ISM Success Predictor No. 3 suggests that “interdisciplinary, flexible, and immersive curriculum/pedagogy” is intrinsic to 21st century teaching, and is applicable at all levels of the school.

In this article, part of our continuing series analyzing salaries and benefits in private-independent schools, we assess faculty salaries from a gender perspective. The results of the ISM Faculty and Management Compensation Survey raise a cautionary flag regarding potential gender-based pay discrimination that all schools need to consider carefully.

According to an article in the May 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, “the makeup of the global workforce is undergoing a seismic shift: In four years Millennials—the people born between 1977 and 1997—will account for nearly half the employees in the world. In some companies, they already constitute a majority.”1 To better understand the shift, the Society for Human Resource Management recently conducted a survey of younger workers. The participants were asked to respond to the following: “I’m most concerned about my older managers’_____.” Their responses were:

In previous I&P articles, ISM has noted that regular team “walkarounds” by the School Head and academic administrators are a prime administrative task for improving the capacity of adults in your school. This leadership style requires the School Head to be physically and visibly present to every student and employee, and to develop teacher leaders. The primary task of all academic administrators is facilitating the development of faculty who are the interface of the mission with the students. This has been one of ISM’s most consistent and insistent teachings for academic administrators—that they view their faculty as their own “works of art” and move persistently to improve both the individual faculty member as well as the faculty culture as a whole.