Success in San Francisco: The Impact of Resource Specialists in Jewish Early Childhood Education

Imagine—what would it be like to have a child in a program that provided an educator who was dedicated to helping teachers deepen their reflective practice as well as their Jewish knowledge? And, what if this person worked as a concierge to engage young families in Jewish life in the broader community?

Actually, imagination is not necessary. Six years ago, the Early Childhood and Family Engagement Initiative (ECFE) in San Francisco filled this position for Jewish preschools. With generous funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation and the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, the San Francisco Early Childhood Initiative began the Jewish Resource Specialist (JRS) program.

The program launched with five pilot sites and quickly became ECFE’s most recognized program. Each of these five sites had a designated classroom teacher who worked ten additional hours at their site with the dual goals of deepening Jewish learning and engaging families in Jewish life. The teachers were given a coach who supported their work and met with them each month. They also attended a retreat, six meetings of a JRS community of practice, and a day of learning at the end of each school year. This professional development helped to strengthen the work of the JRS at their schools, as each JRS brought their learning from these days back to their programs. Additionally, each preschool program also received professional development funding for their teachers to deepen their own Jewish learning programming and funding for Jewish parent and family programs.

What have been the results? Our program impact has been profound. On the leadership level, directors have discovered a partner in their JRS who helps them maintain a high quality of Judaic learning and programming while keeping the education at their school reflective of current practice. The teachers in JRS preschools approach the JRS in their programs with questions for peer-to-peer advice and support—a peer, not a supervisor. On the school level, the JRS program supports work on the school’s vision, each system developing their own goals in the areas of Jewish learning and engaging families in Jewish life. We know that embedded professional development works best, and the JRS system leverages that knowledge to move each school forward.

On the parent level, there are many examples of how these specialists have enabled teachers to articulate the work that they do in the classroom, and to share it with families in their care:

• hahnasat orhim (welcoming guests), where four-year-old children invited parents to an evening “restaurant” that the children had created;

• sharing a mishnah, where three-year-olds taught parents about the meaning of the statement: “Do not look at the jug, but rather what is inside it”;

• a “Sh’ma” walk in the Oakland Hills, during which families recited the Sh’ma, talked about its meaning, and walked through the woods with a new understanding of what Sh’ma (listen) implies.

Each of these experiences has actively involved parents in learning with the children.
In addition to engaging with their children in Jewish programming that is meaningful to them, connections with other parents are fostered, building a Jewish community. Switching from a “parent education” model to a “parent engagement” model is a subtle change, but one that moves from a deficit model to one that is strength-based. The JRS actively works with the parents to ask them how and where they like to learn, to engage them in the kinds of activities that they enjoy, and to provide a Jewish lens for the learning at these family engagement times. They work with one or two “JRS parents” who help them create meaningful Jewish programming, again, emphasizing family friendships and connection to the Jewish community.

The ECFE’s second cohort just had their siyyum, their closing celebration. As this current cohort ends, the third cohort of the JRS will begin in the fall of 2017. In the words of a parent, “I just can’t imagine what our school would be like without the JRS program.”

Denise Moyes-Schnur is a Jewish early childhood educator, and has been in the field for over 40 years. She has worked in both local and national Jewish early childhood programs, (including JTS’s own first cohort of JECELI, where she was the mentor coordinator). Denise specializes in creating programming, coaching, and mentoring Jewish early childhood centers. She is the director of the Jewish Resource Specialist program, and in July will become the associate director at the Early Childhood and Family Engagement Initiative at the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation.

Source: “Success in San Francisco: The Impact of Resource Specialists in Jewish Early Childhood Education,” by Denise Moyes-Schnur, Gleanings, July 6, 2017

Scale-Up Nation

This is part 5 of the series in eJewishPhilanthropy, Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning. The series is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

Are basic literacy, Jewish culture and Judaic values still adequate to enable Jews to change the world?

Photo by Teddy Kelley on Unsplash

 

For almost two thousand years, ever since High Priest Yehoshua Ben Gamla instituted history’s first public schooling system, basic education has been universal and mandatory in the Jewish world. This focus and near-obsession with literacy has much to do with Jewish economic success over the centuries, and enabled the immense contribution of Jews to society and humanity. Through a combination of advanced literacy, a rich culture, and strong, adhesive values, Jews as individuals have benefitted the world in every major field. Recent decades have seen this play out at a national level with the disproportionately large contributions Israel has made to science and technology, and the “Start-up Nation’s” overall catalytic impact on advancing human progress.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

The world has shifted. Are basic literacy, Jewish culture and Judaic values still adequate to enable Jews to change the world?

Both in and outside of Israel, basic literacy levels are high, but this is no longer the differentiator it always was. We have entered a digital age that The World Economic Forum (WEF) refers to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and which, by 2020, will have brought us advanced robotics, autonomous transport and artificial intelligence, and quantum leaps in machine learning, biotechnology and genomics. How well prepared are Jewish educational systems for the next generation?

The WEF Future Workforce Strategy report states that most children entering schools today will ultimately work in new job types that currently don’t yet exist. Yet most current education systems, whether at primary, secondary or tertiary level, still provide highly siloed learning, and continue outmoded 20th century practices. The world is clearly changing, almost day to day. The question is, what is the Jewish response?

CONTINUING THE JEWISH MISSION

The questions surrounding the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on Jewish education are two-fold. Firstly, how does this impact how we educate generally, both in Israel and abroad? Secondly, more specifically, how does this affect the way we educate for Jewish values? A third, related question is, given this future reality, what can we collectively do to foster an enabling environment to harness these educational and technological advances?

