Almost three years ago, I was tasked by Yeshiva University to research and develop proposals for how to encourage more students to pursue careers in Jewish education in North American Jewish day schools. When speaking to leaders in the field, I often heard a similar hypothesis about why fewer young men and women were choosing to become teachers. There were two key factors: the rising cost of living in Jewish communities, combined with teacher salaries that have not kept pace; and the generally negative communal attitude towards teachers and the teaching profession.

If indeed these were the two primary factors, I wondered if much could be done to tackle them by simply working with college and graduate students. How could we possibly make a difference without large-scale community-facing initiatives to tackle day school affordability, teachers’ salaries, and the way parents, boards and teachers interacted?

Focus groups and individual conversations with young men and women during that research phase pointed in a different direction. Students often wondered how they could “make it work” as Jewish educators, but they also expressed a passion and desire to make a difference. Inspired by their own teachers or personal experiences in informal settings, these students expressed a desire to share their passion for Torah learning with others and pursue careers where they can feel they are living and passing on their values on a regular basis. Yes, work needs to be done to tackle broader communal issues, the inhibitors that may hold people back from (to borrow language from the 2019 CASJE study), but that did not mean that parallel work could not also be done to increase the stimuli and self-awareness that bring them into the field.

Over the past two years, the work of the Chinuch Incubator at Yeshiva University has reinforced this theory. Established by RIETS (YU’s rabbinical school) and the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education, the Chinuch Incubator seeks to identify, inspire, prepare and support young men and women as they consider careers in Jewish education. How do we do this?

Identify and Inspire

 In individual conversations with undergraduates, many have pointed to either specific shiurim they attended or personal conversations they had that inspired them to consider a career in teaching. Someone either noticed their talent and encouraged them to explore further, or ideas they heard pushed them to consider the possibility of teaching more seriously. Educators must proactively look for opportunities to unabashedly share with older students what they love about their work and encourage those that demonstrate potential to consider whether it is for them.

Inspire and Prepare

Instead of allowing young men and women to make career decisions based on their personal experience in school or theoretical conversations about teaching, we need to facilitate opportunities for them to teach, observe and experience the energy of schools. Over the past two years, the Chinuch Incubator has done this through the MafTeach program. The program sends college and graduate students to school communities around North America for a series of weekends (with some variations on length) throughout the year. The core component of all programs includes significant time in schools—observing classes, teaching regular or informal classes and meeting with teachers and school leaders. For programs that extended over Shabbat, fellows either join students on a shabbaton or are hosted in the local community where they run programs or continue interacting with students, teachers or other members of the broader school community.

Fellows walk away from their experiences with a greater appreciation for the profound impact teachers make. They learn of the incredible professionalism, thought and care teachers invest in their lessons and relationships with students. They experience ways in which schools and communities influence each other, and the important challenges and joys that come with working in a field where the boundaries between professional and personal life are often blurred.

Fellows also deepen their own sense of self-awareness, exploring through experience the unique strengths and weaknesses they might bring to a career in teaching. By interacting with teachers of varying personalities and styles, students of different ages, and in different types of schools and communities then they may have grown up in, fellows broadened their sense of how, with whom and where they might succeed.

Support

One of the most gratifying parts of my work with the Chinuch Incubator over the past two years has been my personal or small group conversations with students. Providing those even remotely considering a career in Jewish education with an address to turn to for questions and guidance helps translate theoretical possibilities in their head to something they can take action on.

Countless conversations have begun with, “I think I may want to be a teacher. What do I do now?” By connecting mentorship with a broader view of the pipeline years, I have been able to put a student in touch with particular teachers, recommend MafTeach and other experiences, or simply reflect back what I was hearing from them and give them some questions to consider. We simply can’t afford to lose potential teachers with passion, talent and interest because they are receiving clearer guidance in how to pursue internships in finance, computers or medicine and don’t know what comes next in education.

Clearing the Path

Till this point, as mentioned earlier, the Chinuch Incubator has focused on helping students develop their understanding of themselves and the field, increasing the “stimuli” that may draw capable students down the path of exploring Jewish education as a career. Tackling day school affordability, teacher salaries and communal perception may feel too large to tackle. At the same time, our work with those considering teaching has uncovered smaller scale inhibitors that get in the way of the inspired, passionate high school senior making it through undergraduate, graduate and/or semichah studies with sustained excitement that has translated to commitment.

When students (and their parents, potential spouses or potential in-laws) know that the field they are considering will present financial challenges, the costs related to professional preparation feel even more daunting. Investing in those most likely to enter the field through finding undergraduate and graduate scholarship or providing living stipends can go a long way to helping talented students feel that if they are willing to make a sacrifice for the community, the community is willing to invest in making it as easy as possible for them to become the best teachers they can be.

We have found that, at least in the YU-affiliated Modern Orthodox community, a significant number of graduates of yeshiva high schools and yeshivot and seminaries in Israel enter their undergraduate years considering careers in Jewish education. We do not need to create interest “yeish m’ayin,” where it does not exist. Instead, we need to nurture and support those who demonstrate curiosity and talent.

Investing in increasing these students’ connection to, appreciation of and skills in teaching—together with clearing barriers during decision making years—can double or even triple the number of candidates entering the field over the coming years. We should be proud of the idealism, values and sense of mission that our communities are instilling in the next generation and do all that we can to ensure that those willing to translate that passion into a career can succeed in doing the same for the next generation.

Having high-quality and mission-appropriate teachers in every classroom is ultimately the most important factor in the success and sustainability of our school, Pressman Academy, a K-8 Conservative day school in Los Angeles. And as is likely the case for many of you reading this article, it is becoming harder for us to find those same high-quality teachers. While recruiting continues to be a challenge, retention is also challenging. Of the eight faculty members leaving our school this year, seven were hired in the last two years. Although each story is complex, we recognize that part of our pipeline solution is to focus our efforts on acclimating, investing in and retaining the teachers we find by improving our mentorship program.

In the past, new teachers to our school were assigned a veteran mentor. This person was intended to be their point person for questions; the mentors met regularly with the new teacher, observed them in the classroom, and gave feedback to the new teacher’s supervisor. However, there was little shape or direction given to those meetings, and there was no accountability or structure given for the observations or feedback. Many times, the mentoring program resulted in coffee together before school started and some conversations driven by the items on the top of their minds. Momentum often tapered off by November.

In order to strengthen the mentoring program and to incorporate our new teachers into our faculty culture in a lasting way, we have worked to build a system that teaches about our school in theory and in practice, while also providing the ongoing support that all first-year teachers need in a new school, regardless of prior experience.

The result is a new program, starting in the fall, that contains three components:

• Mentor-mentee dedicated work
• A mentor cohort
• A mentee cohort

Mentee-Mentor Dedicated Work

Each week, the mentors and mentees will meet one-on-one, following a prescribed curriculum that intersperses observation and feedback cycles with professional reflection, regular engagement with the faculty handbook, previews of upcoming events particular to our school, and mini-PDs intended to be engaged with chevruta-style. The curriculum is divided into six units, inspired by our Portrait of Professional Excellence:

1. Foundations (August)
2. Communication (September–October)
3. Professionalism (October–December)
4. Teaching and Learning (December–February)
5. Mission and Values (March)
6. Siyyum (April–June)

The units are structured to match the school calendar in a way that we have seen new teachers need support. For example, although mission and values are most important to us, we realize that new teachers might need more grounding work first. Our hope is that this work will speak both directly and proactively to the new teachers’ needs.

Mentor Cohort

Choosing the right mentor is critical to the success of this program. Each identified mentor is a teacher who meets the expectations in our Portrait of Professional Excellence. Each potential mentor was approached through an individual conversation in which we established that they are ready to take on more responsibility and expand their skillset.

The mentors will form their own cohort. This group will meet after school once per month with the principals. During those meetings, we will preview the month’s curriculum. This will ensure that the mentors are prepared for their mentees and that there are consistent understandings of the work and the expectations.

There is a modest stipend for this work, but that’s not the draw for the mentors who have agreed to serve in this role. They are excited to learn with their peers and to talk with the group and principals about what they are seeing work at our school. More than anything, they are looking forward to being part of a leadership cohort that has responsibility for influencing our school’s staff and future.

This mentor cohort also provides the benefit of ensuring that the principals invest their time in the right places. (According to McLeod and Lotardo’s article “Noble Leadership,” supervisors should be spending their time with the people who can have the most impact on culture and performance. Impacting those people will impact the culture of your organization without burning out your leadership.) In our previous model, new teachers met with their supervisors regularly, less so with our more established teachers. Now our goal is to empower our top performers to take on this work, in a way that will increase our new hires’ performance and alignment with school culture.

Mentee Cohort

For the past three years, we established a new faculty cohort we call “Pressman 101.” This group meets about eight times a year and creates a cohort of new faculty members. Pressman 101 has endowed the new faculty with a sense of camaraderie while also giving them a preview of upcoming events. While these meeting have been important, we believe that they are too short and infrequent to have the desired impact.

In this new iteration, the Pressman 101 curriculum is more robust and integrated. It weaves together with the weekly content of the mentor-mentee meetings. We identified topics that should be addressed in individual settings, where we hope there can be a higher level of vulnerability, and evolved the mentee cohort for professional development topics. Many of these will involve guest speakers; for example, our director of wellness will teach a session on self-regulation, our Rav Beit Sefer will teach on Jewish practices and jargon, and our head of school will speak about mission and values.

The Details

We are excited to launch this program in September 2024. In order to ensure the expectations are clear, we drafted this Mentor Agreement to map out the framing, time commitment and compensation for mentors. Our Program Guide is the bread and butter of this program.

We are proud of what we have created, but now we need to implement it, see it in practice and measure its efficacy. We know that it will need tweaks and iterations, and we are already thinking about ways to differentiate the program, including teachers who may need more than one year of this in order to thrive. But for now, if we notice a stronger culture among our top performers, a higher retention rate among new hires, or ideally, both, we will consider this effort to be a success.

For several years, it has been the vision of our school, San Diego Jewish Academy, to have our own summer camp. Our goals were to further engage our Jewish community through the ruach of Jewish summer camp and to generate much needed non-tuition revenue during a time when our 56-acre campus is generally underutilized. This past summer, that vision was realized with the launch of Camp Carmel Creek.

Make for yourself a teacher. Pirkei Avot 1:7 and 1:17

Perhaps unique in human history, the Jewish people regard their founder primarily as a teacher. Other nations were founded by generals, legislators, emperors, quasi-divinities; we Jews herald our founder as Moshe Rabbeinu, our teacher for all time. Moses combined the qualities of wisdom and humility that our greatest teachers exemplify. Unlike many other founders, he is not merely a historical personage; his teachings and his personal example live within us to this day as objects of study and emulation.

