A few weeks ago I spoke at the Free-Enterprise Leadership Summit at Northwood University in West Palm Beach, Florida. Having visited that beautiful city many times, I confess that I had not heard of this fine school where they brag often about their commitment to entrepreneurship and that Rollie Massimino is the men's basketball coach.

Similar to successful business executives, more school administrators and board members are achieving accelerated school improvement through coaching. They are learning to rapidly overcoming the learning curve and navigate the challenges to reach higher performance and results.

"During this time of rapid change and innovation, you can now learn anything you want to without a teacher or a school. This is forcing school leaders to reconsider everything about their institutional design." -- Scott Barron at the Free-Enterprise Leadership Summit at Northwood University, Nov 7, 2014

How important is governance in the design of your school growth strategies? Vital. Because the leadership capacity and structure of the school board impacts every other decision.

A gutsy business executive in Raleigh, North Carolina, designed a private school that delivers a quality education for around $5,000. This innovative design has been replicated to four campuses so far, and even greater expansion is planned.

This week we led a School Growth Innovation Workshop for the Georgia Association of Independent Schools. Like every other public and private school association across the globe, Executive Director Jeff Jackson, his leadership team, and his board are wisely taking the time to assess the value proposition of the organization to determine the best path forward.

How would you assess the quality of your relationship with the people who donate or invest in your school? Obviously, raising money to fund your vision requires deepening the connection with donors who have the capacity, the conviction, and the commitment to you and the organization.

"When an experienced school principal comes to us, we have to retrain them from the foundation--very little of what they learned in previous positions will help them succeed within our framework of innovation."-- Charter School Board Chair

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily."--Zig Ziglar

How was your week? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your results from the last 7 days?

In the School Growth Tuesday Webinar series this month we are featuring 10 Secrets of Innovative Fundraising. Today our focus turns to Return on Investment (ROI).