My colleagues and I at Prizmah often receive calls and messages from school leaders, faculty, funders, and other day school stakeholders seeking critical research and data about Jewish day school trends. They are looking to understand trends happening in their own schools and to use data and research to inform critical strategic decisions for their communities.
Data and research can help you make effective decisions to address challenges, support school stakeholders, and advance school excellence. Research and data are tools on your tool belt that can equip you to lead more effectively and address problems strategically with confidence and clarity.
The Prizmah Knowledge Center, Prizmah’s hub for providing knowledge, research and data for the field of Jewish day schools and yeshivas, has evolved to encompass four core areas to serve the day school community.
Data Driven Decision-Making for School Leaders
We seek to enhance school financial health and educational excellence through data and research like DASL, pulse surveys, and school benchmarking reports to enable strategic, data-informed decisions
Landscape Research for the Field
We conduct and share field-wide research and trends to offer an informed understanding that enables thoughtful, critical interventions to help the field of Jewish day schools grow and thrive.
Measurement and Evaluation of Prizmah’s Impact
We use data to craft organizational strategy, define programmatic goals, and evaluate and measure impact to continuously improve and serve as a model to the field as an organization striving to be data-driven.
Online Knowledge Center
We curate an online resource center, full of robust articles, thought leadership, and research for day school leaders and stakeholders.
This Kaleidoscope features the Knowledge Center’s newest research, programs, and resources.
- Listen to the podcast for a preview of findings from our latest unreleased enrollment census and learn more about the research we have conducted over the last year.
- Read an article by Tal Ershler, a former student activities coordinator at Maimonides School in Boston, and now engagement manager at OU-JLIC. As one of 31 Nachshon Project Graduate School Fellows, he is partnering with Prizmah and a Jewish day school to develop and conduct a parent survey, gaining experience learning about Jewish day school leadership and data-driven decision-making.
We encourage you to take full advantage of the resources highlighted that have been developed and created for you.
Finance and Operations
Facts at a Glance: A field-wide report on Jewish day school finance and operations metrics that can be used to understand key metrics such as the median tuition and fees, fundraising, and cost per student. It includes a host of salary data for a wide range of positions.
Finance and Operations Dashboard: A Jewish day school and yeshiva finance and operations dashboard where schools can view field-wide key metrics and filter to create custom benchmarks based on school size, region and grades served. This new resource is available only to schools that participated in DASL in 2024-2025. Login required.
Data and Analysis for School Leadership (DASL): A data collection and reporting tool available to you to explore your school’s strengths and opportunities, set goals, and understand how you fit into larger educational trends. More than 130 Prizmah schools enter their information in this system annually.
Day School Impact Research
Jewish Day School Alumni on Campus: A report demonstrating the difference that attending Jewish day school makes in the lives of young Jewish college students. This data provides us with more concrete evidence of what those of us in the field already know: Compared to peers who did not attend Jewish day school, Jewish day school alumni consistently report stronger ties to their Jewish identity, a deeper connection to Israel, and greater participation in Jewish life during their college years.