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No matter if you’re a School Head, Admission Director, Development Director, Board member, or any other private school administrator—Ideas & Perspectives®, ISM’s premier private school publication, has strategic solutions for the pervasive problems you face.
- Tuition not keeping pace with your expenses? In I&P, explore how to use strategic financial planning to create your budget and appropriately adjust your tuition.
- Enrollment dropping off? Discover how to implement the right admission and enrollment management strategies that engage your community—and fill your classrooms.
- Trouble retaining teachers? Learn how you can best support your teachers using ISM’s Comprehensive Faculty Development framework. Your faculty members will become more enthusiastic about their roles—which ultimately improves student outcomes.
- Fundraising campaigns not as successful as you’d hoped? Implement ISM’s practical advice and guidance to build a thriving annual fund, construct an effective capital campaign, and secure major donors—no matter your community size or location.
- Not sure how to provide professional development—for you and your staff? Learn ways to develop and fund a successful professional development strategy. You can improve teacher-centered satisfaction and growth, which in turn strengthens student-centered learning.
- Problematic schedule? You can master the challenges of scheduling with the help of ISM’s practical advice, based on our experience with hundreds of schools and our time-tested theories.
- And so much more.
I&P has shared targeted research, up-to-date insight, and sound theory with school leaders since 1975. More than 8,500 private school decision-makers find the answers to their schools’ administrative and governance matters in our advisory letter. We give you the strategic answers you need.
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See the articles from our latest issue of Ideas & Perspectives.
When AI Makes Teaching More Efficient, What Will Schools Do With the Time?
Volume 51 No. 7 // October 30, 2026
Boards should establish clear policies that protect the essential human work of educating students and require the school head and leadership team to show that AI implementation stays within those guardrails.
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Enrollment Influences: Who Has the Most Influence and When?
Volume 51 No. 7 // October 30, 2026
While parents always retain the authority to determine what is financially and practically possible when enrolling children in school, students increasingly become the family member who determines what is desirable. By high school, the student is often the family’s primary decision-maker.
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AI Governance: A Framework for Independent School Boards
Volume 51 No. 7 // October 30, 2026
Artificial Intelligence now touches areas that clearly fall within board responsibility: mission, institutional risk, financial stewardship, reputation, and long-term strategy. Trustees don’t need to get involved in implementation, but they do need a coherent way to oversee how the school is approaching AI.
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The Next 50 Years
Volume 51 No. 7 // October 22, 2026
Independent School Management enters its next chapter healthy, strong, and ambitious about the contribution we can make to independent education.
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Benchmarking and Institutional Stability: Knowing What a Number Means
Volume 51 No. 6 // September 29, 2026
“What are other schools doing?” It’s a common question that can provide important insights, but comparison alone is no substitute for sound judgment. True institutional stability requires school leaders to distinguish between descriptive data, internal trends, and research-backed standards.
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Community Time: How to Improve School Outcomes Beyond the Classroom
Volume 51 No. 6 // September 28, 2026
More classroom time does not automatically produce more learning. A strategically designed Community Time block can create space for advisory, academic support, assemblies, leadership, and unstructured time while strengthening the conditions that help students learn and flourish.
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The Case for Advisory: How to Strengthen Student Performance, Belonging, and Self-Efficacy
Volume 51 No. 6 // September 28, 2026
Critics frame advisory as an academic distraction, but empirical evidence reveals that strong advisor-advisee relationships directly enhance student self-efficacy, belonging, and overall performance.
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Understanding the Modern Head of School: A New ISM Survey
Volume 51 No. 6 // September 28, 2026
The demands of modern headship have expanded dramatically, yet little research focuses on leaders themselves. ISM invites school heads to shape future support by participating in our new survey.
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Employee Evaluation and Growth: Start With Leadership
Volume 51 No. 6 // September 28, 2026
Holding school leaders accountable to the exact evaluation systems they ask faculty to join builds trust, protects organizational credibility, and creates a school culture grounded in predictability.
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Architecting Board Effectiveness
Volume 51 No. 5 // July 16, 2026
Board effectiveness doesn’t happen by accident. It is the direct result of intentional formation, explicit expectations, and annual, written commitments.
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