Learning & Resources Category: Field of Jewish Education

It has been more than ten years since the last systematic effort to collect data about the Jewish educator workforce; in some areas of Jewish education no large-scale data have ever been collected. The CASJE Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators Study was designed to provide usable knowledge about the recruitment, retention and development of Jewish educators. Beginning July 2021 CASJE released a series of reports and briefs highlighting findings from the study.

This study is animated by the belief that research-based knowledge is a critical resource in tackling complex problems in Jewish education. Insights generated through research can inform planning strategies for the field, guide philanthropic investment, and frame the design of well-conceived programmatic interventions. In this case the focus is on increasing the capacity to support Jewish educators at all stages of their careers.

CASJE identified ten key findings that are explained in greater detail (along with other findings) in the research reports:

1.  Jewish educators are mission driven, love Jewish learning, and share an abiding commitment to serving others. For many, especially those who participate in university-based pre-service programs, this sense of mission is a source of resilience in overcoming challenges they face in the field.
2. The perceived low status of Jewish educators, the perceived parochial nature of Jewish educational settings, and limited or outdated perspectives on the kinds of work Jewish educators do, are barriers to enticing entrants to careers in Jewish education.
3. Almost half of current Jewish educators report entering the field in response to a job opportunity rather than proactively choosing to enter the field; fewer than half of new educators have participated in formal pre-service preparation.
4. In many sectors of Jewish education there is no clear career ladder for educators; often the only pathway to advancement is in taking on administrative work.
5. Continuous and high-quality professional development opportunities that correlate with improved outcomes for educators are not accessible to enough Jewish educators.
6. Although Jewish educators tend to report good relationships with supervisors, mentorship and support for ongoing professional development are generally viewed as inadequate.
7. Most Jewish educators are dissatisfied with the compensation and benefits they receive. Female respondents are typically paid less than their male peers, and early childhood education lags in salary and benefits.
8. The popular narrative of a personnel crisis in Jewish education is fueled by trends in the supplementary-school labor market. Programs such as camping or social justice and innovation report a large pool of talented candidates from which to recruit educators, while day schools and early childhood programs face somewhat tougher supply-side challenges.
9. There is a lively and growing market for independent providers of professional learning, in part driven by employers who do not demand formal degree completion or certification. Independent providers generally emphasize the personal growth of the educator and relationship building skills; degree-granting university based programs emphasize professional knowledge and technical skills.
10. The number of educators enrolled in degree-granting programs has increased during the last thirty years, a trend driven by growth in specialty programs and dependent on availability of philanthropic support.

Additional Info and Analysis

• View more information about the Career Trajectories Study
• Read insights from Arielle Levites, PhD, Managing Director of CASJE
• Read insights from Alex Pomson, PhD, Principal and Managing Director of Rosov Consulting
• Read insights from Stacie Cherner, Director of Learning and Evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Menachem “Manny” Menchel, Senior Program Officer, Jewish Life at the William Davidson Foundation

Read the Reports

An Invitation to Action: Findings and Implications across the Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators Study
An Invitation to Action weaves together learnings from the previous strands and draws on the learnings produced to address the questions that have animated this work from its start. Summaries of the main findings from each strand can be found in the reports and briefs previously released. Here, researchers bring these findings into conversation with one another.

• Read An Invitation to Action: Findings and Implications across the Career Trajectories of Jewish Eductors Study 

Mapping the Market: An Analysis of the Preparation, Support, and Employment of Jewish Educators 
Mapping the Market looks at the labor market for Jewish education in the United States, analyzing both supply-side and demand-side data to understand what employers look for in Jewish educators and how pre-service and professional development programs prepare educators to meet the needs of the learners and communities they serve.

• Read Mapping the Market: An Analysis of the Preparation, Support, and Employment of Jewish Educators
  
• Enjoy an interactive experience mapping the market of pre-service and in-service training for Jewish educators. 
• Read insights from leaders in the field on Mapping the Market:
  • Mapping the Marketplace through a Gender Lens, By Shira D. Epstein, Ed.D, Dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at JTS
  • Mapping the Variegated Market, By Dr. Gil Graff, Executive Director of BJE: Builders of Jewish Education, Los Angeles
  • Don’t Soften the Edges of Jewish Education, By Amian Frost Kelemer, CEO, Louise D. and Morton J. Macks Center for Jewish Education

On the Journey
On the Journey is designed to elucidate the career pathways of Jewish educators, including their professional growth, compensation, workplace conditions and lived experiences. In 2019 CASJE published the white paper On the Journey: Concepts That Support a Study of the Professional Trajectories of Jewish Educators, which lays out the framework and key questions that underlie this inquiry and serves as a companion to these research briefs. On the Journey will be published as four research briefs that address career paths, professional learning, workplace environments, and compensation.