While it is clear that the question of educational reform in the digital age is a global challenge, this article seeks to contextualize the issue within the Jewish world. But before we explore how funders should address these challenges we need to underline why it is important that there be a specific Jewish response.

No ink will be spilt on elaborating why we need to educate our children for the future workplace. But it is vital to understand how these changes impact the Jewish mission at large. Tikkun Olam, changing the world for the better, has forever been at the forefront of Jewish identity and Jewish destiny. By failing to adapt to a brave new world, are we hampering our ability to carry out this sacred mission, and eroding our future impact as a nation?

Israel’s seismic global impact in recent decades in areas such agriculture, education, healthcare, business and communication technology clearly demonstrates the power of combining education, culture and values to benefit the world. What is unclear, however, is how we educate to ensure the future Jewish workforce has the raw materials to both sustain and accelerate this impact. How do we move from The Start-up Nation to The Scale-up Nation?

The solution proposed by the authors is that a combination of (1) revamped education, (2) relevant Jewish education which accesses the best practices in educational technologies, and (3) an enabling environment, are required to recalibrate the Jewish people with their historic mission.

THE NEXT STEP

In 64CE basic literacy was mandated and implemented amongst the Jewish people literally centuries ahead of its time. It has served us well until recently. Crucially, this system emerged, not from divine fiat, but from an educational crisis amongst the people – a crisis that was reversed promptly and decisively by the leaders of the generation. Similarly far-sighted intervention is needed for the next evolutionary step in education. Today, as then, the call to action for our leaders is clear. We must educate our children with 21st century skills. We also must transmit Jewish values in a way which is relevant to 21st century learners. To avoid mixed messaging, our leaders need to ensure Jewish continuity by providing both, general and Jewish education, utilizing the same cutting edge educational technologies.

Our hypothesis is as follows:

By educating Jewish learners for the future workforce and transmitting Jewish values optimally, while fostering an enabling environment that harnesses these skills and values, we will enable future generations to successfully deliver on our divine mission of Tikkun Olam as engaged Jews, aiding the progress of humanity.

Our forthcoming contributions to this broader series on educational technology seek to address the three key questions that we believe require attention from strategic funders. They are:

  1. Revamped education: How do we nurture the necessary cross-functional skills, cognitive abilities and basic skills?
  2. Jewish values: How do we leverage evolving educational technologies to boost existing efforts in meaningfully transmitting Jewish values?
  3. Enabling environment: How do we foster an ecosystem that will continue to embrace technological advances in the service of Jewish education?

Jarred Myers manages an Innovation Portfolio for a Private Family Foundation, using venture philanthropy and mission investing tools, he focusses on technology driven solutions for education and employment. Nicky Newfield is the Founder and Executive Director of Jewish Interactive and is a trustee of the Glatt Charitable Foundation.

When Experiments Go Well: How a New Investment from the Jim Joseph Foundation Will Help Moving Traditions’ National Expansion

The teen years have always been a challenge. Figuring out who you are; navigating complex social systems; being pressed to succeed academically; a body that changes from day to day—almost no adult would willingly return to adolescence.

In our intense modern world, with a 24/7 fishbowl of social media and a heated and polarized public debate, it is no wonder that levels of anxiety and depression are increasing, even for the most successful teen children.

Fortunately, we continue to learn more every day about how to best help teens. Years of research have identified the factors that support teens to grow and thrive: adult mentors; supportive peer groups; the safety to explore difficult and personal issues with depth and honesty; and a community with a robust values system.

Judaism and Jewish community can–and does–offer this to teens.

Our ancient Jewish values of treating each other as if we are all made b’tzelem Elohim, in the divine image, of caring for the poor and those who are orphaned, and of working for social justice, have special resonance today.

As a field, we now deeply understand the power of helping Jewish teens make meaning of these Jewish values and connecting the values to their everyday lives and interests. Yet, of course, this meaning making does not simply happen. A recent evaluation conducted by Rosov Consulting and commissioned and shared by the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative–comprised of national and local funders learning together and catalyzing teen initiatives in ten communities–showed, among other key takeaways, that meeting teens where they are, literally and figuratively, is an integral component to offering Jewish experiences that add value to their lives.

Three of the communities within the Collaborative–Boston, Denver, and Los Angeles–work with Moving Traditions to create these types of experiences that reflect our understanding of teens and their desires today.  By fostering positive peer-to-peer relationships in small groups facilitated by trained adult mentors, Moving Traditions’ signature programs, Rosh Hodesh for girls and Shevet Achim for boys, create experiences that have inspired more than 19,000 Jewish teens to find meaning and connection in Jewish life. Moving Traditions also has certified nearly 1,400 educators to mentor the teens in Rosh Hodesh and Shevet Achim groups and it has provided professional development to thousands more Jewish educators who serve teens in a variety of settings.

We know the effectiveness of this work thanks to an independent evaluation. Moving Traditions found that when its Jewish learning promotes self-discovery, challenges conventional views of gender, and celebrates a diversity of voices, teens grow into adulthood with confidence and compassion. Now, with a new investment from the Jim Joseph Foundation (nearly $1 million over four years), Moving Traditions will build its national organization, deepening the quality of its programming and growing its reach.

