Manuscript Submissions

Themes for Feature Articles

• Winter 2027: Mid-Level Leadership

  • Submissions Due: CLOSED
  • Issue Drops: Early January 2027 

  As headship grows more complex and leadership becomes more distributed, school effectiveness increasingly depends on the clarity, capacity, and support of those in the middle. Mid-level leaders (division heads, deans, department chairs, and directors) play a central role in translating strategy into daily practice while elevating day-to-day realities to senior leadership. Their roles vary by school size and type, but they share a common challenge: leading with influence while managing people, culture, and change—up, down, and across simultaneously. 

  In this issue, we will examine what it means to lead from the middle and how schools can better define, support, and structure these roles and the people in them. We hope to explore this through such questions:  

  • How do organizational structures (org charts, reporting lines, distributed leadership models) shape the work and effectiveness of mid-level leaders? 
  • What does the transition from peer to manager look like? How to effectively navigate that shift from colleague to supervisor? 
  • How do leaders learn to manage adults—including navigating performance, feedback, and difficult conversations? 
  • What shifts when your impact moves beyond the classroom? 
  • How to build trust with heads and senior leaders while gaining additional skills and experiences? 
  • What does it mean to belong to both faculty/staff and leadership—and not fully to either? 
  • How can mid-level leaders develop a sense of who they are as leaders? 
  • How do identity, experience, and background shape leadership in the middle? 
  • What kinds of support—mentorship, coaching, professional development—make a meaningful difference? 
  • Where do schools unintentionally create ambiguity, overload, or inequity in these roles? 
  • How do mid-level roles function as part of a leadership pipeline—or not? 
  • What kind of preparation actually matters for this level of leadership? 
  • What does it look like to stay in the middle and thrive there? 
  • What do experienced mid-level leaders contribute to institutional continuity and culture? 
  • How to balance day-to-day operational demands (budgeting, discipline, staffing) with longer-term thinking? 

  Submit to ismag@nais.org.

• Spring 2027: The People Issue

  • Submissions Due: November 30, 2026

  Independent schools, at their core, are people-powered institutions. Enrollment strategies, strategic plans, and financial models matter, but their ultimate success is rooted in the people who bring them to life. From the teachers shaping daily student experiences to the leaders setting strategy to the staff supporting every aspect of school life, people are a school’s greatest asset––and most important investment. As schools navigate workforce shortages, changing expectations about work and leadership, recruitment and retention pressures, and growing concerns about burnout, questions about talent and development have become questions about institutional sustainability. 

  In this issue of Independent School, we want to explore the people side of school sustainability. We are particularly interested in stories that address the intersection of strategy, culture, leadership, and workforce development, as well as practical examples of schools experimenting with new approaches to hiring, compensation, evaluation, development, and leadership pipelines. We hope to examine such questions as:

  • How are independent schools responding to the shrinking teacher pipeline?
  • How are schools recruiting professionals from other industries into education? What alternative pathways into teaching are proving successful?
  • What might the future independent school workforce look like? What workforce data should schools be paying closer attention to?
  • How are schools improving employee retention?
  • What role do flexibility, workplace culture, and benefits play in employment decisions?
  • How can schools distinguish between temporary burnout and deeper cultural problems?
  • What does a healthy school culture look like from the employee perspective?
  • How should schools think about compensation in competitive markets?
  • What innovative approaches to benefits, leave policies, housing support, retirement, or tuition remission are emerging? How are schools balancing financial realities with workforce expectations?
  • Which investments in professional development yield the most impact? How can schools create learning cultures that extend beyond workshops and conferences?
  • What makes an evaluation system effective and useful? How are schools moving beyond compliance-oriented performance reviews? What evaluation practices best align individual performance with institutional priorities?
  • What experiences are most influential in leadership development? How can schools build stronger leadership pipelines from within?
  • How are trustees helping schools think strategically about culture, talent, and sustainability?

  Submit to ismag@nais.org.

• Summer 2027: Purpose of School

  • Submissions Due: March 1, 2027

  For generations, schools have been organized around the acquisition of knowledge, the development of academic skills, and preparation for college and careers. But as generative AI increasingly performs tasks once considered markers of learning, schools must reconsider what students most need from an education and what remains distinctly human.

  This issue of Independent School will explore how AI is prompting school leaders, educators, trustees, and families to rethink core assumptions about teaching, learning, assessment, achievement, and human development. Rather than focusing solely on AI tools and implementation, we will examine how the technology is challenging independent schools to articulate their deepest aims: what it means to be an educated person; what knowledge, dispositions, values, and capacities matter most in an age when information is abundant; and how schools should cultivate curiosity, judgment, creativity, ethical reasoning, belonging, purpose, and wisdom in this rapidly changing era. We hope to explore the questions becoming central to the future of independent education, such as:

  • If AI can generate answers, what should students still learn to do for themselves?
  • What does human flourishing look like in an AI-enabled world?
  • How should schools balance efficiency and productivity with creativity, reflection, and meaning-making?
  • Which uniquely human capacities become more valuable, not less, as AI advances?
  • How should assessment evolve when traditional demonstrations of knowledge can be automated?
  • What is the role of relationships, community, and belonging in an age of increasingly intelligent machines?
  • How should schools prepare students not just for jobs, but for citizenship, ethical decision-making, and purposeful lives?
  • How does AI challenge longstanding assumptions about merit, achievement, and expertise?
  • What does it mean to be educated when information is ubiquitous, but wisdom remains scarce?