The Jewish tradition values the teacher above all other professions. The word rav means spiritual leader and teacher interchangeably; “rabbi” is a formalized acknowledgment that someone has the qualifications to serve as both. Jewish teachers convey knowledge and embody Jewish values simultaneously; in Abraham Joshua Heschel’s memorable expression, they are “textpeople,” who not only can understand and explain our sacred texts but who show people how to live them. No matter how wise we may be, it is incumbent upon us to find someone wiser to be our teacher, an injunction repeated twice in the first chapter of Pirkei Avot.

Judaism acknowledges that some people excel in wisdom and hence make superior teachers. But it also regards all people as both students and teachers. In the rabbinic worldview, study is a lifetime pursuit, and the purpose of study is to do—and to teach. Whether we are conscious of it or not, all of us are teachers, influencing others and sharing our thoughts and knowledge with them constantly. Teaching is part of the essence of our humanity. The more we are aware of that quality and reflect upon it, the better teachers we all will be, and the more we will prize those people who choose teaching our children as their profession.

This issue of HaYidion addresses the complex, interwoven challenges that our field faces in finding qualified teachers that our schools and our students need. We started to explore this challenge in our Fall 2022 issue on Affordability, where some of the articles spoke of the challenges of living on a teacher’s salary and ways that schools and funders are trying to make improvements. This issue takes a more holistic tack, spanning the entire career of an educator, with writers presenting suggestions and initiatives aimed to elevate the appeal, value and prestige of the profession, from the time students are starting to wonder about possible careers through keeping the work fresh and creative for senior educators.

Articles are grouped into four periods or aspects of a teaching career. “Inspiring” opens up ideas for bringing more talented people into the profession. Novick proposes that schools more forcefully advance teaching as a desirable path for students. Bader and Ezzes describe high school programs on opposite sides of the globe that have exposed many students to the excitement of teaching. Benmoise & Hauser suggest tapping the interest of camp counselors. Chanales shows how working with students from high school through their first job can reap substantial rewards. Gold suggests a method for expanding the pool of applicants far beyond the “usual suspects.” Ergas argues for ramping up the professionalism of day school Hebrew teachers.

The next section, “Attracting,” offers ways to bring more candidates into our schools. Knight reveals the powers latent in the job posting. Shpall & Shpall present a range of methods, including a form of pay transparency, that has succeeded in drawing and retaining more teachers. Katz & Fain offer a comprehensive process for welcoming, onboarding and maximizing morim shlichim. Berkowitz sees in a form of “teacher residency” a model that can speed up the system of teacher development. Friedrichs lays out a program for empowering general studies teachers to become Judaics faculty. Shadmi-Wortman portrays a comprehensive method for making small schools desirable and welcoming. Magagnosc & Pomson reveal data suggesting that retaining teachers is much more effective than recruiting new ones.

“Growing” looks at ways that schools can enable teachers to develop and refine their pedagogic skills. Bruder clearly spells out the profound impact that accrues to a school that takes teacher professional development as a top priority, while Farbman, Welsher & Abusch-Magder recount how one school achieves that aim. Baigel presents a program in London aspiring to spark fresh approaches among mid-career Judaics educators. Friedberg & Mentzer show how developing faculty skills in differentiation can avoid frustration and burnout. Goldstein, Kaslowe & Wiener portray the benefits of coaching, and Peters showcases a new mentorship program designed to improve teacher retention.

The fourth section, “Living,” displays approaches in other areas that can fruitfully improve teachers’ standing and wellbeing. Ritter lays out a data-driven approach to improving school culture for teacher retention. Silvestri addresses the culture beyond school walls, among families, that can harm teacher respect and prestige. Ahuja, Broms & Ploff relate a teacher-led process that transformed and clarified the pay scale. Halon introduces her school’s support group enabling teachers to open up with each other about challenges in their work and professional lives. Silberstein shares the role of a curriculum leader as a vehicle for teacher professional growth, and Ablin captures the qualities required of a head of school to manage effective teacher support.

In the school feature, we invited senior educators to reflect upon the conditions that have motivated them to remain in the classroom. In their stories of their own development, earned career lessons, moments of inspiration and opportunities for creative practice, these teachers model the same qualities of wisdom and humility conveyed by Moshe Rabbeinu at the founding of the Jewish People.

Research clearly shows that one-off workshops have little to no impact on classroom practice and student learning. What seems to work better is to allow teachers the opportunity to utilize what they’ve learned in their classrooms and continually work on adapting methods to their disciplines. 

For this learning-by-doing to be most effective, teachers need to be supported by coaches who can provide specific guidance on how to implement particular strategies in their specific disciplines and redirect them if things go wrong. In a 2022 study by Harvard University and the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, Heather C. Hill and John P. Papay find that “coaching supports teachers’ day-to-day practice by starting with existing practice, then working outward from it to integrate new instructional techniques. Coaching can also be personalized to teachers’ needs, celebrating areas of excellence and working on areas for improvement. Additionally, many coaching models allow teachers to identify problems of practice jointly with their coach, increasing the relevance of coaching to teachers’ personal growth.” Coaching also creates accountability, because teachers know they’ll need to report on their progress.

In 2023–2024, Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital launched a new salary scale for teachers. The scale was developed through a robust partnership between teachers and school leadership that sought to align school values, strategic resource allocation and competitive compensation. This integrated process led to a highly successful implementation that enhanced transparency and clarity around compensation (as evidenced by Leading Edge survey data) and deepened teacher commitment and connection to the school.

Prior to the pandemic, a salary scale existed at the school, but data showed that faculty neither understood the scale nor felt a sense of transparency around it. Even as the scale was implemented, certain teachers were awarded additional stipends without standardization. Further, teachers with experience at Jewish day schools earned more credit than those from secular or public schools, which felt inequitable to many. Leading Edge data showed that 76% of employees either felt neutral (22%) or negative (54%) about the compensation and benefits, and just 13% felt that they understood how salaries and raises were determined. In addition to the opacity of the scale itself, teachers expressed that they felt they were undercompensated relative to their colleagues at peer institutions.

Recognizing the vital role that support plays in fostering teacher wellbeing and professional development, educators are increasingly turning to teacher support groups as invaluable platforms for collaboration, mentorship and shared learning experiences. These support networks serve as sanctuaries where educators can exchange ideas, seek guidance and find solace in the camaraderie of like-minded peers. In this article, we delve into the significance of teacher support groups, exploring their benefits, structure and impact on individual growth and the broader educational community.

Teachers, the backbone of any education system, are facing increasing levels of stress, burnout and mental health challenges. It’s time we recognize the pressing need for dedicated mental health support for educators. Now, more than ever, heightened by a post-Covid world, teachers are asked to stand in as parents, behavior therapists and emotional healers. 

Teachers frequently lack the emotional availability, training and support necessary to feel competent in caring for the social and emotional wellbeing of their pupils. This, on top of their already difficult job of educating a class of diverse learners, often brings them to the breaking point. While many schools integrate social-emotional learning into staff meetings and professional development days, creating an environment for trust and support between administrators and teachers is paramount to a positive school environment. 

We’ve come to understand that a large part of what kids need to learn in school does not fall under the 3 Rs, but rather social appropriateness, anxiety management and executive functioning. The spotlight on the needs of mental health roles in schools is expanding by leaps and bounds. In 2024, our jobs are incomplete in offering our kids the opportunities for emotional expression and not offering our staff the same.

Support for Teachers

Effective mental health support for teachers begins with creating a culture of wellbeing within schools, where educators feel supported, valued and empowered to prioritize their mental health. This can involve initiatives such as providing access to counseling services, promoting work-life balance, offering professional development on stress management and resilience, and fostering a sense of community and collaboration among staff members.

The Well Being In School Environment (WISE) program, launched in Washington, DC, provides mental health care to every adult in the school, concentrating recruitment efforts on teachers and administrators, rather than students. At school leadership meetings, clinicians are introduced and services are promoted. This helps address the two main barriers that prevent teachers from seeking therapy: the stigma associated with it and the uncertainty of what to anticipate. The obstacle of cost is also eliminated. School administrators cover the cost of a clinician’s services one day each week, believing that this preventive measure would save the expense of employee burnout and attrition. 

Teacher Support Groups

To this end and in recognition of the significant challenges facing educators today, both in and out of the classroom, our school launched a Teachers Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Support Group. This group aims to provide a safe, confidential space where educators come together to share experiences, discuss challenges and access resources to support their own social-emotional wellbeing. The group is intentionally not a professional development platform but rather an opportunity for faculty members to share. The group is moderated by a mental health professional who ensures the efficacy of the group’s purpose.

The group’s objectives are the following:

a) Provide a supportive community, where teachers can connect with peers facing similar challenges and share strategies for coping with stress, burnout and other social-emotional concerns.

b) Promote self-reflection and awareness, helping teachers identify and understand their own emotions, strengths and areas for growth.

c) Equip teachers with tools and strategies to build resilience and effectively manage stress, adversity and uncertainty both in their personal and professional lives.

d) Offer workshops, discussions and resources focused on developing social-emotional skills such as empathy, communication, conflict resolution and mindfulness, which can enhance both personal wellbeing and classroom dynamics.

This support group operates through biweekly in-person meetings scheduled at an allotted time available to all faculty. These meetings feature professionally facilitated discussions covering various topics pertinent to social-emotional wellbeing, including stress management, self-care practices, relationship building and cultivating a positive school culture. Additionally, the group periodically hosts guest speakers and workshops to provide expertise on relevant subjects. Resource sharing is encouraged among members to exchange articles, books, podcasts, apps and other tools related to social-emotional learning and teacher self-care. Confidentiality is emphasized to create a safe environment where participants can freely share their experiences and concerns without fear of judgment or fear of backlash from school administrators. 

Regular evaluations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the support group in meeting the needs of participants and achieving its objectives. Feedback is solicited from group members through surveys, focus groups and informal discussions, and adjustments are made based on the feedback we receive. To date, teachers have reported feeling calmer when faced with difficult students. They report having acquired tools to manage their own anxiety and an increased frustration tolerance. 

Teacher support groups serve as invaluable tools within the educational community. Offering a sanctuary for educators to express feelings, share experiences and seek guidance fosters personal and professional growth. Teacher SEL groups create solidarity and camaraderie among teachers facing similar challenges. 

As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of education, it is imperative to recognize the significance of these support networks in promoting teacher wellbeing and ultimately enhancing student success. Teacher support groups are not merely forums for discussion; they are lifelines that nurture the spirit of teaching and learning. By investing in the creation and sustenance of these communities, we invest in the wellbeing of educators, the success of students and the future of education as a whole. It is through unity, collaboration and support that we can truly transform our schools into vibrant centers of learning and inspiration.

Calling, Growth and Satisfaction

Clara Gaba, Judaic Studies Teacher, Hillel Day School, Farmington Hills, Michigan

In today’s world, filled with headlines about teacher shortages and demanding careers, many might wonder why someone would choose to stay in the classroom for decades. The answer, for me, is simple: It’s the most rewarding profession imaginable.