Emphasizing healthy living and well-being benefits thousands of Jewish teens, as does helping them to find Jewish friends, derive meaning from Jewish wisdom, and develop an ongoing connection to Jewish community. Just a few results from the evaluation bear this out:

  • 91% of group leaders reported that the program helped girls gain the emotional skills to deal with life’s changes
  • 94% of past participants said that Rosh Hodesh increased their sense of connection with Jewish girls and women.
  • 71% of past Rosh Hodesh participants have continued to be involved in Jewish or women’s activities after the program ended.
  • 81% of institutional partners running Rosh Hodesh believe that the program helped them retain girls post bat mitzvah.

Anecdotal evidence (input from participants, partners, and group leaders through annual evaluations and direct feedback) suggests similar outcomes for boys in the Shevet Achim program. An independent evaluation of that program is planned for the future.

Moving Traditions’ work within the three communities of the Funder community allowed it to prove the model. The Teen Funder Collaborative offered a blank canvas of sorts to experiment with collaborations, program structures, and other variables. Local funding partners within the Funder Collaborative, which have supported Moving Traditions, unabashedly said that investing in the national office is a promising opportunity to amplify existing work. The independent evaluation affirmed this sentiment, and both were key factors in the Jim Joseph Foundation’s decision to make the new investment.

Moreover, Moving Traditions’ 2015-2020 strategic plan and recently completed business plan provide a roadmap for the organization to move forward, with two comprehensive strategies outlined to widen its scale and deepen its impact:

  • Graduated pathway to teen engagement, incorporating new programming—the b’nai mitzvah program and an online group for transgender teens—and refining its signature programs, Rosh Hodesh and Shevet Achim.
  • Pyramid of training for adults who mentor teens, refining Moving Traditions’ pre-service training and adding advanced training for Rosh Hodesh and Shevet Achim group leaders and including training for other Jewish educators, including camping staff.

With this plan, the organization also is poised for sustainability and capacity, positioning it to make significant contributions to the lives of Jewish teens and the broader field of Jewish teen engagement.

This is a very timely development. When teens drop out of Jewish life post-b’nai mitzvah, as so many do, it is not merely a loss for the Jewish community–it is a loss for teens as well.  The two years after b’nai mitzvah happen to be the years in which many teens begin to take risks in terms of alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity; encounter serious academic pressure; and experience difficulty in their relationships with their parents.

Moving Traditions offers a compelling framework to counter these trends. What started small within a few communities in the Funder Collaborative now has the opportunity for national impact. It is a strategic investment born from years of learning designed to engage an important audience with thoughtful, ongoing Jewish learning experiences.

Deborah Meyer is CEO of Moving Traditions. Jeff Tiell is a Program Officer of the Jim Joseph Foundation.

 

EdTech Training: Up, Up and Away

This is part 4 of the series in eJewishPhilanthropy, Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning. The series is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

There are many professions that require practitioners to participate in ongoing professional development, and rightfully so. After all, for example, we would not want a patient to be treated by an oncologist using 15 year old technologies. Similarly, we should expect our teachers to approach their students with the latest knowledge of learning theories, best practices, and relevant technologies. Yet, professional development is often under-funded and uninspired in our schools.

This reality begs the question: Why is professional development not sufficiently valued in many segments of the world of education? We can surmise that the people responsible for teacher development are often disappointed by the results of these efforts. It is not uncommon for teachers returning from a PD workshop to maintain their previous methods of instruction, even while feigning to adopt new technologies. Principals, supervisors, school board members, and even teachers often fail to see the clear connection between professional development and student achievement.

“Don’t let the tail wag the dog, select and integrate tech tools that solve your most important problems.” – Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing
“calculator” (CC BY 2.0) by ansik

What is needed is sustained and intensive professional development that takes place in the service of a core vision, not simply around technology for its own sake.

Is there a connection between the professional development of teachers and student achievement? Guskey and Yoon address this question in an excellent article entitled “What Works in Professional Development” (Phi Delta Kappan, March 2009) that presents a meta-analysis on research studies relating to the effectiveness of professional development for teachers. They found that the factors shared in effective PD were:

~Common Characteristics that Promote Student Achievement – All studies showed that a positive relationship between professional development and student learning occurred in workshops or summer institutes that:

  1. focused on research-based instructional practice,
  2. involved active learning experiences for participants, and
  3. provided teachers with opportunities to adapt the practices to their unique classroom situations.

~Potential Involvement of Outside Experts – “Professional development that bring improvements in student learning can be gained through the involvement of outside experts. While school based programs focused on training teacher technology integrators within the school might also have value, the research would suggest that consultation with outside experts would also aid in such efforts.”

~Structured and Sustained Time Commitments with Follow–up – Virtually all of the studies showed that programs leading to positive improvements in student learning included significant time commitments with considerable amounts of structured and sustained follow-up after the main professional development activity.

~Adaptation to a Specific Context – The most effective professional development came not from direct implementation of a particular set of best practices, but from the adaptation of varied practices to specific content, process, and context elements.

The authors pointed out that “no improvement effort has ever succeeded in the absence of thoughtfully planned and well implemented professional development.”

“Teach like Google exists.” – Alice Keeler
Source: https://pixabay.com/p-485611/

The importance of professional development is currently more relevant than ever in the education world. Student learning has transformed with the development and accessibility of the internet. It can also be greatly enriched through the proper use of online tools. Already in 2010, the U. S. Department of Education concluded: “As online learning becomes an increasingly important part of our educational system, it creates both the need for educators who are skilled in online instruction and the demand for greater knowledge of the most effective practices.”

How can we ensure that PD in EdTech is achieving its goals?

I discovered some highlights in Nik Peachey’s “12 Tips for Training Older Teachers to Use Technology.” Three of my favorites were that PD in EdTech has to:

  • Solve Classroom Problems
  • Do things that can’t be done any other way
  • Make their lives easier; provide step by step guides.

