Our Services

Thank you for considering MindSpark-Education Management Consultants to support the continued improvement of your School’s operations and leadership. We’re confident that MIndSpark - EMC combined experience with independent school operation, improvement, and evaluation (along with short- and long-term improvement plans) will broaden the capacity of your school and its sustainable operation. We’re ideally positioned to carry out the comprehensive 360 degree evaluation to assess your school’s performance, covering governance, administration, academic, financial, operations, and our detailed summative school improvement report with a comprehensive set of strategies and supporting action plans for your Board and Administration to lead your school’s ongoing improvement. Our evaluation process identifies areas needing organizational improvement to support school revitalization and sustainability. To establish a clear picture of your school’s performance against established benchmarks, and to determine areas of priority that your school needs to focus on, we’ll implement a four-pronged approach to assess your school’s current situation and gather measurable data, focusing primarily on:

On-site focus groups, interviews, and observations;

Multiple on-line surveys with your school’s community;

One-on-one interviews with your School’s Board and Administration;

Summative Report and Action Plan.

Our thoughtful evaluation process provides your Board of Trustees with a concise set of strategies and actions to guide your school’s leadership with the ongoing development of your institution, identifying areas needing short- and long-term improvement. Our evaluation process focuses on the following critical benchmarks for effective school performance:

The School’s Overall Effectiveness;

Marketing, Admissions, And Retention System;

Teaching/Learning Practices;

Human Resources;

Care, Guidance, And Support For Students;

School Leadership And Management;

Physical Plant, Grounds, And Resources;

Infrastructure And Operations;

Communications And Community Relations;

Finance And Operations.

Our Approach

We will structure our comprehensive evaluation process into six parts applying our in-depth background with starting, leading, and managing independent schools world-wide. After our online surveys and on-site focus group sessions are completed, we will follow up with a Summary Report and Action Plan that provides a range of recommendations and action plans to improve your school. The Summary Report and Action Plans prioritize critical issues you need to improve upon, as well as the "indicators of success" to move towards in the continued improvement of your school. Our methodology focuses on a “SWOT” analysis identifying your:

Strengths;

Weaknesses;

Opportunities, ;

Threats / Trends.

Our methodology utilizes a four-step approach based on analyzing key performance benchmarks of your school, which involves evaluation of relevant school data, onsite focus groups, 360 degree survey process to gauge school performance and stakeholder perception, in-depth discussions with your trustees, and then four weeks to develop and deliver the Summary Report and Action Plan for school improvement.

Our approach will:

Determine Scope and Direction: Meeting with the Client to finalize goals, process, critical issues, timing, schedule, situational scan, and deliverables;

Collect and Review School Documentation and Data: Collect and review school documentation and data prior to the onsite visit to determine schools’ present (e.g., Marketing/enrollment materials, enrollment data, tuition overview, financial aid, student/parent enrollment contract, strategic plan, sample report cards, sample staff contracts/teacher grids/policy handbook, other handbooks, society/board bylaws and constitution, staff and board list, map of the school plant, history of school’s fundraising record, overview of school educational program(s), accreditation documentation, staff evaluation instrument and professional development plan);

Onsite Focus-Group Interviews With Key Stakeholder Groups: Two days onsite focus group sessions with key constituents of your community to determine your schools’ strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities and trends to take advantage of, including: Board Executive Committee, one-on-one meeting with trustees, administration, parents, students, staff, former parents, etc. We will also tour the schools and hold several classroom observation sessions as needed, with follow-up and debriefing with Board Chair on the final day;

Confidential Statistically-Based Online Surveys: Statistically-Driven Online Surveys for staff/faculty, board, and parents to gather data on school performance prior to the onsite visit (e.g., staff, board/administration, parents);

Summative Report and Action Plans: Develop a customized strategic report including an that identifies areas needing immediate focus and ‘roll-out’, strategies, and action plan to enhance your schools’ overall development. This will include strategies, timelines, and designated staff, and appendices with the questionnaires and interview outcomes. We will provide a virtual presentation to the appropriate representatives to the Client of the study’s outcomes with an MSWord and PDF format.

The final report prioritizes steps for improvement, reviewing the following benchmarks:

School’s vision, mission, core values, educational philosophy;

Strategic plan;

Board Governance;

Bylaws and constitution;

Administrative leadership;

Head of School evaluation and support;

Physical plant and grounds;

Financial plan;

Development and fundraising;

Curriculum and programming;

Crisis management;

Staff evaluation systems, contracts, compensation, and professional development;

Tuition, bursaries, and financial aid;Infrastructure, handbooks, protocol, and reporting systems;

Marketing and communications;

Admissions, recruiting, and retention systems;

School Climate.

Boarding Schools

ESL/Language Schools

Preschool and Daycare

Montessori and Waldorf SchoolsElite Multi-Sport Academies

And more...call us for further details