• Read the fourth brief of On the Journey: Compensation – The Salaries and Benefits of Jewish Educators
• Read the third brief of On the Journey: Workplace Environments – The Importance of Empowerment, Collegiality, Supervision, and Recognition
• Read the second brief of On the Journey: Professional Development for Jewish Educators – Time to Tap Its Potential
• Read the first brief of On the Journey: The Journey of Jewish Educators
• Read the methodology of On the Journey
• Read insights from Anna Hartman, Director of Early Childhood Excellence at the Jewish United Fund in Chicago and Director of the Paradigm Project
• Read insights from Sharon Feiman-Nemser, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Professor Emerita of Jewish Education, Brandeis University

Preparing for Entry: Fresh Perspectives on How and Why People Become Jewish Educators
Preparing for Entry is designed to understand the pathways by which people enter the field of Jewish education and identify factors that advance or inhibit launching a career in Jewish education. In 2020 CASJE published the white paper Preparing for Entry: Concepts That Support a Study of What It Takes to Launch a Career in Jewish Education, which lays out the framework and key questions that underlie this inquiry and serves as a companion to this report.

• Read the final report of Preparing for Entry: Fresh Perspectives on How and Why People Become Jewish Educators
• Read insights from Nina Bruder, Senior Director of the Jewish New Teacher Project
• Read insights from Amanda Winer, a social psychology researcher who will soon receive her Ph.D. from New York University

The “Mapping the Market” (MTM) strand of CASJE’s study of Recruitment, Retention and Development of Jewish Educators (RRDoJE) was conceived with the goal of shedding light on the Jewish education marketplace. MTM planned to document what job opportunities exist in Jewish education, what skills and aptitudes employers across various sectors seek in the Jewish educators they hire, and the ways in which individuals who function as Jewish educators are prepared for and nurtured to work effectively in the field.

The early stages of work on MTM have provided an opportunity to learn how certain sectors of Jewish education have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hiring practices serve as a barometer of institutional health, and this is certainly true at the present moment: they shed light on what employers seek to achieve at a given point in time, what demand they anticipate for their services and products, and what help they expect their staff will need in order to succeed.

During July and August 2020, Rosov Consulting conducted focus groups with 75 individuals responsible for hiring Jewish educators in sectors whose primary function is to provide either formal Jewish education or informal/experiential Jewish education (RRDoJE’s Sectors 1 and 2); the sample included heads of day schools, early childhood directors, educational directors at congregations, directors of overnight and day camps, JCC directors, directors of youth-serving organizations, and Hillel directors. Rosov Consulting also spoke with three informants well placed to observe the labor market in some of these sectors. During the course of these focus groups and interviews, the researchers explored the extent to which and the ways in which hiring needs and hiring practices had been impacted by COVID-19. Exploring the marketplace for Jewish educators, Rosov Consulting opened a window on the current state of the broader landscape of Jewish education. This interim report shares what was learned.

Facing the Future: Mapping the Marketplace of Jewish Education During COVID-19, CASJE and Rosov Consulting, November 2020

Insights from CASE and Rosov Consulting based on the research:

• Sifting Through the Mixed Blessings Created by the Pandemic
• How Essential is Jewish Education? COVID-19 Brings Some Clarity
• Look out! An Emerging Shift in the Jewish Education Labor Market

CASJE is in the midst of a multipronged project to study the Recruitment, Retention, and Development of Jewish Educators (RRDOJE) in the United States. For the purposes of this study, Jewish educators are defined as individuals who work for pay, either part time or full
time, in an institutional setting geared to Jewish educational outcomes. Or, they’re self-employed individuals intending to achieve the same outcomes. They design and/or deliver experiences for the purpose of facilitating Jewish learning, engagement, connection, and
meaning through direct contact with participants.

The Preparing for Entry strand of this inquiry addresses a set of questions that will shed light on what it takes to launch a career in Jewish education and, in turn, what interventions might encourage promising candidates to seek and take up employment as Jewish educators.
These questions include: What attracts people, after they have completed a college degree or its equivalent, to work in the field of Jewish education? What deters them from the field? What pathways into the field are most likely to yield committed and qualified educators? And what might make the field more attractive to promising candidates?

In this paper, Rosov Consulting explores the central terms in this inquiry: What is a career? How different is someone’s perception and experience of their work when it is seen as part of a career rather than a job? What factors and forces are salient in shaping the desire to pursue a career, and specifically a career in Jewish education? What experiences and resources are understood to prepare individuals psychologically and materially to enter a field of work? What do we mean by deterrents and obstacles to pursuing a career?

Preparing for Entry: Concepts That Support a Study of What It Takes to Launch a Career in Jewish Education, Prepared by Rosov Consulting; Principal Investigator Michael J. Feuer, Dean, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, The George Washington University; CASJE June 2020

In May 2018, Leading Edge conducted its third annual Employee Experience Survey. Participants included 7,300 employees from 105 Jewish nonprofit organizations with different missions, budgets, staff sizes, and geographic locations. Leading Edge’s primary purpose is to use the survey to help these willing organizations create even better places to work. For the 52 organizations that have now taken the Leading Edge survey more than once, the commitment to improving workplace culture can be seen in the results — 73% either improved their scores from year to year, or simply started and remained strong on the whole.

Are Jewish Organizations Great Places to Work? Results from the third annual employee experience survey, 2018, Leading Edge and Culture Amp

Onboarding new staff can set the tone for a professional relationship. Dive into some of the best practices from Leading Edge that enable employees to thrive from Day 1.

Onboarding Best Practices: A Guide for Onboarding New Staff