In my experience in presenting JETS workshops, I have discovered three types of participants:

1. Good to go: Early Implementers:

After I demonstrate a tool, this group is already implementing, creating samples, asking questions that apply to their learning environment and focusing on specific and predicted challenges to implementation. There is no doubt they will successfully implement this tool with minimal feedback, and they will troubleshoot on their own or seek support quickly. It is not uncommon for me to hear from principals after a PD session with their teachers informing me (often with a sense of astonishment) that some of their teachers have already begun to implement the tools and methods that they learned in their classroom instruction. For example: “The evening training was very useful. We already have several teachers using lino boards in the classroom!”

2. Hold My Hand: Medium Implementers:

These participants carefully consider the pros and cons of the tools, and need to weigh in with the facilitator in both the theory and its practical implementation. If both the dialogue and the experimentation process are met with positive results, there is a high chance of successful implementation. These teachers will be more likely to implement if there is someone who seeks them out and assists them to ensure successful application. It is always gratifying to see when this type of learner puts the pieces together: “I’m finally seeing ways to honor the text and use technology at the same time.”

3. Not a Chance: Late to Never Implementers:

Resistance is the key word for these educators. Due to a variety of factors (age, fear, habit, prefer to work alone), these participants will spend the majority of the workshop discussing the challenges. A small percentage, with lots of hand holding, will dare to create in a group setting, but there are very small chances that their students will ever hold an iPad or device to use the tool. However, some are eventually willing to try and succeed. One such participant gave me the following advice: “Scaffolding a bit more for “dinosaur” learners like myself.” This person has become a strong advocate for the use of EdTech in her school.

How to turn Category 3 into Category 2, and Category 2 into Category 1 implementers?

I’ve explored a variety of options, and the more you use, the more successful you will be. Consider some of these:

Administrators need to have a plan. What are the EdTech goals this year and how will they be implemented? What are the reasons for promoting these particular tools?
Which measures will be taken to ensure that all teachers are on board? How clear are teachers about the school’s goals? How can teachers add to that conversation?

The school administration needs to provide a lot of support.

How can teachers feel supported?

This can be done by arranging for someone to turn to for troubleshooting and experimentation; either a teacher peer with EdTech experience or by setting meetings with an EdTech director at the school.

Schools should also engage in frequent discussion about the efficacies, as well as the ins and outs of tool usage through school communication, staff meetings, peer mentoring, online communication and the like.

Systems should be put in place to promote feedback among peers and the administration about tool implementation. Schools should consider who is monitoring the implementation, set standards of usage and follow-up, and analyze how teachers are progressing towards those goals.

Care should be taken to validate teachers’ efficacy as educators. Category 3 teachers can and should be excellent teachers; promote their skills as pedagogues and promote how EdTech can enhance that pedagogical approach even further.

“w7 – Picasso goals” (CC BY 2.0) by Sweet Dreamz Design

During professional development days, EdTech experimentation should be explored. Schools can also encourage trial and error and provide peer and administrative support in and out of the school setting. However, PD sessions should be catered to the needs of Category 1, 2, and 3 teachers, and resist whole group sessions that combines all the teachers together. These teachers’ needs and attitudes are very different and PD times should address them at their own level, in their own groups. As a Category 1 educator once mentioned regarding her PD time at her school, “I was in the same room as a colleague who didn’t know how to turn on her iPad.”

The focus of PD time and peer mentoring should be on the practicality of the use of current pedagogies, online tools and methodologies that creatively maximize student engagement, foster social and collaborative learning, and assist educators to adapt tools to their particular needs.

In line with Guskey and Yoon’s findings, I have found that continued support is a very important ingredient in effective EdTech training programs. In particular, in my experience, our professional whatsapp group, our online EdTech Support Center, supplemental webinars, personalized consultation and teacher mentoring (online or face to face) have been invaluable for teachers to go from theory to practice, and from technophobes to implementers.

Discovering and Reaching New Horizons

If PD in EdTech is going to be taken seriously, then serious approaches need to be offered to teachers. Teachers need to feel the need for it, be given the space and time to try it, and have sufficient support to feel successful and empowered.

The good thing about changing PD in EdTech is that once support measures are implemented, it will work like balloons in the movie ‘Up!’ – each empowered teacher will add their string to the shifting realm of education until both students and educators are flying toward previously unseen horizons.

Smadar Goldstein, the founder of JETS, has presented PD workshops on integrating educational technology and related methodologies in Jewish studies instruction to more than 900 educators in nine countries. [email protected].

Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning

“Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning” is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation, and is cross-posted in eJewishPhilanthropy. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

Read all the blogs in the series below:

Ubiquity, Access, & Availability: How EdTech Can Transform Schools, Homes, & Anywhere In Between, Michael Cohen, The Tech Rabbi

Jewish EdTech: If You Build It, Will They Come?, Jarred Myers and Nicky Newfield

Augmented Reality in Jewish Day Schools, Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg

Building Jewish Identity Through Engaging Video: A Developer’s Perspective, Sarah Lefton

Open is a Winning Strategy for Technology Investment, Brett Lockspeiser

Questions for Funders – Nurturing an Ecosystem to Embrace Technological Advances for Jewish Education, Jarred Myers and Nicky Newfield

Scale-Up Nation, Jarred Myers and Nicky Newfield

EdTech Training: Up, Up and Away, Smadar Goldstein with Stan Peerless

Digital Promise: Learning Jewish, Online, Chana German

A History of the “Future of Jewish Education,” Russel Neiss

Procuring the Proper Software, Hardware and Teacher Training for Successful Educational Technology Integration – A Funder’s Perspective, Amy Amiel

Making the most of technology in Jewish education, Lewis J. Bernstein and Shira Ackerman (originally in JTA)

Introducing “Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy,” Kari Alterman and Josh Miller

A Crash Course on Releasing an RFP

Just before Passover this year, the Jim Joseph Foundation released two open Request for Proposals (RFP)—one addressed Educator Professional Development (PD); the other addressed Leadership Development. This marked the first time the Foundation embarked on this process, and is another new development among a year of changes for the Foundation. Designing, releasing, and reviewing Letters of Interest (LOI)—we recently contacted the 146 organizations that submitted LOIs to let them know if they were selected as finalists—has been inspiring, challenging, and ripe with learnings both for the Foundation and, we believe, the field.

While we clearly are still in the midst of this process, here’s a quick take on some interesting observations.

What we see in the field:

  • Newsflash! Lots of different kinds of people want money. Interest in the RFP’s was not merely high, but also diverse. LOIs received were from a wide range of Jewish organizations, representing different missions, demographics, affiliations and (un)affiliations, levels of ritual practice, and other variables.
  • “Hi, we’ve never met, let’s talk.” The RFP process has been a great opportunity to engage organizations with which we have never before partnered. In fact, two-thirds of the LOIs received were from organizations who had not received prior grants. Some of the organizations are now finalists for the grants.
  • Tag-teaming unleashes really creative ideas. Some of the LOIs—although not as many as we had hoped—were collaborations between two organizations. They were creative and ambitious in the programs they proposed to design and run. Some of these were selected as finalists.
  • DEI and ECE are hot topics Many submissions in some way addressed issues around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) (eight were focused on social justice), which have taken on more prominence of late and are an effective way to engage youth and young adults. And 50 LOIs addressed early childhood education (ECE), an area that some in the field have long-said warrants and needs greater investment.
  • We have a lot of organizations! Amid the often fatalistic discourse about American Judaism, the LOIs we received—and even questions from organizations who ended up not submitting LOIs—reflect a diversity and vibrancy that forms a narrative of a creative, evolving, and hyper-organized American Jewish community where nearly anyone can find a Jewish organization that speaks both for and to them. These organizations are eager to receive support and to continue building their visions of Jewish life.

Some internal learnings for the Foundation:

  • “All Hands on Deck!” promotes teamwork and collaboration. The Foundation pulled together an interdisciplinary internal team, held weekly meetings, and benefited from immersive and cross-portfolio experience—partly out of necessity to meet the demand of a challenging and time-crunched endeavor. Reviewing LOIs, and now continuing this process with finalists, truly has been a team-strengthening, collaboratory experience.
  • Battle Royale between the RFP and relational grantmaking. While an RFP is inherently non-relational, relational grantmaking is a core part of our DNA here. Balancing these two seemingly competing forces was, and is, challenging. To address this, we set careful parameters in our correspondence with interested parties. Even if the Foundation’s professional teams’ instinct was to engage in deep conversation and formulate a proposal with the funding seeker, we knew that would not be the case here, even with existing grantees.
  • An old dog….:The Foundation can always think about different ways to approach grantmaking practices. We forced ourselves out of a certain comfort zone of normal operations. As a result of this process, we uncovered new possibilities that can inform how grants are monitored even under our standard grantmaking.

Feedback from colleagues outside of the Foundation—both about the RFP itself and the process we outlined for selection—has been deeply important. We’ve relied on a consulting group (TCC Group) as well, for expert guidance on designing the process. Through it all, the Foundation has found this to be a highly informative, substantive, rewarding, and certainly dynamic endeavor. And while we recognize that many other funders over the years have released RFPs, perhaps these observations above, from a “first-time RFP releaser,” offer a new perspective.

Finally, we know how much time and thought individuals put into crafting LOIs—and we sincerely and deeply appreciate it. We also know how fortunate we are to be in the position of funder to implement this RFP. And to our fellow funders, I note that there were many more fundable ideas among the LOIs received than we will be able to support. Opportunity abounds for those funders who want to make a difference in the areas of leadership and educator professional development. I look forward to updating you as this process continues.

Digital Promise: Learning Jewish, Online

This is part 3 of the series in eJewishPhilanthropy, Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning. The series is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

A century ago, when my bubbe sat in her fifth grade classroom in a Chicago public school, with 30+ classmates sitting row after row, listening to her teacher lecture, it would have been hard, probably impossible, for her to envision learning today. Learning now, as we all know, is everywhere. On a Wikipedia page, a YouTube TED talk, and your Twitter feed. The combination of your digital device and your experience powers up your learning, wherever you are. Curious about something? Look it up. Want to measure something? Go for it. Need to verify something? Check it out. Document something for the world? We’re waiting.

Within this context, it is easy to understand how more than 2.5 million students from public and private schools enroll in online classes annually. Among them are several thousand Jewish students who take Jewish studies courses online. Online learning, both formal courses and more informal learning “experiences,” has the potential to disrupt the Jewish educational framework as we know it.

There are several reasons why online learning turns traditional Jewish education on its head: its accessibility means that Jewish learning is not limited to classrooms, camps, or big cities; its pedagogy means that learning is personalized with multiple pathways and there is no “settling”; its digital nature means that it is familiar and always current; its price tag means it is affordable for families and communities; and its place in the Web makes Jewish connections – across city, state, and country lines – not only possible but probable.

Online learning can take on many forms: formal (courses) or informal (experiences), fully online (with an online facilitator), or blended (with a face-to-face element). It can have asynchronous (non-live) elements and synchronous (live) elements, be self-paced or calendar-paced, designed for individuals or groups, and integrate social media, multimedia, and games, or not. The creation of meaningful and effective online learning environments begins with understanding the centrality of the learner. To be engaging, online learning needs to activate learners from the outset, so that they are creating, thinking, sharing, and working with their peers, driving the experience. If they are passive consumers, there is no in-depth learning happening. Ideally, they are online and offline, completing authentic tasks, reflecting on their learning, producing prototypes and artifacts in constant dialogue with peers and their facilitator.

When we create courses at Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy, our first critical ingredient is intentional design. Form should always follow function. Is content learning the number one priority, or are social connections and community? The two need not to be mutually exclusive, but answering this question helps determine the structure. For instance, for a formal course, there will be assessments of some kind, whereas a course designed to be a social experience, will focus on collaborative activities. It will also point to the right balance between asynchronous and synchronous elements. Asynchronous learning is excellent for relaying information, encouraging learner reflection, and supporting a range of voices. But is academic achievement our only objective? There are always those “aha” moments in education, but just as important is the magic of children together, talking, doing, learning, and having fun. The opportunity for Jewish students to meet and work with other Jewish students from other cities and states cannot be understated.

Then specific learning objectives are delineated. Do we want participants to know how to light Shabbat candles? Study a chapter in a Biblical text? Break some kind of Jewish record (the largest virtual challah bake-off, perhaps?) Whatever the objective, we curate or create the supports and materials that they need to achieve their goals. If they need to meet Hillel, the Talmudic sage, we make sure that will happen (via avator) or, if they are in need of a trip to Tel Aviv to understand how modern Israel came into being, we produce the video. Perhaps they need to dig into their family history and interview their great-aunt about her experiences in the 1940s but need a hand crafting the questions, or want to speak to a peer about her family’s traditions on Rosh Hashana, but are in need of a module on active listening.

Avatar of Hillel from Online Jewish Studies Course

The other critical ingredient is facilitation, no mean feat. While excellent classroom teachers or informal educators may become excellent online facilitators, online learning depends on an additional (and sometimes) different skill set. Many classroom teachers are used to being the source of knowledge for their students. Facilitation, especially in an online medium, implies something different. Because the content is already constructed, the facilitator has time for what really matters: working with individuals and groups to collaborate, bringing out the wisdom of the group, asking (and modeling) thoughtful questions, guiding them towards discovery. Doing this in a face-to-face environment is challenging enough. All online facilitators should go through rigorous training, and if possible, work with a mentor until they incorporate best practices.

Once trained, a warm and energetic facilitator is vital, but so is a significant time commitment. In an online learning environment, participants are online when it works for them – early mornings, late afternoons, or perhaps the middle of the night, but early enthusiasm will wane if the participant feels unnoticed and ignored. The facilitator needs to foster a welcoming and inclusive culture, inviting participants first to participate, and then to lead the experience. This translates into dozens of IMs, emails, videos, and meetings via web conference. As participants begin to lead their own conversations and activities, the facilitator pulls back, always ready to encourage, correct, or probe students, if needed.

Because of the vast amount of data we can cull in online learning platforms, and the quantity of feedback from participants who are eager to share, it is relatively easy to determine what works and what does not. We know, for instance, that studies in K-12 education indicate that there is “no significant difference” between online and face-to-face education in terms of student outcomes (for further research look here, here, and here). That is, students learn effectively in both environments. In Jewish schools too, principals and students echo that the environment does not matter, as long as students are given the instructional and technological support needed to thrive. We also know that participants are enthusiastic about directing their Jewish learning, wherever it leads. They love meeting and collaborating virtually with other Jewish teenagers outside their locale, and reflecting about Jewish ideas, texts, and practice. But even with what we know, we can barely imagine what can be. The possibilities are endless. All we need to do is experiment. My bubbe – yours too – would expect no less.

Chana German ([email protected]) is founder and director of Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy, a project of The Lookstein Center, Bar-Ilan University. Lookstein Virtual is an award-winning online school of Jewish Studies, which enrolls more than 500 teenagers from Jewish and public schools every year.

Preparing to Deepen Action: A Funder Collaborative Finds its Way

The formation of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative was the result of a process begun by the Jim Joseph Foundation in 2013. At that time, in an effort to spawn innovative, locally sustainable teen engagement programs, the Jim Joseph Foundation brought together an array of funders to explore various approaches. The first 24 months of this deliberate process in which ten local and five national funders undertook to educate themselves, build relationships and co-invest in community-based Jewish teen education and engagement initiatives was thoughtfully documented in a case study issued in January 2015 by Informing Change, entitled, Finding New Paths for Teen Engagement and Learning: A Funder Collaborative Leads the Way.

The first case study highlighted several important achievements of the collaborative in its early years:* Strong leadership from the convening funder which enabled old and new colleagues to engage in open discussions about possible collaborations;* Early commitment of significant financial resources;* Provision of operational and substantive support by an array of consultants;* Development of mutual expectations and articulating shared measures of success.

This case study by Rosov Consulting documents the next stage of the Funder Collaborative’s development, roughly the 21-month period from January 2015 through October 2016 and reflects the Collaborative’s commitment to share its process with others who may choose to embark on their own co-funding endeavor.

Source: “Preparing to Deepen Action: A Funder Collaborative Finds its Way,” IssueLab, June 2017

“That was the most myself I’ve ever been” – Teens reflecting on new models of summer programming

Some of the most powerful memories from childhood are associated with summer: the riotous sound of crickets at night; a first sighting of the Milky Way; the hot sensation of a campfire on one’s face; or for those not able to get out of town, the intrigue of long hours left to one’s own devices. These moments gain their special force from breaking with the chores and routines of the school year.

For many Jewish adults, summer is associated with their childhood experiences of overnight camp. For six weeks or even longer, their foremost task as campers was to release the stress and constraints of school in the company of peers. Such programs might have recruited only a small portion of Jewish young people, but for many educators and parents they still constitute a kind of gold standard for immersive education and experience. Camp modeled an alternative society, and sometimes an explicitly Jewish one too.

In recent decades, these cultural patterns have dramatically changed. Overnight camps have been offering ever shorter programs. An increasing number provide 12-day/2-weekend experiences. Providers are being squeezed by diminished patience for multi-week programs, by a shrinking public’s ability and willingness to pay the fees associated with a full summer program, by the pressure teens increasingly feel to utilize summer experiences to enhance their resumés and by their interest to engage in a range of activities over the long stretch of the summer.

Against this backdrop, the New York Jewish Teen Initiative was launched in 2014. This ambitious effort to create new models of summer programing for Jewish teens, and to increase the numbers participating in Jewish experiences, is a partnership between UJA Federation of New York and the Jim Joseph Foundation within the framework of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, which includes national and local funders from ten communities. The Jewish Education Project serves as lead operator of the Initiative, which is being evaluated by a team from Rosov Consulting. Ahead of a third summer of programming, it is appropriate to take stock of what we’ve learned so far. A full report is available here.

Over its first two years, the Initiative incubated a cohort of eight new summer programs for teens. A second cohort of six programs will be launched this summer. The first cohort was extremely diverse in its offerings. It included a service learning trip to the South, a pop-up/design-thinking catering initiative to serve seniors, Jewish surf camp, a theater camp, and different internship programs. Perhaps the only common feature was that these were not overnight camping programs. They included daytime programs in the New York area, an Israel experience with a vocational twist, and a challenging service learning program out of the city.

For all their diversity, there are some general learnings to be derived from these first two years of activity, about teens, Jewish teen programs, and the teen summer program ecosystem.

Stretching and Breathing: The summer marketplace may have changed, but in important respects teens have not. They seek opportunities to make friends and have fun with friends. At the same time, they want to be challenged, learn new skills, make the most of their time, and find meaning, (at least that’s the case for these young New Yorkers). When teens reflected on what they most enjoyed about these experiences they highlighted how the programs provided a chance both to learn AND to have fun. These programs demonstrate the promise of a model where intensity and relaxation, what we call “stretching and breathing,” can be experienced at the same time.

By offering something different from regular summer experiences, the programs provide teens with frameworks that speak deeply to their own personal interests, and that enable them to find themselves. As one teen told us, “that was the most myself I’ve ever been.” And – no less important – teens have a chance to find others. Paradoxically, by taking participants out of their comfort zones, the programs enable them to connect and form new friendships with other Jewish teens who share their interests. This relational core is compelling especially when accompanied by a sense of authenticity, self-worth and achievement.

Programs finding a Jewish voice: In their first year, program-leaders were anxious about being perceived as too Jewish in their messaging and content. In the second year the programs found their Jewish voice. On the one hand, they did so in diverse fashion: by infusing social action work with Jewish texts or Jewish role models; by developing modes of Jewish spirituality and religious meaning; or by broadening their participants’ encounter with the global Jewish community. On the other hand, the programs did develop a common Jewish ethos, one captured succinctly by a program director as helping “teens discover the extent to which Judaism is a framework for teens’ lives.” None of the programs promoted a particular ideological or denominational vision of Judaism. But, they did all share the same aspiration to demonstrate to teens that Judaism, and being Jewish, has potential to be relevant.

This is no small matter. Even while reaching out to and engaging a diverse group of teens – with varying levels of prior Jewish experiences and commitments – the programs demonstrate that it is possible to conceive of Jewish education in terms that are broad, inclusive, and meaningful, and to publicize this fact.

Startups in a legacy market: The cohort of new programs incubated by the New York Jewish Teen Initiative face an additional challenge. They are competing in a space where the dominant players are either legacy programs that have been in operation for years, and often generations, or are programs that recruit returnee-participants year after year. With the exception of one program, the Initiative’s programs are not designed for returnee participants. Even when the programs are housed at brand-name institutions or are led by well-known organizations, their challenge is to gain attention and traction for new offerings and experiences in a highly-congested general teen summer marketplace. These circumstances mean that recruitment has been the greatest challenge the programs have faced. Some of the original cohort have fallen by the wayside. Only now as Year 3 begins can the first cohort say that they have really found their market. And, even then, the intense work of meeting families and gaining their trust continues.

Evidently, it takes a few years to achieve the kind of traction programs seek, especially when the day-program model that most offer is itself a departure from the overnight norm for this age group. At a time when stakeholders often seek rapid returns on their investments, these teen programs demonstrate that, like so many other memorable summer experiences, good things take time.

Dr. Alex Pomson is Managing Director at Rosov Consulting. Melanie Schneider is Senior Planning Executive, Jewish Life Department, at UJA Federation of New York.

originally appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy

New York Jewish Teen Initiative

The four-year, nine million dollar New York Teen Initiative is a jointly funded investment of the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jim Joseph Foundation. With The Jewish Education Project serving as lead operator, the Initiative seeks to redesign and redefine the area’s Jewish teen engagement through the creation of compelling summer experiences. The Initiative builds on UJA-Federation of New York’s historic and current efforts to support programs that attract teenagers to Jewish life and experiences. The Initiative is part of a national effort —spearheaded by the Jim Joseph Foundation — in which 14 foundations and federations are working together as a “Funder Collaborative” to expand and deepen Jewish teen education and engagement in 10 communities across the United States.

