The ISM Trustee Handbook lays out systematically the best practices to support your private school's mission and to act strategically to protect the long-term best interests of the school and its students. Each Trustee who uses this handbook in a proactive way will be an effective Board member, enabling the Board to dynamically support, strategically lead, and wisely steward the school in its care. 
This book explains the Trustee's proper role on the Board, how to develop a strategic financial plan, the importance of faculty culture in a private school, how to hold effective Board meetings, how to develop strong Board committees, how to prepare parents for tuition increases, and much more advice for private school Trustees. Also included are samples of a Committee Charge Form, Conflict of Interest Policy, Board and Committee Calendar, Strategic Board Bylaws, and a "Trustee Workbook" section. 
The book also includes a CD-ROM that contains articles ISM has published relative to effective Board structure and function in its two advisory publications, Ideas &amp; Perspectives and To The Point. 
Chapters include: The Trustee as a Parent * The Trustee's Role * ISM Stability Markers (Third Iteration) * What is Strategic Planning/Strategic Financial Planning? * Strategic Financial Plan * The Board's Mission * Tuition Setting * Faculty Culture * Development * Head Support and Evaluation Committee * Other Board-Level Committees * The Trustee's Commitment to Growth * Change * Appendix 1: Sample Committee Charge Sheet * Appendix 2: Samples of Conflict-of-Interest Policies * Appendix 3: Sample Board and Committee Calendar * Appendix 4: Sample Strategic Board Bylaws * Trustee Workbook

The ISM Trustee Handbook

Independent School Management

Simon Jeynes

This workbook charts a clear course for your faculty. New teachers learn how to build their careers on a solid foundation, while experienced faculty members renew the excitement and commitment that led them to teaching in the first place. The book is written in a step-by-step, hands-on workbook format from a teacher-oriented perspective. It proposes a self-evaluation approach directed by (not at) the teacher. The ultimate goal is focused, effective teachers who understand how they can best help their students succeed, and who can "keep their edge" year after year.

Twenty Principles for Teaching Excellence: The Teacher's Workbook

M. Walker Buckalew

As the Admission Director of a private school, you're probably amazed at the many different ways prospective families discover your school hearing positive word of mouth from a friend of a friend of a friend, coming across your school Web site during a Google search, reading about your school in a magazine or newspaper, receiving one of your direct mail pieces, watching one of your sports events or attending a school play or concert, or hearing the School Head on a local radio talk show. Regardless of how they find you, the key question you must ask is: What do I do when parents and students express an interest in our school? This book answers that question and more! Not only does it answer what to do, but it provides a step-by-step process to bring prospective families into your office and eventually, if you meet their needs, matriculate their children into your school as successful, mission-appropriate students. Keeping the funnel full from top to bottom and free-flowing is the Admission Office's challenge. Your ability to skillfully guide mission-appropriate families through the admission process is essential in guaranteeing your school s future and maintaining its quality. This book helps you assess your process to ensure the effectiveness of your current practices. If your school is having trouble maintaining full enrollment, analyze your admission process using the Admission Funnel as a gauge. As you read this book and follow step-by-step through the funnel process, you're likely to find ways to fine tune your own process and strengthen the overall enrollment program at your school. The book is a based on the experience of the Consultants of Independent School Management and their consulting in private schools for more than three decades; articles published in ISM's two management advisory letters, Ideas &amp; Perspectives and To The Point; and materials used for teaching in ISM's various workshops and seminars. Throughout this book, a fictional K-12, coed day school, Aegis Academy, is used to provide examples and samples to better explain the strategies and techniques discussed. These examples (e.g., contracts, forms, and response letters) are intentionally generic in nature so that you can easily adapt them for your school's unique character and mission. Chapters include: The Foundation of a Successful Private School Admission Process * How Do You Define Your School? * Encouraging and Handling Inquiries * The Visit * The Application Process * The Screening Process * Acceptances (and Waiting Pools) * Enrollment * Matriculation * Evaluating Your Admission Funnel Process Appendices include: The Role of the Faculty in Admission * The Online Admission Office * Strategies for Strengthening Relationships With Feeder Schools * Recruiting Students Through Your Summer Program * Admission Procedures for ADA Compliance * The Applicant Survey * The Shared Roles of Your School's Advancement Offices * Re-recruitment Keeping the Students You Want * Recommended Reading "This book is an A-to-Z encyclopedia on the steps of the admission funnel, with a wealth of detailed suggestions at each step along the way. It will be consulted frequently by readers who are new to their Admission Office roles, as well as by those veterans looking to enhance their operation and strengthen their enrollment. The chapter on all aspects of the campus visit alone is worth the price of this book." --Roger Dillow, Director of Admission, Friends Select School (Philadelphia, PA)

The Admission Funnel: How to Streamline the Private School Admission Process

Education & Teaching

Burge, Weldon

Schools & Teaching

The ISM Strategic Planning Book takes a comprehensive approach to the critical topic of strategic planning/strategic financial planning in private-independent schools. Strategic planning is an essential role of the School Head and the Board. A well-executed plan enables Trustees to govern in the appropriate strategic context, which supports the school s mission and sustains its viability. Based on ISM's three decades of work with private schools of all types and sizes, this book covers it all what strategic planning means in your school's culture, why it is important, what to consider, what steps to take, and how to develop an effective plan. In this book, you will learn how to gain an essential understanding of private school finances, address the problem of time, recognize the difference-makers at your school, prepare for the strategic planning process, avoid strategies that often lead to failure, create a powerful strategic financial plan, and much more! Thirteen appendices are included to provide additional guidance.