I was born and raised in Israel. I studied Bible and archeology, but never intended to be a teacher. Moving to the United States, I dreamed of a career in accounting until someone asked me if I was willing to be a guest teacher for them in an afternoon school. I was never in a classroom before, neither did I have the credential to be a teacher. The initial experience as a guest teacher ignited a realization that this was my calling, motivating me to pursue the necessary education and certification. 

Over the years, the joy of touching young souls, witnessing their growth, and contributing to their education became a lifelong mission that continues to energize me. The impact on students’ lives and the deep connection to my calling have been enduring reasons for my commitment to teaching. I started as an afternoon school teacher 38 years ago; six years later, I became a day school teacher and remain one today, energized to go as many years as God will allow me.

Recovering My Purpose

Rabbi Eric Yaakov Traiger, Jewish Studies Faculty, Upper School, Golda Och Academy, West Orange, New Jersey

I have been a Judaic studies teacher for 34 years. Currently, I have the opportunity to introduce 7th and 8th graders to the world of Talmud and Halachah. I teach because I am very committed to the Jewish people and our collective national and religious enterprise. While I knew that teaching was my calling, the experience of the past three years has made the question “Why I stayed in the teaching profession?” all the more poignant.

In October of 2020, six weeks into the new school year, my second year in this school, as we were returning to in-person teaching after online teaching during the first months of Covid, I was suddenly stricken with a condition known as Guillain Barre Syndrome. This is a rare autoimmune disease where the body literally attacks its own nervous system, affecting the peripheral nerves and the muscles. I was left paralyzed from the shoulders down, unable to move my arms and legs. I spent four weeks in Hackensack Hospital and then 12 weeks at the Kessler Rehabilitation Center in West Orange, New Jersey.

Professional Development Helped Me Up My Game

Stephanie Samuels, Middle School Judaic Studies Teacher and Grade 6 Dean, Maimonides School, Brookline, Massachusetts

I taught high school Jewish studies for seven years. Then I was trained to be a master teacher and mentor by several veteran professors of theory and practice in the field of Jewish education. This experience changed my view of the profession and inspired me to seek out many more growth opportunities throughout my almost thirty years of teaching.

In 2000, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter arrived at Maimonides School as the founding director of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute. One of the missions of the Institute was to create mentorship programs for the rabbinate and for Jewish education. I and four colleagues were accepted into the first cohort of the Rabbi Soloveitchik Teacher Training Program at Maimonides School. 

For the first year, we were trained as master teachers by Rabbi Dr. Chaim Feuerman from Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Education. Once a month, we met with Rabbi Feuerman for a seminar on pedagogy, and then we were each observed in our classrooms, replete with pre- and post-observation conferences each time. That year, we were also observed in our classrooms by Rabbi David Eliach, the founder and principal emeritus of the Yeshivah of Flatbush.

Aerospace STEM Keeps Us Aloft

Melinda Viteri and Chaya Shinensky, Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School, Washington, DC

STEM education has proven to be an important component in education to best prepare students for 21st-century jobs. As certified NASA STEM educators, we have developed unique curricula and programming for educators, schools and camp settings, infused with Jewish values and tradition.

Learning to Listen Made Me a Better Teacher

Danielle Rose Smith, Fourth-Grade Teacher, The Ramaz School, New York City

“Would you like me to scribe for you?” I asked one of my fourth-grade students.

Pausing for a moment, my student responded: “[I know] it will be quicker if you write; but if you give me time, I'd like to write it myself.”

The student’s reaction proved to be an epiphany in my 13-year teaching career. It wasn’t because his response was particularly unexpected or profound. Instead, it may have been the first time I truly listened with curiosity rather than listening to respond. 

Before learning the art of intentional listening—thanks to the support of my school, Ramaz, which nominated me to participate in the teacher leadership master’s program at Brandeis University—I would mostly listen to check my students’ understanding, identify misconceptions, track their skill acquisition and meaning making. I used to think that “it was enough” for me to acknowledge their ability to express understanding of what was learned in class, and then encourage them to dictate that to me.

One of my professors assigned an article on “intentional listening,” and it catalyzed a mindset overhaul—specifically, in the way I listen to the words my students say. Laura Baecher, associate professor in the School of Education at Hunter College, observes, “When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.” 

Up until this point in my professional career, my listening was primarily focused on judging the gap between a student’s response and the preconceived “right” answer. 

Once I began listening to my students with an “open” ear, however, I “heard” what they were telling me in both their answers and questions. I suppressed my inclination to qualify their “correctness” or guide them to a predetermined “right” way of answering; then and only then was I able to embark on the journey of “intentional listening.” 

This has transformed the way I interact with my students.

A new take on an old joke: The Presidential Award for Teacher of the Year was won by a social studies teacher from a local Jewish day school. Her mother was there for the ceremony at the White House, where the award was to be bestowed by none other than the President. The mother leaned over to the person sitting next to her and said, “You see that young woman up there getting the award?” The person responded, “The highest teaching award in the country? Yes! You must be so proud!” The mother replied, “Of course I’m proud! Her sister’s a doctor!” 

Every teacher I have told this to has said the same thing: This would be funny if it didn’t ring so true.

The pipeline for Jewish educators and educational leaders is no laughing matter. At recent Prizmah convenings of both lay leaders and school professionals, the issue has come up as a matter of urgency on par with affordability and recruitment. These issues are all related. Our schools need to maintain educational excellence in order to keep attracting students, and that excellence lies in the hands of first-class Jewish educators.

We know that the number of teachers entering the field is declining, across the secular, religious and ideological spectra. In exploring this problem, I had conversations with several teachers in search of the “secret ingredient” that led them to choose a career of Jewish education, and what they thought the barriers were for others.

The teachers I had the honor to speak with all had different paths, but there were some commonalities. Most of them knew they loved to teach from an early age, and many had opportunities as early as high school that supported this inclination. Working as a counselor at a Jewish camp seems to have been a pivotal experience. Several had other experiences as peer teachers through organizations like Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, or as tutors in high school and college. Staunch family values of education and a dedication to giving back seemed to be a common theme as well. 

One case stood out in particular: I met M when she was only 13 and a Junior CIT at my then-five-year-old’s day camp. At my son’s request, she became a frequent and beloved babysitter. I had a hunch then that she was destined to be a Jewish educator. She was a natural teacher, even at 13, but was obviously also on a Jewish journey. 

She told me that when she was in high school, she participated in a program through the local Bureau of Jewish Education where she received a few hours of basic pedagogical training a week and was then placed as an aide in a classroom. As a result, she knew just what she wanted to be. She sought out a college with an excellent education program; twenty years later, she is a rock star teacher at one of our local Jewish day schools.

I also asked about the barriers that keep young people from entering the field of Jewish education. Of course, the number one barrier is economic; many of the largest schools tend to be clustered in major metropolitan areas where the cost of living is very high, yet entry-level salaries are so low that it is hard for recent graduates to pay rent on a new teacher’s salary. Many also complain about the lack of prestige and respect for the profession. One teacher, an Ivy League graduate who intentionally chose teaching, often had her choice questioned by peers and family members who assumed it was just a phase or a placeholder in between college and a professional degree like law or business school.

One of the teachers I spoke with suggested that our best pool of candidates are day school alumni themselves. Those who are the products of Jewish day schools are well-attuned to the unique value of this type of education and often have role models they seek to emulate. We might consider ways of encouraging day school graduates to imagine and pursue a career for themselves as teachers.

In the library of Jewish texts, there are too many references to teaching and teachers to count. One of the most famous is in Pirkei Avot: “Yehoshua Ben Perachyah said, ‘Make for yourself a teacher, establish for yourself a friend.’” I have always been taken with the fact that the imperative is not to “find a teacher for yourself” but rather to make one. Teachers are not individuals who are meant passively to be “found,” but rather they are literally “made” by the community of those they teach. It is our Jewish obligation to make teachers.

Through publishing the results of the Prizmah-JEIC Educator Pipeline Working Group and galvanizing action to work through these challenges, the team at Prizmah is addressing the question as to how we can expand the pipeline to actively make more teachers and leaders for our schools. It is a question of vital importance to the success of our schools so they can continue to inspire the passionate, knowledgeable and committed Jewish community and its leaders for generations to come.

We at Prizmah know that our teachers are the heroes of Jewish community. I look forward to the day when that mother, sitting at the ceremony where her other child is receiving a Nobel Prize for medicine, leans over and says to the person next to her, “See that doctor up there? Her sister is a teacher!”

It’s all about the who. Mort Mandel

The article in this issue by Sharon Freundel and Marc Wolf describes a working group that Prizmah and the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) convened to assess, explore and plan for addressing the emerging crisis in recruiting, training and retaining talented educators. We knew that the crisis was not new; the seminal 1990 publication, “A Time to Act,” had at its core a plan “to infuse Jewish education with a new vitality by recruiting large numbers of talented and dedicated educators.” Then, as now, the educator pipeline was a top priority for Jewish day schools.

More than 30 years ago, “A Time to Act” galvanized school leaders and philanthropists alike. The report created momentum that grew new day schools (especially community schools), elevated the value of Jewish education, stimulated community-level support, funded research and data to reliably measure the needs and accomplishments of the field, and prompted new ways of developing the profession of Jewish education. We stand today on the shoulders of giants like Mort Mandel, who chaired the Commission on Jewish Education for North America, which published “A Time to Act.” 

Mort was known for his vision and leadership as well as his direct language. “It’s all about the who,” he said, meaning who will lead the field of Jewish education, who will teach our future generations, who will make sure our schools are the best they can possibly be. Mort’s five words remain more relevant than ever.

We echo Mort’s statement and take up the baton to catalyze a new era for educators. Just as we look back on the lofty goals of “A Time to Act” as the harbinger of what Jonathan Krasner has called a “new zeitgeist” for Jewish education, so too today do we ambitiously envision building a new reality for the educator pipeline that will have a pervasive and long-lasting impact.

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the members of our working group, we have the ideas that will in fact move the frustratingly sticky needle, especially if both funders and practitioners sign on and maintain focus for more than a year or two. Our mission is now to make those ideas take root in schools, communities and across North America.  Some of this will be specific to Jewish day schools; some reflects common issues with other areas of Jewish education and Jewish professional life. For those, we seek to partner with our peers and colleagues across the Jewish ecosystem. This can be another seminal moment if we appreciate the depth and breadth of what will be needed to make transformational change.

Take, for example, one of the working group’s priority initiatives: an Office for Jewish Day School Educator Recruitment. We informally refer to this as “writing the Jewish education scouting playbook,” developing a system for identifying and nurturing the talents of promising future educators. We can expand current recruitment and provide pathways to teaching, we can ensure that future teachers understand the avenues of training and support, we can make the idea of pursuing a career as a Jewish day school educator more accessible—and desirable. What happens to the kindergartener who says he wants to be a teacher, but by the time he is in high school has gotten the message that careers in teaching are poorly paid and not respected? 

Our schools themselves can nurture future teachers more explicitly. At school graduations, a few heads of school are bold enough to invite seniors to consider education as their career. What if that was the norm at all graduations and when careers are discussed?

In a world post-Covid, post–October 7, the challenges to the professional pipeline for Jewish education continue to grow. Exciting opportunities for day schools, such as growing enrollment and schools’ commitment to excellence, risk being thwarted by a lack of enough great educators. Thanks to the bold work set in motion after “A Time to Act,” day schools in the 2020s have substantially higher enrollment, and they are much more professionalized and financially stable than in the 1980s. Now is the critical time to address the ubiquitous “who” question and secure that our schools have an ample supply of professional educators who can deliver the unique Jewish day school mission for future generations.

At Prizmah and Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC), we hold two central beliefs about our Jewish day schools and yeshivas: 

1. Jewish day school education is valuable, if not critical, for a strong Jewish present and future.
2. The strength of Jewish education in day schools is built on a strong foundation of talented, trained and dedicated educators who are steeped in the content they are teaching and their pedagogies.

For our collective investment in the vibrancy of Jewish life, and even in our most difficult and challenging times, we believe that the strength of our Jewish education will ultimately sustain North American Jewish life and contribute to world Jewry. 

As we recently learned in our communal educational seminar known as the Passover Seder, in every generation we must see ourselves as if we ourselves have left Egypt. Each generation revisits the Exodus and not just tells the story, but experiences the wonders and the struggles of previous generations.

In every generation our Jewish communal leaders ring the alarm bells that we are not doing enough to ensure that we have a strong pipeline of talent. In every generation—and now in ours—we learn from that history and develop our response to the Jewish educator challenge. What ideas and learnings can we revisit from the previous generation? How does our current context change our proposed solutions? What will be our call to action?

A Partnership for Progress 

Prizmah and JEIC joined forces over the past year and a half to delve into these questions. We launched a think tank and gathered 25 Jewish day school stakeholders—educators, funders and other Jewish professionals—and convened six working groups. They were tasked with assessing the current state of the teaching pipeline, exploring realistic options to address the problem and drafting a handful of high-impact initiatives. Aside from the two main deliverables—a summary report and a playbook for possible projects—we surfaced some principles that everyone in Jewish day schools—faculty members, parents, lay leadership and donors—should understand in order to address the issue of lack of trained and dedicated educators. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the three funders who enabled this project: the Mayberg Foundation, Dr. Shmuel and Evelyn Katz, and Melissa Kushner and Jeremy Kaplan.

Defining our Scope

There are a number of metaphors that we use when we talk about the educator pipeline. Rona Novick, dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education at Yeshiva University and a member of the working group, speaks often about “growing the garden” of educators. We need to recognize that educators don’t just spring up, but they must first have fertile soil; we should create the best environment for those educators to grow. Then care in planting seeds and nourishing growth come well before we can expect fully grown educators. 

That set the context for where our work on the pipeline began. We believed that the pipeline starts by identifying potential talent in their youth—in high schools, youth groups, camps and other early pipeline environments. Early pipeline became the first of six committees described in the Report on the Prizmah-JEIC Educator Pipeline Working Group. Recruitment and training, creating the environment for success, ongoing development and learning, and investing in the career arc of a Jewish day school educator are four of the core pillars focused on training and careers. Each one was its own committee. 

Our sixth and last committee focused on elevating the profile of Jewish day school educators, the foundation on which we believed that any initiative will succeed or fail. Conversations in this committee ranged from compensation and benefits to respect, work-life balance, working environment and our communal conversations of how we talk about our teachers and educators. Not surprisingly, many of these areas are ones that impact teacher retention in schools.

When approaching the complex challenge of growing the leadership pipeline in Jewish day schools, one strategy is to identify specific population segments ripe for growth, analyze current realities and explore the broader applicability of those findings. We have invested in research exploring Orthodox women’s leadership and derived lessons that we believe can inform the broader day school field. In the 2023 school year, 22% of Orthodox schools in Prizmah’s network are headed by women, compared to 54% of other Jewish and non-Jewish independent schools. Through strategic emphasis on Orthodox women in leadership, we aim to enrich individual institutions and foster a more inclusive and dynamic landscape across Jewish day schools.

Prizmah pursued a dual strategy to bolster the pipeline of Orthodox women in leadership roles: first, investing in comprehensive multi-method research and data analysis to gain insights into the current landscape; second, crafting programmatic initiatives aimed at translating these insights into actionable recommendations.

Targeted Research 

When Prizmah studied the salaries of heads of Orthodox schools and compared that data with salary findings from the National Association of Independent Schools’ Data and Analysis for School Leadership, which includes data from non-Jewish Independent schools and Community, Conservative, Reform and Pluralistic Jewish day schools, we found gaps in salary between men and women at schools across the Jewish spectrum. In fact, gender was the most powerful predictor of head of school salary. Our data revealed that for every dollar a male head of school earns, a female head earns 21–22 cents less, no matter the type of school. Narrowing the salary gap could be an important step toward attracting more women to senior leadership positions.

Aiming to delve deeper, Prizmah partnered with Rosov Consulting to conduct qualitative research on the culture and conditions of leadership for women in Orthodox schools. In order to grow the number of potential senior leaders, we sought to understand the impediments and inroads that impact the advancement of Orthodox women through the pipeline and hiring process in Orthodox schools.

Orthodox Women’s Leadership Cohort

Prizmah’s Orthodox Women’s Leadership Cohort offers a rich, collaborative experience tailored for Orthodox women navigating the demands of their personal and professional lives. Since its inception in 2022, Prizmah’s Orthodox Women’s Leadership Cohort has served close to 60 women working in Jewish day schools and yeshivas across North America. Women who participate in the program hold a variety of roles including assistant principal, grade dean, school psychologist or counselor, director of teaching and learning, department chair, and principal. The cohort serves as a dynamic leadership network, fostering mentorship opportunities and meaningful peer connections. 

Through an in-person gathering, monthly cohort meetings and small group conversations, rising leaders join together with colleagues experiencing similar professional trajectories and strengthen their skills as a group, supporting one another through the process. Veteran female heads of school spend time sharing their own leadership journeys with the cohort and develop mentoring relationships with individuals in the group.

Pathways to Progress

Over the past two years, our conversations, discussions, reflections and research have led us to identify six elements that support advancement through the Jewish day school and yeshiva pipeline. While these insights were gleaned from specific experiences with Orthodox women, their applicability extends universally.

Role clarity provides leaders with a clear roadmap, enabling them to navigate career paths more effectively, harness their strengths, and confidently advance in their professional journey.

Acquiring skills in supervision, boundary setting and contract negotiation empowers people to assertively advocate for their value, navigate workplace dynamics with confidence and strategically position themselves for career advancement opportunities.

A healthy support network includes opportunities for talking through professional challenges and celebrating successes with colleagues. Individuals gain a sense of belonging and expand their access to new opportunities. 

Mentorship provides educators with invaluable guidance, encouragement, and opportunities for reflection while giving them access to insight and guidance critical for career advancement. Mentors who are open about their own experiences and role models within schools themselves can demystify senior leadership positions for rising leaders. Mentorship from an experienced school leader helps to shape the formation of a leader’s identity and the way she sees herself.

Incremental advancement enables educators to move through a series of fixed leadership positions that increase their scope of responsibilities. When leaders have opportunities to flex their talents and increase their leadership skills, they are better prepared to assume senior positions. 

Invest in talent tapping. Asking someone “Have you ever considered applying for this job?” might plant the first seed to nourish a leader’s career. The impact of hearing from a senior leader “This is a job that you would be good at” is tremendous. Being identified and encouraged as someone with the talent to become a senior leader can open up a whole new perspective on a career.

The journey towards enhancing the educator pipeline in Jewish day schools demands a multifaceted approach, as illustrated by Prizmah’s initiatives supporting Orthodox women in leadership roles. By combining rigorous research with tailored programmatic interventions, we aspire to narrow existing disparities and cultivate greater pathways for educators to ascend the leadership ladder. People in all positions at schools have a role to play in expanding the pipeline of leaders.  Through collective action, we can harness the full potential of our educational institutions, enriching our schools and strengthening our shared future.

Leeches. Bloodletting. Tonics sold from a horse-drawn wagon. These are only a few examples of what passed for medicine in the 19th century. However, with the founding of the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1847, a key step was taken to advance the profession that guides the practice of medicine.

Today, this fully matured field includes leading journals, conferences, a code of ethics and a hierarchy of recognized tiered credentials. Each of these components contributes collectively to bringing respect and professionalism to the field and its practitioners. At the center of this lies fieldwide clarity as to what constitutes the necessary knowledge, experience and skills required to accomplish to be a medical professional, the pathway to gaining these competencies and ensuring accountability for practitioners.

Despite having a history almost as old as that of healing, the teaching of Hebrew as a formal profession is still in a nascent state, with only the beginnings of the infrastructure that guides the progress of professionalization. This directly impacts the Jewish day school ecosystem, especially given the centrality of Hebrew learning to the values proposition of Jewish education and that Hebrew teachers make up 16% of faculty in Prizmah schools.

The seriousness of this underdeveloped level of professionalization is particularly challenging during a moment when pipeline issues are front and center and both individual schools and entire communities are having a difficult time recruiting and retaining Hebrew teachers and leaders. Without a clear, fieldwide agreement as to qualifications and credentials critical to these jobs, it is hard to identify strong candidates, set appropriate salary levels, implement professional learning efforts and retain the most effective educators. 

WHAT MUST HEBREW TEACHERS KNOW? THE COMPETENCIES MODEL

When approaching the complex challenge of growing the leadership pipeline in Jewish day schools, one strategy is to identify specific population segments ripe for growth, analyze current realities, and explore the broader applicability of those findings. We have invested in research exploring Orthodox women’s leadership and derived lessons that we believe can inform the broader day school field. In the 2023 school year, 22% of Orthodox schools in Prizmah’s network are headed by women, compared to 54% of other Jewish and non-Jewish independent schools. Through strategic emphasis on Orthodox women in leadership, we aim to enrich individual institutions and foster a more inclusive and dynamic landscape across Jewish day schools.

Prizmah pursued a dual strategy to bolster the pipeline of Orthodox women in leadership roles: first, investing in comprehensive multi-method research and data analysis to gain insights into the current landscape; second, crafting programmatic initiatives aimed at translating these insights into actionable recommendations.

Targeted Research 

When Prizmah studied the salaries of heads of Orthodox schools and compared that data with salary findings from the National Association of Independent Schools’ (NAIS) Data and Analysis for School Leadership (DASL), which includes data from non-Jewish Independent schools and Community, Conservative, Reform and Pluralistic Jewish day schools, we found gaps in salary between men and women at schools across the Jewish spectrum. In fact, gender was the most powerful predictor of head of school salary. Our data revealed that for every dollar a male head of school earns, a female head earns 21-22 cents less, no matter the type of school. Narrowing the salary gap could be an important step toward attracting more women to senior leadership positions.

