A host family for multiple foreign students was arrested this week for abusing the kids in their home. The parents of these exchange students, all from Korea, sent their children halfway around the world to attend school in the US. They trusted the host family, who speaks the same language and no doubt assured the parents that all was well. The parents also trusted the school(s) to look out for their children. But the students weren't protected--they were being preyed on by corrupt adults who have forever tainted the lives of these young people.

Engagement: Top Predictor of Organizational Success

The term “engagement” is used deliberately - an engaged employee is someone who is deeply invested in the mission, with a mental, emotional, and even spiritual attachment to it. Here are some important points about engagement:

In September we are featuring the strategy of Personal Reinvention. It is based off of research that I have done for the past few years, and I am thrilled to share it! Imagine if school leaders incorporated this kind of personal development in the curriculum, so that schools became not only a place where kids can learn the facts, but a place where they can discover their purpose and dreams. For that to happen, the faculty and administrators first need to go through the process themselves because it’s tough to teach what you don’t know.

Are you looking for innovative marketing strategies to grow your school?

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Rick Newberry, founder of Enrollment Catalyst, regarding marketing and enrollment strategies for schools. Rick is seeing a shift away from traditional print outbound methods to more inbound, web-based, word-of-mouth marketing approaches. At conferences he surveys admissions directors to identify the top two ways that a prospective family finds out about their school, and it’s always the same answer: Word-of-mouth and the web. Consequentially, this is where admissions and marketing should be directing their focus.

Rethinking the business model of schools is happening at every level of education, especially in higher ed where the current tuition trends are unsustainable and even disgraceful. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that between 2000 and 2011, fees for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public universities in the U.S. rose 42%!

How can a school better utilize its assets and core competencies to produce new sources of revenue and efficiencies? Schools will accelerate experimentation over the next few years with a variety of different approaches to answer this question.

For example, according to the Wall Street Journal ("Online Class Aims to Earn Millions," by Douglas Belkin, Aug 31, 2013), two college professors from the University of Texas at Austin plan to teach their Introduction to Psychology class to thousands of students around the world for an enrollment fee of $550. The class started last week with Profs. Gosling and Pennebaker providing live online lectures to approximately 1,000 students. The revenue will be split between the university and the psychology department.

Higher Student:Teacher Ratios

If your school has great teachers and can use technology to streamline the instructional process and increase the number of students influenced by those great teachers, why not? Isn't that the goal of every master teacher--to inspire great thinking and changed lives? A well-planned technology implementation for instruction, operations, assessment, and administration can improve the quality of life for teachers and their capacity to teach more students. This isn't about piling on more work for teachers, but rather reorganizing for better performance and paying teachers commensurate increases in salary.

International Students

Well over one million foreign students are enrolled in the U.S. this year. But that's a very small number compared to the multimillions of students who study in their home country but could benefit from access to your teachers. Consider using a tool like Jigsaw Meeting to provide online instruction to students anywhere in the world. Our School Growth team will be using Jigsaw Meeting for our online Board Academy and for our Intelligent Reader & Writer classes. Blended learning with this kind of platform gives you the opportunity to cost-effectively expand your marketplace and diversify the experience for local students.

"The modern university was set up 300 years ago, but it's a completely different time now. You have to shake yourself free of all that and stumble forward and keep tinkering."--Prof. Gosling.

Chris Carneal is Founder and President of Booster Enterprises. Since 2001, the Boosterthon Fun Run team has been serving schools across America, providing a fun, healthy alternative to sales-driven fundraisers. The Boosterthon Fun Run is based in Atlanta, Georgia, and this year will serve more than 700,000 students at 1000 excellent schools in 22 states across the U.S.

What is the best way to communicate the return-on-investment (ROI) to donors?

People want to know that an investment into you and your organization is going to produce a worthwhile return. The motivations vary from person to person, but every donor wants an ROI. The "pledge card" might be better titled, "Investment Proposal," where the generosity of the gift is framed within the context of the tangible impact it will make. 

How would your life be different if others viewed you as a phenomenal communicator?

On my first day of 6th grade at Teachers Elementary in Kinston, NC, my dad and I went to the classroom to meet the teacher and pick up my books.  Having recently moved to the area, this was my first day at the school as well so no reputation to overcome. We stood at Mrs. Jarman's desk exchanging the customary pleasantries before my dad looked at her and said: