Virtual & Onsite Consulting Services

Onsite Consulting
Onsite Consulting

Ensure that your school’s governance and operations support your mission.

We work together with your leaders, teachers, staff members, and students to understand your school’s unique needs, strengths, and challenges. We help you create a plan to help you meet your goals.

Your team can then put these mission-appropriate recommendations into action to achieve increased cash reserves, higher enrollment levels, and long-term stability. At the end of the day, we all have a singular purpose—advance school leadership to enrich the student experience.

We offer personalized consultations for many leadership divisions of a private school—the Board of Trustees, School Heads, the Business Office, the Development Office, Enrollment Management professionals, Marketing professionals, and Academic leaders. Select the area of school leadership you’d like to further explore.

 

Our Consulting Services

School Head

Whether you want to ensure that all school functions run at peak efficiency or are considering implementing new strategies and initiatives, lean on a trusted source of knowledge to increase the likelihood of long-term success.

Business & Operations

Take advantage of a full range of planning, facilities, and operations consulting services that give your school a solid footing for the future. Examine where your key operations work well, and where they can use improvement.

Academic Leadership

Your programs set your school apart. Explore how to create and build programs that pull families in and give them an experience they couldn’t have at another private-independent school.

Admission & Enrollment Management

ISM’s data-informed approach pinpoints what attracts families to your school and inspires them to stay. Receive customized solutions based on your school’s unique marketplace stance, challenges, and opportunities.

Fundraising & Development

Learn how to develop successful strategies to engage and bring donors closer to your institution. No matter your school size, history, or pedagogy, explore how to plan, implement, and evaluate your fundraising strategies to realize your full potential.

Marketing Communications

Explore how to share exceptional stories of student learning, engagement, and outcomes, and illustrate how these can become differentiators that distinguish your school from your competitors.

Board of Trustees

The Board must focus its efforts on governing, planning, and financing your school's future, while leaving everyday decisions to competent administrators. To do that successfully, your Board must think, plan, and act strategically.

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See articles for School Heads, Business & Operations, Advancement, Academic Leadership, and Trustees, in addition to Private School News.

Student Use of Social Media: It’s Not All Bad

Board of Trustees // October 21, 2018

The rapidly rising use of social media, particularly among teenagers, is often met with consternation by educators. Some even try to curb its use. This may be—and likely is—the wrong tack to take.

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Where to Start to Help Reduce Student Stress

Academic Leadership // October 18, 2018

As an academic administrator, you can’t expect to eliminate all the stress in your school. However, you can certainly take steps to ensure that your school structure causes as little stress as possible, and is set up to best support faculty, staff, and students.

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Tips for Ensuring Your School's Marketing Is Student-Centered

Advancement // October 9, 2018

There are many audiences you want to reach when marketing your school. And while every audience has unique needs, a main component of your marketing messages must remain consistent—students are the heart of your mission and your school. Therefore, all marketing must be unequivocally student-centered.

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4 Things Every Prospective Parent Wants When Choosing a Private School

Advancement // October 9, 2018

When prospective families consider your school, they want to make sure the programs and services you offer meet their needs and standards. But they also want more. Parents want a sense of validation that your school’s mission meets their desires for their children, and will help mold them into capable citizens of the world. They want to feel confident in the quality, benefits, and value that your school offers.

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Four Tips for Successful Parent-Teacher Conferences

School Heads // October 2, 2018

Parent-teacher conferences occur a few times each year at your school. These meetings give parents and teachers an important opportunity to talk about each student’s progress, while discussing any issues and setting a course for future success. While these meetings fall into the purview of your faculty, division heads, and possibly department chairs, the School Head also has an important role to play during parent-teacher conferences. It’s vital that you express excitement for these critical, relationship-establishing encounters, and help facilitate them.

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Media Use Among Young Children Continues to Rise

School Heads // October 2, 2018

We’re no strangers to the fact that screen time use is on the rise among students. This increase in students’ media exposure can impact many areas of school operations, including policies surrounding student device use, how students complete homework and other tasks at home, and how faculty and staff can best relate to and support students.

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Your Essential Duties as a Leadership Team Member

Private School News // September 27, 2018

Being part of your school’s Leadership Team is a valued role, one that serves your students, parents, and broader community. There’s also no denying that it can a stressful job—one where you’re expected to take on various tasks to support the school. Often times, job descriptions don’t exist, or don’t fully outline all the duties you are ultimately responsible for managing.

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Avoid These Four School Website Mistakes

Private School News // September 27, 2018

Your website is your school’s outward reflection of its mission, culture, and of course, its story. This is how your community connects with everything happening on your campus and where they can inquire about enrollment—often one of your primary goals for prospective families. Because your site’s main focus is to capture the hearts of potential families, it’s important that your site doesn’t drive users away after a few seconds.

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Five Benefits Provided by a Quality Summer Program

Private School News // September 27, 2018

A summer program offers numerous benefits to your students, parents, faculty, staff, and community. If you don’t currently provide a summer program, or feel your offerings aren’t as strong as they could be, there are many ways to create a quality summer program that supports your school’s mission.

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