  Submit to ismag@nais.org.

• Fall 2027: Beyond the Classroom

  • Submissions Due: May 28, 2027

  Families experience independent schools holistically—academics, of course, as well as through athletics, arts, extracurriculars, experiential and outdoor programs, and community offerings that extend far beyond the classroom. Increasingly, these programs are not peripheral add-ons but central to a school’s value proposition, shaping identity, driving enrollment, and strengthening long-term sustainability. 

  In this issue of Independent School, we explore how schools are delivering on mission and designing and aligning programs to meet market demands. School leaders are facing complex trade-offs about building distinctive, high-impact offerings without overextending resources or drifting from mission, working to ensure that these programs contribute to enrollment, retention, and revenue, and how they deepen, rather than distract from student learning. We want to dive deep into what happens beyond the classroom and explore the strategies, tensions, and innovations at the intersection of program design, financial sustainability, and the student experience. 

  • What metrics help schools evaluate program impact on enrollment, finances, and mission? How are leaders making decisions about what to grow, sustain, or sunset? 
  • What investments (facilities, staffing, programming) have the greatest impact? 
  • How are athletics programs evolving as drivers of enrollment, financial aid strategy, and school identity? 
  • What does it take to align athletics with mission while managing increasing expectations from families? 
  • How are schools balancing competitive success, access, and student well-being? 
  • How can schools make the arts more visible, integrated, and central to the student experience? 
  • How do robust arts programs attract mission-aligned families and strengthen school culture? 
  • How are schools designing experiential programs that connect academics to the real world? 
  • What models (place-based learning, capstones, outdoor journeys) are proving most impactful? 
  • How do these programs build resilience, leadership, and belonging in ways classrooms alone cannot? 
  • How are schools leveraging camps, after-school programs, and facility rentals to diversify revenue? 
  • What distinguishes successful auxiliary enterprises from those that strain resources? How can auxiliary offers enhance—not dilute—mission and community connection? 

  Submit to ismag@nais.org.

• Winter 2028: Advancement

  • Submissions Due: August 16, 2027

  Advancement is more than fundraising. It is the integrated work of communicating a school’s value, engaging its community, building lasting relationships, and securing the resources needed to sustain its mission. And amid enrollment pressures, affordability concerns, shifting donor behavior, changing family expectations, and an increasingly complex communications landscape, it has never been more important.

  In this issue of Independent School, we will explore advancement at a moment of inflection. Alignment across fundraising, alumni and parent relations, communications and marketing, and advancement services is mission-critical to deepen engagement, demonstrate value, and strengthen a school’s long-term position. We want to examine what an effective, integrated approach looks like today––the intersections of 

  integrated strategy and leadership; communications, marketing and reputation; alumni parent, and community engagement, philanthropy and financial sustainability, and advancement operations. 

  We are particularly interested in strategic insights, practical lessons, data-informed approaches, and candid reflections on what is working, what is changing, and where schools are experimenting with new models.

  • What structures, leadership models, and planning processes help advancement functions operate as an integrated team rather than separate departments?
  • How are heads balancing internal leadership with their external roles as fundraisers, relationship builders, and institutional ambassadors?
  • How are schools communicating their value in a crowded and rapidly changing education marketplace?
  • How can communications and marketing support enrollment, philanthropy, alumni engagement, community trust, and institutional reputation without becoming solely promotional functions?
  • How are communications teams navigating heightened scrutiny, polarization, misinformation, and rapidly changing media channels?
  • How are schools measuring whether their communications and marketing efforts are reaching, engaging, and influencing key audiences?
  • What does meaningful alumni engagement look like beyond event attendance and giving?
  • How are schools building lifelong relationships with alumni across generations, geographic locations, and levels of connection?
  • How should pre-K–8 schools rethink alumni identity and engagement?
  • How can schools better engage parents, grandparents, former families, and other members of the extended community?
  • What can longitudinal surveys, audience research, and engagement data reveal about alumni experiences and institutional affinity?
  • How are millennial and Gen Z alumni and donors reshaping expectations for communication, participation, transparency, and impact?
  • How are schools rethinking the role of endowment in their financial models, particularly as affordability pressures increase? How can schools make a compelling case for long-term investments such as endowment while also addressing immediate institutional and student needs?
  • How are fundraising teams responding to the growing concentration of giving among a relatively small number of major donors?
  • How are schools structuring campaigns across facilities, endowment, annual giving, and programmatic priorities?
  • What lessons have emerged from recent campaigns, including those that did not proceed as planned?
  • What systems, staffing models, and operational practices are essential to a modern advancement program?
  • How can schools use data to understand constituent behavior, personalize engagement, identify opportunities, and make better strategic decisions?
  • What advancement metrics matter beyond dollars raised, event attendance, email opens, and social media reach?
  • What are schools learning about data governance, database quality, privacy, segmentation, reporting, and responsible use of AI?
  • How can schools invest in the often less visible operational capacity required to support ambitious engagement and fundraising goals?

  Submit to ismag@nais.org.