Aiming to delve deeper, Prizmah partnered with Rosov Consulting to conduct qualitative research on the culture and conditions of leadership for women in Orthodox schools. In order to grow the number of potential senior leaders, we sought to understand the impediments and inroads that impact the advancement of Orthodox women through the pipeline and hiring process in Orthodox schools.

Orthodox Women’s Leadership Cohort

Prizmah’s Orthodox Women’s Leadership Cohort offers a rich, collaborative experience tailored for Orthodox women navigating the demands of their personal and professional lives. Since its inception in 2022, Prizmah’s Orthodox Women’s Leadership Cohort has served close to 60 women working in Jewish day schools and yeshivas across North America. Women who participate in the program hold a variety of roles including assistant principal, grade dean, school psychologist or counselor, director of teaching and learning, department chair, and principal. The cohort serves as a dynamic leadership network, fostering mentorship opportunities and meaningful peer connections. 

Through an in-person gathering, monthly cohort meetings, and small group conversations, rising leaders join together with colleagues experiencing similar professional trajectories and strengthen their skills as a group, supporting one another through the process. Veteran female heads of school spend time sharing their own leadership journeys with the cohort and develop mentoring relationships with individuals in the group. 

Pathways to Progress

Over the past two years, our conversations, discussions, reflections and research have led us to identify six elements that support advancement through the Jewish day school and yeshiva pipeline. While these insights were gleaned from specific experiences with Orthodox women, their applicability extends universally.

1. Role clarity provides leaders with a clear roadmap, enabling them to navigate career paths more effectively, harness their strengths, and confidently advance in their professional journey.
2. Acquiring skills in supervision, boundary setting, salary, and contract negotiation empowers people to assertively advocate for their value, navigate workplace dynamics with confidence, and strategically position themselves for career advancement opportunities.
3. A healthy support network includes opportunities for talking through professional challenges and celebrating successes with colleagues. Individuals gain a sense of belonging and expand their access to new opportunities. 
4. Mentorship provides educators with invaluable guidance, encouragement, and opportunities for reflection while giving them access to insight and guidance critical for career advancement. Mentors who are open about their own experiences and role models within schools themselves can demystify senior leadership positions for rising leaders. Mentorship from an experienced school leader helps powerfully to shape the formation of a leader’s identity and the way she sees herself.
5. Incremental advancement enables educators to move through a series of fixed leadership positions that increase their scope of responsibilities. When leaders have opportunities to flex their talents and increase their leadership skills, they are better prepared to assume senior positions. 
6. Invest in talent tapping. Asking someone “Have you ever considered applying for this job?” might plant the first seed to nourish a leader’s career. The impact of hearing from a senior leader “This is a job that you would be good at” is tremendous. Being identified and encouraged as someone with the talent to become a senior leader can open up a whole new perspective on a career. 

The journey towards enhancing the educator pipeline in Jewish day schools demands a multifaceted approach, as illustrated by Prizmah’s initiatives supporting Orthodox women in leadership roles. By combining rigorous research with tailored programmatic interventions, we aspire to narrow existing disparities and cultivate greater pathways for educators to ascend the leadership ladder.  People in all positions at schools have a role to play in expanding the pipeline of leaders.  Through collective action, we can harness the full potential of our educational institutions, enriching our schools and strengthening our shared future.

Setting the Table, by Danny Meyer

In the American Jewish educational sector, a silent epidemic rages: the rise of teacher burnout. Numerous studies confirm that the teaching profession is witnessing increased rates of exhaustion, stress and disillusionment. In fact, a 2022 Gallup study found that K-12 workers experience the highest levels of burnout in any industry nationally (44%), with the rate for teachers even higher at 54%. This surge in teacher burnout has become a pressing issue not only impacting the wellbeing of individual teachers, but also undermining the quality of education for students. 

Research indicates that one of the main reasons teachers experience burnout is that they feel “under-prepared” to meet the wide-ranging academic, behavioral and social-emotional needs of students in today’s classrooms, with research showing that “under-prepared teachers leave at two to three times the rate of well-prepared teachers.” Gateways’ work consulting with Jewish schools on a range of topics related to inclusion has yielded insights into the most common “weak links” in teacher preparedness as well as a successful blueprint for how schools can identify and reform these areas of challenge. By following this blueprint, which covers teacher training, school structural changes and philosophical shifts, schools can improve the ways they prepare educators to meet the needs of a neurodiverse array of students and mitigate a major source of burnout.

Looking at these alarming statistics, one wonders why teachers are more underprepared now than in decades past. Another coinciding trend provides answers: Due to a combination of evolutions in diagnostic criteria, educational policy and philosophical shifts and global and environmental factors, today’s classrooms are more neurodiverse than ever before, with a substantial percentage of students having some sort of support need. Simply put, yesterday’s “atypical” student is today’s “typical” student.

Overall, the proliferation of neurodiversity in “mainstream” classrooms is a good thing. More inclusive classrooms encourage acceptance and respect for differences during formative school years. Moreover, incorporating a variety of teaching modalities benefits all learners by providing multiple pathways for the brain to encode information. 

The problem, therefore, is not with neurodiversity itself, but with the fact that traditional (non-special education) frameworks of teacher training have not caught up to this reality and tend to overlook methods for teaching students with learning disabilities and social-emotional and behavioral support needs. In a recent survey, 87% of general education teachers reported feeling inadequately prepared to support students with disabilities across the spectrum of potential supports, including modifying instruction, addressing behavioral issues and providing appropriate accommodations. Teachers face constant scrutiny from students, parents, administrators and other teachers. When, on top of that, they feel ill-equipped to meet these many needs of the modern classroom, the result is a pressure cooker where burnout seems inevitable.

Day schools have some incredible assets that can recruit potential candidates. Our communities are strong and often feel like a family that people want to be a part of. Teachers have more flexibility to be creative in their classrooms without state testing or district mandates. People who go into education are passionate and often want to be a part of a mission-driven organization, and we can provide that professional home.

For sure, we also face an array of challenges, including the dearth of people entering the profession nationwide. There are too few qualified educators, too many open positions and stiff competition from both public and other independent schools. At Jewish day schools, we often pay lower salaries, have fewer employment benefits and generally have a smaller pool of candidates qualified to fill our positions.

So how can we attract the talent we need for our classrooms? We have a powerful tool at our disposal: stand-out job descriptions. As a recruiter, I put a lot of thought into writing job descriptions. I know that we only have one chance to make a good first impression. A job description that is clear, compelling and inspiring gets more applicants.

Here are my goals in writing a job description.

• Candidates can see themselves in the role. I use language like “you will get to” and “what we’re looking for in you.” When candidates can picture themselves doing the work, they are more likely to apply. 
• Convey the unique benefits of each individual school. Does your school have a strong training and onboarding program? A particularly warm and collaborative team? Do you emphasize creative and innovative teaching practices? Are there leadership opportunities for classroom teachers? Do you have a strong culture of ongoing professional learning? Whatever makes your school unique may draw in the right candidates.
• Candidates have a clear and organized understanding of the work they will be doing. Often job descriptions are written as a laundry list of responsibilities, skills and experiences we want in candidates. They can be confusing, redundant and feel overwhelming to a potential applicant. Categorizing the job responsibilities helps to paint an accurate picture of what the candidate will be doing in a way they can more easily understand and remember, and can see themselves doing.

When writing job descriptions for your school’s open positions, ask yourself the following questions.

What makes my school a great place to work? What do I wish everyone knew about this school? 

What is exciting about this position? What makes it different? What would I tell someone I wanted to recruit to take the job? What would inspire a new teacher to join our team, or a veteran teacher to switch roles? 

What does my school value in our teachers? What qualities make a great teacher in our school? 

What will this person be doing on a larger scale? Will they be instilling a love of Judaism in young learners, developing reading skills or launching teenagers into the next phase of life? What would make a teacher say “Yes! That’s why I want to teach!” and motivate them to apply for this role? 

Who can you see doing this job? For this you might need to think outside the box. Is it a retired public school teacher who still wants to be in the classroom? A graduate student looking for part-time work teaching a section of English or science? Someone who is changing careers and has the skills and passion, but not the state teaching license? A recent college graduate who isn’t sure about their career path but loves working with people? 

Teaching is a great way to hone your communication, collaboration, and creative and strategic thinking skills, and can be a great place for a young professional to get their start. We all want veteran educators with a few years of experience in our classrooms. But at a time when competition for high-quality teachers is especially tough, thinking outside the box for how to find the unusual candidate may serve us well.

Then include your answers to those questions in your job description. Besides the usual lesson planning, student feedback and family communication, educators want to be inspired to work at your school and see the potential impact they will have on students. They need to be reminded of why they went into this work and how their creativity, passion and love of kids will make a difference in your school. Beyond the salary and employment benefits, candidates want a job in a school where they love to be every day. 

Finally, I recommend the following outline for all job descriptions, including an example pulled from a job description I recently created.

1. Brief school description and the position you are hiring for. 

Example: MetroWest Jewish Day School (MWJDS) is a vibrant and innovative PK-8 pluralistic Jewish day school that nurtures students and challenges them to reach their potential on their journeys of learning and discovery. We are seeking a passionate, creative and experienced Jewish educator to be our next Director of Jewish Experience.

2. “What you will do,” organized by category. 

Example: You will serve as our lead Jewish educator, promoting Jewish life and learning throughout the school community and serving as a role model for living a Jewish life. In addition, you will:

• Promote a positive Jewish experience.
• Be the instructional leader.
• Be an ambassador for the school.
• Serve as a Judaics classroom teacher.
• Serve the school as a ritual leader.

Each one of these headings is followed by a two- to four-sentence description. 

3. “Who you are,” organized in decreasing order of importance. These are the must-have and nice-to-have criteria. 
4. Details. Include hours (especially if part-time or not traditional school hours), location, salary range and employment benefits. Yes, include the salary range with all job descriptions. That has become the industry standard and avoids time wasted with candidates who have specific salary requirements. 
5. How to apply and who to contact with questions. We want to make this as straightforward and easy for candidates as we can. Long applications with several essay prompts = incomplete applications.

Finding qualified teachers to fill open positions is especially hard in today’s climate. Job descriptions can paint the picture of a school community where teachers feel connected, have opportunities to be creative and to grow professionally, and are reminded of their bigger “why” they want to be a teacher in the first place. Putting in the time to create job descriptions that are a tool for recruitment can help you stand out and get the best candidates in the door.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal highlighted that more than 300,000 educators left their jobs between February 2020 and May 2022, with 55% of teachers reporting plans to leave the field earlier than anticipated. What would cause teachers who invested in their own education to educate our youth to throw in the towel so soon? 

Career Motivation

To answer this, we need to start at the beginning. What drives teachers to enter the field in the first place?