The ISM Strategic Planning Book

Tuition is not about money; tuition is about mission. This book introduces important management/leadership theory and ISM research that enables private-independent schools to support and sustain their missions, while maintaining competitiveness in the marketplace. The book provides the theory behind appropriate tuition setting and implementation, and the role of financial aid in the process. The Tuition Book does not and cannot tell you what your tuition rates should be. Nor does it tell you that a particular tuition rate is too "high" or too "low." It does, however, help you ask the right questions. Learn how to: 
<ul>
<li>Define your school (price, product, or process)</li> <li>Set the three "levers" of your school's financial equilibrium</li> <li>Keep your school "accessible"</li> <li>Avoid erroneous premises employed in tuition setting</li> <li>Deal with hidden inflation</li> <li>Prepare parents for tuition increases</li> <li>Budget for financial aid</li> <li>Make tuition loans part of your financial aid package</li> </ul>
Also included are samples and forms, ISM's Student Culture Profile, and many other practical items that can be used immediately.

The ISM Strategic Board Series: The Tuition Book: Theory, Planning & Financial Aid

In private-independent schools, the advisory program provides a mission-based plan for student learning and development that is the cornerstone of effective schools. This research-driven, practical, and strategic approach to advisory significantly enhances the individual student experience and thus your school's ability to retain and recruit your students. This manual provides a comprehensive, "how-to" perspective on the professional development of advisers and the strengthening of advisory programs, particularly in private schools. You will learn the underlying principles of advisory, the best practices for your advisory program, how to design your student counseling program, how to better support your students, how to develop your faculty's skills in student counseling, how to increase buy-in among your teachers for your advisory program, the difference between group and individual advisory, yellow- and red-light issues, the marketing implications of your advisory program, and much more. Also included are forms and tools that can be photocopied, ISM's Student Culture Profile, and many other practical items that can be used immediately.

Mission-Based Advisory: A Professional Development Manual (Second Edition)

Roger Dillow

Independent School Management developed this guidebook to help schools implement, manage, and sustain effective practices for faculty hiring, evaluation, development, compensation, and selective retention. While we strive at all points to support teachers to the fullest, this book is ultimately not about teachers—it is really about students. We believe, by following these guidelines, your school will ultimately increase student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. By supporting teachers, your school supports its students and helps ensure its long-term growth and success. This book is written based on ISM’s experience since 1975 in guiding private school administrators, as well as from current knowledge of research and best practices in the human resources, performance, evaluation, growth and renewal, management, and leadership fields of study. Much of the content is derived from ISM’s own research studies (i.e., Research on School Management and the Student Experience Study). Although the book has private school administrators and teachers in mind, the principles and guidelines are largely applicable in most school scenarios. <li>"If we believe great teaching is our hedgehog as independent schools, then you will agree that the Comprehensive Faculty Development book is the best resource ISM has ever published. Read it, personalize it, put it into practice and teaching excellence will be bolstered on your campus! If creating an exceptional faculty culture is important to you, this book is written with your school in mind." -- Steve D. Whitaker, Head of School, The First Academy (Orlando, FL)</li> <li>"We have adopted ISM's Comprehensive Faculty Development Model as the foundation for our new faculty coaching, mentoring, and evaluation system. We embrace the system's primary focus on fostering a commitment by teachers to ongoing professional development and continuous improvement of their practice for the benefit of student learning. The impressive attention to the details makes the book an invaluable resource for any school or individual concerned with the development of teachers." -- Martin Ferrell, Dean of Academics, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy (Kamuela, HI) </li> <li>"The Comprehensive Faculty Development Model challenged us to examine what is really important at our school. The model is rooted in our mission and challenged us to clearly identify the Professional Characteristics that are unique to us. We will use them not only to measure teacher effectiveness but also to create renewal and growth plans for our faculty. We have been more than satisfied with the results and highly recommend this model for independent schools!" -- Barbara Daush, President, St. Agnes Academy-St. Dominic School (Memphis, TN) </li> <li>"My leadership team and I have found the ISM model to be inspiring and informative as we work together to build the capacity of our faculty. We now share a comprehensive and compelling vision for faculty evaluation. At the end of the day, our students are the direct beneficiaries of our efforts--student growth and achievement soar when we are diligent about ensuring faculty excellence." -- Wanda M. Holland Greene, Head of School, The Hamlin School (San Francisco, CA)</li> This book complements well with another ISM publication, Teaching Excellence II: A Research-Based Workbook for Teachers, which is also available on Amazon.