In Year 2 of the Initiative, the evaluation was focused on four sets of concerns and associated questions: Program Implementation; Expanded Reach to Teens; Participant Outcomes; and Tracking Year 1 Participants.

New York Teen Initiative and New York Incubator of Intensive Summer Experiences for Jewish Teens: “That was the most myself I have ever been,” Year 2 Evaluation Findings, February 2017

Sharing Early Insights: Lessons Learned from the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative

Four years ago, Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens was released, a report that brought to the fore promising models and practical ways for communities to engage teens in Jewish experiences that enrich their lives and help them grow. On the heels of the report, national and local funders representing ten communities took action, coming together to study the findings, commission additional groundbreaking reports, and to design responsive local teen engagement initiatives. Ultimately, the group evolved into a robust community: the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.

The Funder Collaborative is an innovative philanthropic experiment – a network of funders working together to develop, fund, support and grow new teen initiatives that draw on the collective strength of local organizations. Co-funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the community-based initiatives are multi-faceted approaches designed to reverse the trend of teens opting out of Jewish life in their high school years. Members have become valuable peer resources, each of whom are at different points in their initiative process.

Concurrent to the community-based education and engagement initiatives, the Funder Collaborative embarked on a process of enhanced research into teen Jewish engagement, learning and education. Outcomes for experiential and immersive Jewish education, as well as other research, informs our view of programming toward the whole teen. With a commitment to openness and transparency, the Funder Collaborative shares its hard-won lessons with others to increase knowledge and tools which may advance the entire field of Jewish teen education and engagement.

Today marks the launch of a new website designed to become a vital resource for anyone seeking to benefit from these lessons, models and research: teenfundercollaborative.com. Here we will share highlights of the work in each of our communities, as well as the deep research and rigorous evaluation that helps shape our efforts. We will also house detailed model documentation on specific initiatives exploring the structures, partnerships, risks, and more that have led to successes and “fail forward” moments for learning.

Learnings from the Funder Collaborative

While we are excited to share these resources, we also recognize we don’t hold all the answers to the challenging and complex issues surrounding meaningful Jewish teen engagement. Yet together – as we learn from and build on the knowledge of those who been active in this space before us – we are charting a positive course forward, helping to amplify and expand upon the important work of others.

We hope, too, to make some new discoveries which contribute to the field. Already we are poised to share the early results of interventions and other evidence-based understandings of:

  • the urgent need to address the whole teen, recognizing that teens often do not delineate between one’s Jewish and “secular” identity;
  • the paradigm of relationship-based engagement that places the teen at the center where we contribute and respond to them, not vice versa;
  • the critical role of developing the talented professionals and adult volunteers who engage teens and who advocate for supporting teens’ increased involvement in Jewish life and learning;
  • local communities’ role in weaving and publicizing a tapestry of meaningful opportunities for teens;
  • and the desire of teens to feel empowered to create experiences for themselves for their peers, and to grow through leadership and skill development.

Two new publications from Rosov Consulting also released today highlight key learnings and encouraging results from this new form of collaboration.

1.) INITIAL OUTCOMES ACROSS COMMUNITIES: First Fruits from the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative

The Funder Collaborative invests heavily in evaluation: each local initiative engages independent consultants and, importantly, a Cross-Community Evaluation enables us to analyze outcomes across communities and identify the most promising practices. The insights we glean can have wide-ranging implications for any community engaged in this work.

The CCE presents an honest and rich picture of early learnings of four of the initiatives, as well as the challenges of attempting to evaluate varied approaches, programs, partnerships and staffing structures. Results show we are beginning to “move the needle” in important ways.

Many communities attribute early programmatic successes to their participation in the collaborative and its steadfast commitment to knowledge-sharing. The evolution of the collaborative itself is central to creating an environment that fosters risk-taking, experimentation and ongoing reflection.

2) PREPARING TO DEEPEN ACTION: A Funder Collaborative Finds Its Way is the second installment in a series of case studies documenting the collaborative (the first released in 2015) and the result of 15 months of observations and interviews. It offers an informative and pragmatic examination for any organization considering the merits and challenges of such large-scale collaboration.

“Being part of something bigger than our community, to have the national support, intelligence and research and show that we are trying to change the conversation has helped me to justify and validate what we are doing.” – Local Funder

The Collaborative has evolved into a healthy mix of local and national funders and implementers who continue to come together to discuss, dissect and address shared areas of interest. In fact, this model of creating space for a Community of Practice across communities is echoed within many of the local initiatives, which themselves seed and nurture a thriving ecosystem of educators and youth-serving professionals to strengthen and sustain their models.

The Future of the Funder Collaborative

Now, around the country teens are benefiting from new and diverse models of meaningful learning and engagement that address the ‘whole teen’; communities employ better prepared and more well-trained and connected youth professionals; and there is a rising sense that teens themselves hold a special place on our communal agenda.

We invite you to be a part of this growth; to explore what we share; and to question, learn and experiment with us. Please be in touch ([email protected]) with your thoughts and feedback, and visit teenfundercollaborative.com to sign up for our quarterly newsletter.

Sara Allen is Director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.

This blog appeared originally in eJewishPhilanthropy.com.