Passion. A pay-it-forward mentality. Community. 

When interviewing a candidate for a teaching position, I know that I have found my ideal choice when I identify that the teacher in front of me is the one I would want my children to have. Passion is not something that one is born with; it is nurtured and cared for over time. Teachers who are passionate about learning, expanding one’s breadth of knowledge, individual growth and student development are the educators that arrive early each day, stay late after dismissal, who attend all of the sporting events and work on lesson plans after their own children are in bed. 

Passionate teachers devour books on classroom management, design thinking and how to effectively integrate technology into their classrooms. Passion, when felt by students, is contagious, lighting the minds of students on fire. Passion from a teacher is what nurtures happy and inspired students. 

Teachers usually have a story about someone in their youth who made a lasting and enduring impact that changed the course of their lives. As a result, they feel called upon to pay that moment forward, inspired to give another budding student the same experience that they felt. They were destined to be an educator. 

Our schools act as miniature communities for our teachers, students and their families. Whether you live in a large Jewish population on the East or West coasts or you live in an “out of town” community, the sense of belonging that comes as a result of being part of a school brings joy, warmth and comfort. There is nothing quite like it. These feelings provide a place for teachers to give back to the community, to take part in nurturing its growth and providing a space for students to bask in the community’s light as they find their place within. 

Disrespect

Whether your drive is passion, a calling to pay it forward or building community, what would cause someone to choose to leave these meaning-making ideals? 

In the past few years, I have begun to explore this question with my colleagues in the field. How is it that someone with passion and a true calling can feel as if they have no other choice but to leave the field? According to the July 2021 Southern Education Foundation Policy Brief, 30% of teachers are chronically absent. As Simon Sinek explains, when we love our jobs we cannot wait to jump out of bed and get started. The only explanation for this report’s results is the loss of passion and a depreciation of the calling to educate. 

While a 2023 article from McKinsey and Company entitled K-12 Teachers are quitting. What would make they stay? lists inadequate compensation as the top reason why teachers are leaving, it is the second item on that list that concerns me more, unsustainable work expectations. I am not minimizing the workload increases that educators have experienced especially in the past 5+ years. That is real and an area that requires our attention. However, I would like to expand this idea even further. 

Imagine for a moment that you are sitting on a Shabbat table with friends and family. You are currently in your second year of university and are on the precipice of deciding your major. You have loved teaching ever since you were in high school. You have some questions about the profession and financial stability, yet you are really leaning toward becoming a teacher. Then it happens.

Have you ever interacted with Mr. Smith? I cannot stand him. Not only is my child not getting an education in his class, I can’t get any communication from him at all. He is completely incompetent.

As you sit and watch the conversation evolve, the discussion moves from one school topic to another, often increasing the levels of criticism on teachers, administrators and educational leaders. As you watch this unfold, you begin to ask yourself how you could invest years of your education and professional life to be the topic of vitriol on someone’s Shabbat table. We have all found ourselves in these moments. What I have yet to hear from anyone is when another member on the table or in the discussion stood up and called out the manner in which educators are spoken about among their community. 

These conversations that take place on Shabbat tables, in the supermarkets, over social media and on WhatsApp chats have an impact far beyond the space they occupy. They embolden our children to speak to teachers in the same manner that they see modeled for them in these encounters. Teachers become inhuman, a tool that we use for our own personal gain and usage, expecting them to become flexible to cater to everyone’s outrageous needs and often forgetting that the person they are interacting with is a human being themselves. 

The Role of Leadership

The third item listed in the McKinsey article for why teachers are leaving is due to uninspiring leadership. Teachers are expressing increased concerns with how leadership is showing up for them, standing for the values and mission that the school is built on when interacting with students and parents who do not live those values when engaging with their teachers and administrators. As such, a small issue has burgeoned to become one of the most cancerous impacts on teacher longevity and developing the field with new educators. 

Yes, teachers deserve to be paid livable wages. They deserve to be invested in, mentored, nurtured and developed. They have a challenging job that does require unique hours and investment. And addressing all of those points may not address their desire to leave the field. We must place significant focus on how some school stakeholders are interacting with each other and impacting their children in ways that harm the respect and decency that teachers require and deserve. 

This challenge permeates all educational levels, geographic locations and religious affiliations. As educational leaders, we must dedicate significant time to ponder how we are modeling the manner in which we hope to inspire our communities, our students and future generations of teachers in how they should be engaging with those whose passion, calling and dedication to our communities brought them to a field whose goal is to inspire the future. 

This work begins with us engaging with two critical constituencies, our teachers and our parents. By addressing with teachers the manner in which our communities engage with them, school leaders communicate to them the importance that the school places in this arena. Whether it be through small focus groups, quarterly meetings or a simple one on one in the teacher’s lounge, the more we speak about it, the more it becomes part of our lexicon. 

Engaging our parents is a trickier task. How do we bring them into the conversation? Questions requiring reflection include, Who are our partners in this work, and what tangible goals can we set for measurable outcomes to be realized? Utilizing a school board, Head of School Support and Evaluation Committee or a learning community of peers as thought partners will provide us the head space and resources to find the right ingredients for our unique community. 

In conjunction with supporting our teachers financially, with great professional development and a sense of belonging, this issue might be the final piece that will allow us to introduce an antidote to this ongoing and expansive dilemma.

Recruiting and retaining the next generation of Jewish educational leaders made even more daunting by the allure of the private sector. At a time when media reports abound with stories of startups, tech companies and financial firms paying exorbitant salaries, our faculty members, whose impact on the future of our nation’s youth is immeasurable, feel left behind. It can be hard to adequately compare the salary, benefits, as well as the calendar of a Jewish day school with its unique structure and flow of religious and national holidays, winter and spring breaks, plus summer, with the more “traditional” employment framework based on 52 weeks of work, two weeks of vacation and 10 national holidays.

Onboarding

At the same time, in the realization that short-tenured teachers are still prone to higher turnover rates, our dean of student support services and a Jewish studies faculty member designed our school’s two-year onboarding program with meaningful engagement opportunities and support services designed to enculturate each new faculty member into our kehillah (community).

The primary goal of this onboarding program is to support new faculty members and ensure a successful transition into our unique, tight-knit community. Through our multifaceted array of both informal and confidential onboarding touchpoints, we strive to ensure that each new teacher feels grounded and comfortable as a contributing member of our community. Now that we’re six years into the program, we have strong evidence it dramatically mitigates burnout and attrition.

Small Jewish schools, often situated in tight-knit communities, can offer educators a unique and appealing opportunity to broaden their professional perspectives and encourage them to extend their impact beyond the classroom. In such communities, where resources are more limited, teachers’ contributions carry greater weight, empowered and inspired to utilize their talents in a wide range of meaningful ways.

As dynamic hubs of academic excellence and community engagement, these institutions possess a wealth of unique assets that, when harnessed effectively, can enrich the wellbeing of both educators and the community as a whole.

Among these assets are the human and social resources, the skilled educators and staff who shape not only minds but also hearts. Serving as mentors, role models and sources of inspiration, these professionals extend their influence, guiding students and enriching the broader community. They are pivotal in shaping Jewish identity and fostering an environment where personal growth and collective learning thrive.

Educators in the Jewish landscape understand that Jewish identity and a sense of belonging extend beyond academics, valuing immersive experiences that connect students to their heritage. The local Jewish community is a substantial resource, offering a “classroom without walls” where students engage in meaningful activities reinforcing their Jewish connection. Whether participating in a communal ceremony, having a role in organizing a communal fundraising run, taking responsibility in a communal garden or having meaningful encounters with community members, students gain firsthand exposure to a broader Jewish framework of belonging.

Research shows that teacher effectiveness has the greatest impact of any variable on student outcomes. Given this clear correlation, why is it that so many devote significant time and allocate outsized resources to utilizing new curricula, implementing specialized programming and purchasing cutting-edge technology while neglecting to properly nurture the growth and development of our teachers? In this article, we will argue that we must undertake efforts to address the complex and urgent challenge of elevating the status of the teaching profession by taking a whole-systems approach and by considering the unique context of each individual school community.

Looking Back

It was May 2022, and like teachers across the country, many teachers at the Shefa School were experiencing a high level of burnout and dissatisfaction. Shefa, the first and largest Jewish day school serving students with language-based learning disabilities, is located in the heart of midtown Manhattan. The toll that the pandemic took on educators everywhere, combined with a mass exodus of NYC residents from the city, resulted in close to 20% of our teachers leaving Shefa at the end of the school year. Perhaps even worse, on Leading Edge’s Employee Experience Survey, fewer than half of our teachers said they saw themselves working at Shefa in two years.

While teacher turnover is a struggle everywhere, we felt it particularly acutely at Shefa, given our high-needs population. In order to learn our specialized instructional methodologies, teachers at Shefa participate in a rigorous and lengthy onboarding process, which is followed by intensive and ongoing coaching and professional development. We see this high level of investment in our teachers as essential to providing a high-quality education for our students, and we allocate resources and time to reflect this commitment. The blow of losing even a single well-trained teacher is deeply felt, as we know it can take years until a new faculty member has developed the skills to fill their predecessor’s shoes.

Focusing on Employee Retention

The task of staffing Jewish day schools with enough appropriately qualified educators is widely depicted as a recruitment challenge above all. The discussion often revolves around issues such as, How to make the material conditions in schools, such as pay and benefits, sufficiently attractive such that people will be willing to pursue this work? Where to find mission-aligned talent to recruit? How to widen the personnel pipeline so that suitable individuals take up work in schools?   

Over the last five years, our team at Rosov Consulting has had opportunities to explore these questions in multiple Jewish community sectors. Drawing on these studies, we posit that the primary challenge for day schools, as for other service-providing organizations in the Jewish community, is not recruitment; it is retention. To employ the pipeline metaphor, the primary task is to address leakage or the loss of talent already in the pipeline. 

Our data come mainly from two sources: the study of Jewish educators’ career trajectories we conducted for CASJE (Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education), and a study of the learning needs of early career Jewish communal professionals we conducted for JPro. These sources have been supplemented by what we have learned from evaluations of professional development initiatives for educators.

Our CASJE data confirmed a widely known state of affairs in both Jewish and non-Jewish school settings: About half of those who start work as teachers leave the profession within five years. Of course, early career turnover is not always a bad thing. Many professions include an entry-stage phase in which interested candidates have an opportunity to explore their suitability and readiness for the work, and employers get to filter out borderline-appropriate candidates. 

What is surely unhealthy is the scale at which such turnover occurs in schools and in other Jewish community settings. We believe that addressing this problem by equipping educators with tools for resilience would be both a cheaper and more readily actionable solution to the teacher shortage than trying to recruit more talent in the first place. 