Comprehensive Faculty Development: A Guide to Attract, Retain, Develop, Reward, and Inspire

Teaching Excellence II: A Research-Based Workbook for Teachers is the product of major research projects conducted over a period of two decades by Independent School Management. Based on this research, ISM has developed concepts and instruments designed to help private school teachers and their administrators enhance their own individual and collective performance. Those concepts and instruments are presented in this workbook. Readers are introduced to the foundational concept of "predictability and supportiveness" and its impact on the overall school culture. Also provided is ISM's School Culture Matrix, along with self-scoring instruments. The heart of the workbook, however, is found in the lists of Professional Characteristics, the specific teacher behaviors found in ISM’s research projects to correlate most strongly with enhanced student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. While there is no single way to use the material in this workbook, consider these options: <li>Work through the material as an individual. Score yourself and reach decisions about changes in your own approach and to set professional development goals for yourself.</li> <li>Meet periodically with your peers to discuss these ideas, to initiate individual or small-group (pedagogical) trials, and to compare notes week-by-week and month-by-month.</li> <li>Involve your administrator(s) to perform a whole-faculty self-scoring on the “ISM School Culture Matrix Instrument and Scoring Chart” and incorporate the Characteristics of Professional Excellence into the school’s approach to faculty evaluation.</li> <li>Integrate your own work in this book in other creative ways, with the in-parallel work of your colleagues. </li> This book complements well with another ISM publication, Comprehensive Faculty Development: A Guide to Attract, Retain, Develop, Reward, and Inspire, which is also available on Amazon.

Teaching Excellence II: A Research-Based Workbook for Teachers

Buckalew, M. Walker

Beachley, Barbara J.

This manual provides a comprehensive, how-to perspective on the professional development of advisors and the strengthening of advisory programs in private-independent schools. While this book is intended for private school educators, we also hope that advisory program leaders in charter, magnet, and other public schools will find benefit in these pages as well. We have learned that readers of this book, regardless of type of school, are typically seeking a more robust and meaningful advisory program, one that is much more than simply “homeroom” and one that is built on the connection between advisor professional development and student well-being. “A comprehensive guide to creating and strengthening advisory—the why, the how, the keys to success, the pitfalls to avoid, and the ways advisory can enrich the culture of the school.” -- Robert Evans, Executive Director, The Human Relations Service “A strong advising program is crucial in keeping a school’s mission alive and vibrant in the daily life of the school. Unfortunately, most schools provide little, if any, professional development for faculty to support this important role, creating an inconsistent experience for its students. Whether a school is looking to start an advisory program, rejuvenate one, or provide concrete professional development for its faculty, Roger Dillow’s Mission-Based Advisory: A Professional Development Manual is an important resource for all schools.” -- Douglas H. Lagarde, Head of School, Severn School (MD) “Whether your school is implementing an advisory program or looking to renew one, this book provides workable strategies that are mission-driven. The suggested activities—for the advisory program and for advisor professional development—contribute to the development and sustainability of positive school culture and social-emotional learning for your students. I’m going to use this book with my Lead Advisory Group as we look to enhance our Middle School program.” -- Kathryn Christoph, Middle School Principal, Dwight-Englewood School (NJ) “Mission-Based Advisory: A Professional Development Manual comprehensively frames the professional role of advisors and advisory programs and the meaningful relationships that develop between students and trusted adults in independent schools. More than ever, mission-driven independent schools are seeking ways to highlight the value added for students and families; implementation and application of an effective advisory program is a powerful example of value added and a distinctive quality of our schools. The personalized approach to advisory ensures that all students are supported through their academic and social/emotional growth. The strong interpersonal ties cultivated in advisory programs allow students to be known and valued with advisors supporting them in appropriate and significant ways. This Manual provides guidance for deans, counselors, administrators, and advisors to develop a new program or move an existing program to the next level.” -- Irene G. Mortensen, Director of Studies, Gill St. Bernard’s School (NJ)

Mission-Based Advisory: A Professional Development Manual (Third Edition)

Dillow, Roger

Your private school's facilities and grounds often comprise the "first impression" visitors--including potential students and their families--experience of your institution. Proper facility design and maintenance are critical components in how your school is portrayed to constituents and the public, and reflect strongly on your overall program. Facilities Planning and and Maintenance for Private-Independent Schools pulls together key articles published by Independent School Management (ISM) addressing plant and campus management--from determining educational specifications for available classroom space to developing a campus master plan to envisioning your facility needs in coming decades, and much more. Here you will find the core principles for designing and maintaining your facilities and campus--preserving and enhancing your school's unique character and program! Learn how to: &gt; Establish cost-effective, sustainable building solutions &gt; Develop a checklist for a comprehensive long range property/facilities plan &gt; Perform a facilities audit &gt; Refine your deferred maintenance account &gt; Identify steps to improve security on your campus &gt; Provide for facilities rentals (and improve your auxiliary income &gt; Plan for and prepare your school grounds for outdoor learning opportunities

Facilities Planning and Maintenance for Private-Independent Schools: Second Edition

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