Greetings!,  

"The great advantage of being in a rut is that when one is in a rut, one knows exactly where one is."

Is your school in a rut? Many times school leadership becomes so consumed with the day-to-day operation of their institution or overcome by crisis that they don't have the time or opportunity to pause to check the pulse of their school (or understand their roles). Many schools are simply run by milestones in their calendar or move from emergency to emergency, with no short- or long-term plans to either resolve their current challenges or look down the road to proactively prepare for future challenges (or govern properly).

School leaders need a plan that will maximize the school's strengths, foresee threats, reduce weaknesses, and take advantage of future opportunities. Effective boards need to lay out a road map to achieve the mission and vision; moving away from being "reactive" - solving today's problems - towards being "proactive" - eliminating problems in the future and taking advantage of opportunities. You need a framework that enables your board and administration to focus and coordinate your resources, work towards common goals, assess and adjust as you move forward, and focus your board's priorities and duties, and inspire your staff and community.

Many times boards know there is a problem, yet they can't put a finger on it. They see their school repeating the same mistakes; reflected in poor performance in the classroom, enrollment, and finances, and yet they can't figure out how to get out of the rut. Simply operating your school by the calendar or crisis is not acceptable. You want your organization to move from being reactive to being proactive; rather than responding to unexpected changes, you want to anticipate and plan for them.

In many cases, a strategic plan would be the answer. A school is most effective when the diverse resources of your organization are aligned by a common vision, mission, strategies, goals, and action plans.

However, many schools don't have the luxury of taking a school year to methodically prepare their plan or afford the costs of retaining an experienced firm. Yet you know there is a need to establish a plan to get them back on track.

An alternative is to retain a consulting firm such as HEG to complete a formal evaluation of your school's performance against effective school benchmarks and a follow-up report that provides recommendations, strategies, and action plan to guide your school's improvement immediately.

Our evaluation process identifies areas needing short- and long-term improvement, and a summary providing school authorities a concise set of strategies to guide your leadership with ongoing development and institutional improvement, identifying areas needing organizational enhancement to support school growth and sustainability. HEG can assess the capacity of your school's governance and organizational structure to support the strategic imperatives, as well as the resources necessary to achieve success. We will  compare the schools' overall performance against other comparable schools in your market. Our evaluation process will focus on the following benchmarks of effective school performance:

1. School's Overall Effectiveness;
2. Marketing, Admissions, and Retention Systems;
3. Teaching/Learning Practices;
4. Human Resources;
5. Care, Guidance, and Support for Students;
6. School Leadership and Management;
7. Physical Plant, Grounds, and Resources.
8. Infrastructure and Operations;
9. Communications and Community Relations;
10. Finance and Operations;
11. Current and ongoing development of the International Baccalaureate Program.

To establish an accurate picture of your school's performance, HEG will utilize our exclusive four-step process:

1. On-site focus group interviews and observations;
2. One-on-one interview with Board and Administration;
3. Online school community surveys (Staff, Parents, and Board); and
4. Review of pertinent School documen .

A. Scope of Work

HEG will evaluate your school applying our in-depth experience in starting, leading, and managing independent schools. After the surveys, interviews, and on-site focus group sessions are completed, HEG will follow-up with a Summary Report that provides a range of priorities, recommendations, and action plans for school improvement. Our methodology involves an on-site evaluation of your school to analyze key performance benchmarks utilizing our four-step approach, along with development and delivery of the Summary Report. Once our on-site focus sessions, interviews, and performance analysis are confirmed, HEG will request a list of documents for the schools to provide. Once we receive these materials, our Consultants will become immersed in your school's long before arriving on-site. By spending the time preparing for our visit, our Consultant will already have a broad understanding of the issues and concerns the schools are facing.

B. Methodology

1). We will break the evaluation process into four parts, focusing on a "SWOT" analysis approach identifying your school's:

• Strengths;
• Weaknesses;
• Opportunities; and
• Threats / Trends.

2). Research Analysis (Internal/External Situation):

Collect/review school data prior to our onsite visit to assess the school's present situation.

Statistically-Driven Online Surveys for staff/faculty, parents, and Board of Directors to gather data on School performance prior to the onsite visit.

3). Focus Group Sessions /Classroom Observations with key constituents of the school community to assess the school's strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities and trends.

3). Summative Report: Develop a customized report that identifies areas needing immediate focus and the 'roll-out' of a set of multiple recommendations, strategies, and action plan to enhance the Schools' overall development. This will include strategies, timing, and designated staff, and Appendices with the survey questionnaires. Based on the report, HEG will prioritize areas that need immediate attention based on the following benchmarks:

• Determination Of The School's Overall Effectiveness (Strengths, Weaknesses);
• Teaching /Learning Practices (Educational programming, standards, resources, student achievement, and personal/social development);
• Human Resources (Recruitment, evaluation systems, contracts, compensation, and professional development);
• Care, Guidance, & Support (School climate, student services, guidance resources, safety and well-being of students);
• Marketing, Admissions, & Retention Systems (sustainable enrollment growth);
• School Leadership & Management (Board governance practices, management practices and qualifications Strategic plan and operation plan);
• Physical Plant & Grounds (Buildings, maintenance, resources/technology, safety, and utility)
• Infrastructure (Institutional policies, procedures, Accreditation Compliance, and practices and crisis management);
• Communications & Community Relations (Community engagement, parent participation and communication;
• Finance & Operations (Determining financial resources and needs, budget preparation, and controls).