Why Staff Leave: Inhibitors to “Employee Value Proposition”

Interviews with early career professionals indicate that most of them enter challenging and poorly paid service professions already inspired by a desire to do good or by satisfactions intrinsically associated with the work. Teachers, for example, enter the profession to help children grow or share Jewish wisdom with the next generation. They leave this work during those early years because of phenomena that subvert whatever it is that makes work meaningful, rewarding and attractive. In the words of an interviewee, they leave when the challenges of the job outweigh the “employee value proposition.” 

Subversive phenomena that lead to staff turnover can be structural or circumstantial. Structural inhibitors, such as poor financial compensation, limited benefits and parochialism, are built into the field of Jewish education. They are not unique to specific institutions. Crucially, they are more likely to keep people from entering the field in the first place than leaving it once they start.

Circumstantial inhibitors are composed of the specific and often unexpected dynamics of particular workplaces that make them unattractive places to remain. These inhibitors are what typically lead individuals to switch their places of work, if the option exists, or to leave the field altogether once they have already begun employment. They can be emotionally fraught to tackle, but such inhibitors are probably more readily addressed than the structural inhibitors that challenge the field as a whole.  

It can be hard work reducing the impact of these inhibitors. No doubt improving the professional culture of schools would help reduce the corrosive effect of circumstantial inhibitors, but to do so at scale would require a major school change initiative designed to remake the challenging aspects of school culture, one school at a time. It is more realistic, we believe, to build the resilience of educators in the face of such inhibitors. And it will be more efficacious, too. 

Enabling Opportunities

The best way to build such resilience is to provide early career professionals with experiences in frameworks and programs designed with the specific intent of translating an already-stimulated appetite to work as a Jewish educator into a commitment and ability to be one. We call such experiences “enabling opportunities.” In the field of Jewish education, these take all kinds of shapes and forms, grouped under the categories of induction, sustained professional development and graduate education programs. Crucially, they all occur during the early phases of educators’ professional lives when their career commitments are still unsolidified. 

The strongest enabling opportunities elicit three broad outcomes. They cultivate critical skills, theories and knowhow; they fuel a commitment to doing the work; and they nurture support systems of peers and mentors who can be invaluable aides when the work gets hard. In short, they develop skills, dispositions and social supports that help educators resist the corrosive effects of circumstantial inhibitors and contribute to people preferring to stay in the field. These broad benefits surely help explain why almost half of the educators who participated in the CASJE study and remained in the field of Jewish education for more than five years had participated in such an experience, while only a quarter of those who dropped out of the field within five years had done so. 

Shared Responsibility for Employee Retention

Creating valuable experiences of these kinds at scale, and expanding opportunities to participate in them, should be a cross-communal endeavor. In the meantime, there is something individual schools can do, too. In our JPro work, we learned that access to such valuable experiences is undercut by a kind of vicious circle: Many employers question the value of investing in junior staff who are liable to move on; better, they say, to see if these new hires have what it takes or if they’re truly committed before investing resources in their professional development. We suspect that if employers took the risk of investing in the professional development of early career hires, and aided their participation in commitment-forming enabling opportunities, they might find them more inclined to stay in the field and perhaps in their institutions. Those hires would certainly be more effective in their work.

When our team has had occasion to study the participants in these programs and to track changes in their attitudes and sense of self-efficacy before, during and after participation, we have observed that profound changes often occur. Participants frequently acquire tools that help them do their work more effectively, something that’s obviously valuable in and of itself. What’s more striking is that the acquisition of such tools also takes on significance as a marker of professional identity, cultivating a sense of self as an educator or Jewish community professional. Perhaps the greatest contribution of such programs is that they nurture a greater sense of belonging to the field. Their graduates want to stick around.

Two caveats. First, enabling opportunity programs are not a panacea. Those who participate in them are often the most enthusiastic and determined to become Jewish educators, even prior to their enrollment. If the graduates of these programs remain in the field, it may have as much to do with the commitments they brought with them from the start as with what they gained from programs. 

Second, to employ a metaphor, if enabling opportunities (and professional development more generally) are akin to upgrading software, then employers must consider what hardware components need to be upgraded to ensure that the new and improved software functions at an optimal level. Professional development, no matter its intensity and quality, operates within a larger professional ecosystem that shapes the career trajectories of emergent talent. We all share a responsibility to take care of that ecosystem.

It is 3:45 pm, eight hours since the 11 Judaic, general and “specials” teachers seated in our faculty lounge began their day. I expected to find them leaning back in their chairs, exhaling and reviewing the daily highs and lows of their respective students. Instead, I opened the door to a swell of lively, focused conversation and frequent laughter, punctuated by energetic typing on multiple laptops and jotting down ideas on a dry-erase board.

Baked into the DNA of Jewish day schools is an unwavering commitment to Eretz Yisrael. Through education, advocacy and action, we educators strive to foster in our students a lifelong connection to, and passion for, the State of Israel. An essential component of actualizing Zionism is the presence of Israeli teachers who infuse the classrooms, landscape and soundscape of a school with Hebrew language, Israeli history and current events, and Israeli culture. In a post–October 7 world in which Israel’s mere right to exist and defend herself is questioned by many across the globe, promoting this strong connection to Israel in our schools has never been more important.

Like most day schools, Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit has employed Israeli teachers and staff throughout our 66-year history. These talented and committed individuals have enriched our school in beautiful and countless ways. With the current, and likely ongoing, dearth of individuals who wish to teach in Jewish day schools, finding Hebrew and Judaic studies teachers has become a significant challenge. One solution to this problem is hiring morim shlichim—selected, authentic Israeli teachers who teach in Jewish day schools around the world to foster a rich educational environment that aligns with a school’s mission and values. 

As we began preparing for the 2023–24 year over one year ago, we investigated hiring morim shlichim—the first time for us personally—to fill two Hebrew/Judaic studies vacancies in our elementary division. After months of interviews, Zoom meetings and paperwork, we happily hired a lovely married couple, who have committed to teach at Hillel for three years. While successful in the end, our process of hiring and enculturating our morim shlichim was far from smooth and fraught with challenges. We constantly found ourselves saying, “I wish we had known to (fill in the blank).” 

Here, we offer a roadmap of key strategies for success in various facets of the morim shlichim experience, including preparation, hiring, transition, early integration into the community and long-term success. By implementing a comprehensive and more systematized approach, Jewish day schools can maximize the potential of morim shlichim, ensuring a positive impact on both students and the broader school community.

Preparation: Carefully Consider Finances

Perhaps our greatest lesson learned lies in careful financial preparation that we wished we had done prior to starting the process. From our experience, in addition to salary, a school must consider the following financial aspects in advance to determine if hiring morim shlichim is possible within a school’s budget.

Housing. We recommend securing housing in advance, whether a house or an apartment. Consider that a school likely will also need to furnish the house. 

Transportation. It is probable that morim shlichim who are new to the United States will need a local driver’s license. The school will also likely need to help find, and perhaps finance, a car in addition to car insurance. Schools should be prepared that acquiring a driver’s license and approval for financing a car takes time. It is important to plan how to support them in both the application process and in providing for transportation in the interim. 

Tuition assistance at other Jewish day schools. If morim shlichim have children that fall outside the range of your school, consider whether you have funds to provide tuition assistance for those children to attend other schools in your local area.

We found that a clear articulation in the hiring contract of the financial support a school will provide, and not provide, to morim shlichim will ensure a smooth interview and hiring process.

Recognizing the vital role that support plays in fostering teacher wellbeing and professional development, educators are increasingly turning to teacher support groups as invaluable platforms for collaboration, mentorship and shared learning experiences. These support networks serve as sanctuaries where educators can exchange ideas, seek guidance and find solace in the camaraderie of like-minded peers. In this article, we delve into the significance of teacher support groups, exploring their benefits, structure and impact on individual growth and the broader educational community.

Teachers, the backbone of any education system, are facing increasing levels of stress, burnout and mental health challenges. It's time we recognize the pressing need for dedicated mental health support for educators. Now, more than ever, heightened by a post-Covid world, teachers are asked to stand in as parents, behavior therapists and emotional healers. 

Teachers frequently lack the emotional availability, training and support necessary to feel competent in caring for the social and emotional wellbeing of their pupils. This, on top of their already difficult job of educating a class of diverse learners, often brings them to the breaking point. While many schools integrate social-emotional learning into staff meetings and professional development days, creating an environment for trust and support between administrators and teachers is paramount to a positive school environment. 

We’ve come to understand that a large part of what kids need to learn in school does not fall under the 3 Rs, but rather social appropriateness, anxiety management and executive functioning. The spotlight on the needs of mental health roles in schools is expanding by leaps and bounds. In 2024, our jobs are incomplete in offering our kids the opportunities for emotional expression and not offering our staff the same.

Support for Teachers

Effective mental health support for teachers begins with creating a culture of wellbeing within schools, where educators feel supported, valued and empowered to prioritize their mental health. This can involve initiatives such as providing access to counseling services, promoting work-life balance, offering professional development on stress management and resilience, and fostering a sense of community and collaboration among staff members.

The Well Being In School Environment (WISE) program, launched in Washington, DC, provides mental health care to every adult in the school, concentrating recruitment efforts on teachers and administrators, rather than students. At school leadership meetings, clinicians are introduced and services are promoted. This helps address the two main barriers that prevent teachers from seeking therapy: the stigma associated with it and the uncertainty of what to anticipate. The obstacle of cost is also eliminated. School administrators cover the cost of a clinician’s services one day each week, believing that this preventive measure would save the expense of employee burnout and attrition. 

Teacher Support Groups

To this end and in recognition of the significant challenges facing educators today, both in and out of the classroom, our school launched a Teachers Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Support Group. This group aims to provide a safe, confidential space where educators come together to share experiences, discuss challenges and access resources to support their own social-emotional wellbeing. The group is intentionally not a professional development platform but rather an opportunity for faculty members to share. The group is moderated by a mental health professional who ensures the efficacy of the group’s purpose.

The group’s objectives are the following:

a) Provide a supportive community, where teachers can connect with peers facing similar challenges and share strategies for coping with stress, burnout and other social-emotional concerns.

b) Promote self-reflection and awareness, helping teachers identify and understand their own emotions, strengths and areas for growth.

c) Equip teachers with tools and strategies to build resilience and effectively manage stress, adversity and uncertainty both in their personal and professional lives.

d) Offer workshops, discussions and resources focused on developing social-emotional skills such as empathy, communication, conflict resolution and mindfulness, which can enhance both personal wellbeing and classroom dynamics.

This support group operates through biweekly in-person meetings scheduled at an allotted time available to all faculty. These meetings feature professionally facilitated discussions covering various topics pertinent to social-emotional wellbeing, including stress management, self-care practices, relationship building and cultivating a positive school culture. Additionally, the group periodically hosts guest speakers and workshops to provide expertise on relevant subjects. Resource sharing is encouraged among members to exchange articles, books, podcasts, apps and other tools related to social-emotional learning and teacher self-care. Confidentiality is emphasized to create a safe environment where participants can freely share their experiences and concerns without fear of judgment or fear of backlash from school administrators. 

Regular evaluations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the support group in meeting the needs of participants and achieving its objectives. Feedback is solicited from group members through surveys, focus groups and informal discussions, and adjustments are made based on the feedback we receive. To date, teachers have reported feeling calmer when faced with difficult students. They report having acquired tools to manage their own anxiety and an increased frustration tolerance. 

Teacher support groups serve as invaluable tools within the educational community. Offering a sanctuary for educators to express feelings, share experiences and seek guidance fosters personal and professional growth. Teacher SEL groups create solidarity and camaraderie among teachers facing similar challenges. 

As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of education, it is imperative to recognize the significance of these support networks in promoting teacher wellbeing and ultimately enhancing student success. Teacher support groups are not merely forums for discussion; they are lifelines that nurture the spirit of teaching and learning. By investing in the creation and sustenance of these communities, we invest in the wellbeing of educators, the success of students and the future of education as a whole. It is through unity, collaboration and support that we can truly transform our schools into vibrant centers of learning and inspiration.

Did you always know you wanted to be a Jewish educator? I didn’t. I was working in a lab doing Parkinson’s research and studying to take the LSAT for my potential career in medical ethics when I found teaching. The university I was attending at the time recognized its biology majors’ love of science and flexible schedule. To capitalize on that energy and build capacity, the university placed biology majors as science lesson leaders in public school classrooms after providing a few introductory sessions and access to a closet full of supplies and lesson plans. 

The invitation to try the work of teaching without prior teaching experience led me to fall in love with it. I went on to get a master’s in teaching and a certificate in Jewish education, teaching in public elementary and then congregational schools. Now, I am a doctoral candidate in educational leadership and organizational development, leading professional development and supporting schools in strategic planning. None of this was part of my original plan, but all of this has become central to who I am as a Jewish educator. 

As a field, Jewish education needs to invite more people to fall in love with teaching, particularly those who do not initially see themselves as Jewish educators. I propose using a structured, research-based process called Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) to do just that.

What is Asset-Based Community Development?

ABCD approaches communal problem-solving from an asset-based rather than a deficit-based approach. In ABCD, school community members (administrators, teachers, parents, students, board members, local association members, business partners and funders) collaboratively map physical, geographical, social and relational assets. Then, together, the group thinks creatively about combining those assets in new ways to address challenges. Putting tangible and intangible resources that are already present in school communities to work in creatively new ways reduces reliance on external resources that may not be sustained from year to year (such as single-year grant funding). 

ABCD organizes community and school partnerships with clear steps that elevate collaboration while acknowledging the different roles, responsibilities and perspectives that exist in a school community. The prerequisites are being open to the ideas that many pathways could culminate in teaching at a Jewish day school and that those already invested in Jewish education can encourage more people to start the journey. 

For Jewish education recruitment, ABCD can be used to make visible the people, places and resources that haven’t yet been considered as sources for attracting potential Jewish educators. If you are a current education leader in charge of hiring or part of the hiring process, you are already making choices about candidates’ pedagogical and content skill levels. You also know that professional development and mentoring support teachers in gaining the skills they need to be better teachers. 

While we will always have to assess candidates’ teacher training and content knowledge levels, we also need more people to think about wanting to get that training and gain that knowledge. Applying ABCD to teacher recruitment can help school communities craft invitations so more people ask the question, “Is being a Jewish educator for me?” 

Tackling recruitment to Jewish education at the community level has precedence. Research tells us that despite national trends of teacher shortages, there are local nuances to what those shortages look like and how they impact schools. Local (community-based) factors often offset fieldwide barriers to choosing to be a Jewish educator. Rather than focusing on what we lack, ABCD shifts the focus to what a school community has to offer. What are a local community’s assets that might reduce barriers to deciding to teach in Jewish education? ABCD can help us identify and apply those assets to rethink how we invite new educators into the field.

Many Jewish day schools have excellent general studies teachers who are also engaged and interested members of their Jewish communities. These teachers have proven classroom teaching skills, are committed to the school’s mission and values, and understand the community and the students, but they may not yet have a strong enough Jewish content background to teach Jewish studies classes. What if these teachers could be intensively taught the content and Jewish text skills they need, paired with content-specific pedagogy, so that they could transition, in part or in full, to teaching Jewish studies at their schools? 

The new GS2JS (General Studies to Jewish Studies) program of the Pardes Center for Jewish Studies aims to achieve just this. Over roughly 18 months, the program, which is currently being piloted, will work intensively with general studies teachers who are already working in Jewish schools to provide them with the content knowledge, text skills, pedagogic techniques and resources they need to bring their talents effectively into the JS classroom. The program consists of:

• Weekly 1-on-1 virtual content havruta-ing (with an experienced mentor and content expert) to prep the texts and topics the participant will likely be teaching at the school in the coming academic year.
• Filling Jewish literacy gaps through independent literacy readings customized for each participant.
• Content-specific pedagogy tutorials to help teachers gain specific skills, such as how to foster multiple interpretations of a pasuk, utilizing havruta study effectively and using bibliodrama. 
• Participation in the three-week Pardes Summer Program (funding permitting), which includes immersion in the Pardes community, beit midrash text study, educational trips around Jerusalem and working in person with a mentor.
• Virtual mentoring to get support in curriculum development, lesson planning and assessment design.

The program is structured flexibly to meet the content and scheduling needs of each participant, since much of the work takes place one-on-one. Learning begins in the winter of the academic year before the educator starts teaching Jewish studies, and work with a mentor continues through the summer after the first year of having transitioned to the JS classroom (roughly a year and a half in total). Paired with the Pardes Summer Program, the summer in between the start of the program and the move to teaching Jewish studies presents an opportunity to intensify work with the teacher’s mentor/havruta and focus on both deeper content study and Hebrew skills acquisition (if needed), at the participant’s chosen pace, as well as work to prep materials—unit outlines, lesson plans, assessments, classroom materials—for the upcoming school year. 

One of the most striking characteristics of our modern educational system, in both public and private school settings, is that even as we want all our students to take ownership of their own growth and to invest the time and energy necessary to acquire the skills and gain the knowledge that will enable them to succeed, adults responsible for instilling these values too often do not hold the same expectations of themselves. Professional learning, or its somewhat analogous term, “professional development,” is treated as oddly separate from the essence of the teaching and learning cycle—an add-on, rather than the engine that drives student learning. Teachers tend to operate as technicians performing a set of tasks, rather than as exemplars setting a standard for their students on what it means to be a lifelong learner.

An unfortunate, and unsurprising, result of this tendency is that teachers’ psychological investment in both their careers and their workplace is more limited if they do not hold the self-perception (and the external encouragement) to take their own growth seriously. If educators are not oriented toward striving for improvement, and setting and achieving goals to do better for their students and themselves, then they are likely to have lower motivation to continue in their work or to be satisfied with their work environment. CASJE, in its landmark study of Jewish educators, found a meaningful correlation between participating in professional learning activities and teachers’ emotional attachment to their jobs and, perhaps even more importantly, their sense of self-efficacy.

Therefore, in this era when day schools are struggling to find and keep teachers in their classrooms, one of the essential means to address this challenge is for school leaders to simultaneously encourage and empower teachers to achieve their own professional growth while holding them accountable to do so. Simply put, we must make a concerted effort to nurture teachers’ motivation to improve their practice. In so doing, we demonstrate in the clearest possible terms that we value them for their power to shape the next generation of Jews.

So what does such effort entail? We offer below five distinct ways schools can transform the frequently isolated activities known as “professional development” into a permeating and productive culture of professional learning. We articulate these lessons learned from two different perspectives: first, as leaders of a day school (480 students, infant-Grade 8) that takes our faculty’s professional growth seriously and have, in turn, experienced low staff turnover year to year; and, second, from the perch of a national organization that documents where professional learning has blossomed and tracks the potential impact of such learning on both educational efficacy and on teacher retention. 

We have collaborated here to emphasize that building a robust culture of professional learning requires a commitment to fostering relationships between and among teachers and school leaders, to implementing practical strategies and deploying resources effectively and, vitally, to describing how the system that works for one school holds the potential to bolster the kinds of professional learning we aim for in day schools everywhere. We note, too, that even as the five items are presented separately, they should really take root as an integrated whole and work in concert with one another for maximal impact.

Formalized Expectations for Performance

At the beginning of each year, the Epstein School of Atlanta sets forth principles of professionalism for each of our teachers to uphold. These “essential expectations,” as we call them, include, among other things, being supportive of students and colleagues, executing effective instruction, and “engaging in ongoing self-reflection and ongoing personal professional development.” Twice each year, the division principal meets with each faculty member to review their performance in these essential expectations. In cases where a teacher is performing below the standard expectation, we work with them to support their continued growth, always preferring to support improvement rather than to have to let go of a staff member for being ineffective.

Beyond the obvious impact of these standards acting to ensure the quality of our teaching staff, their effect on the faculty is powerful, for these essential expectations send the message that each colleague they work with is similarly “up to snuff” on a range of basic elements of our school. Within the context of professional learning, the system of accountability means that each and every teacher is invested in their own growth. Building a strong professional learning culture must rest upon this foundational belief that every teacher has committed to the same aspiration of continuous self-improvement.

Support for Individual Pursuits

As part of the protocol for assessing how teachers are meeting the essential expectation of professional growth, we strongly encourage each member of our faculty to request a professional development activity or opportunity that they would like to take advantage of in the coming year. And our school will pay for it. 

Such requests range from attending a conference or training to bringing in an expert to speak to a subset of faculty (science of reading for primary teachers, how to have difficult conversations) to visiting another school to observe a particular practice in action. We try very hard to say “yes” to all requests, believing that if a teacher has a passion to explore, we, as their employer, should honor and encourage that enthusiasm so that they then bring that passion for their learning to their classrooms.

And these individual passions take expression not just in general excitement for teaching, but in specific curricular offerings that we provide our students. For example, one of our teachers has become a master at childhood yoga and holds sessions for her students. Another faculty member has become adept at computer coding and will begin to offer a course in artificial intelligence.

Leveraging Internal Expertise

The quid pro quo dimension to our agreement to pay for teachers’ individualized professional development is the understanding that they will convey what they have learned back to peers. That is, each teacher’s new (or continued) expertise should not be isolated, but shared more broadly. The precise means of this knowledge sharing entails presenting during a whole-faculty meeting, and all teachers are required to sign up for the presentations that interest them.

As each teacher takes on the responsibility for sharing their learning, the twofold impact is clear. First, that we expect teachers to take on the role as internal experts in a particular area conveys the value that we place upon their personal learning. They are not going to a conference or visiting another school for fun, but rather gaining a set of insights and information that are essential to the work of the entire school. Second, by insisting on sharing what they have learned, we emphasize the need for each teacher to think of themselves as a member of a vibrant learning community, where each individual member depends on their colleagues to achieve their own best practice. This models our school’s value of lilmod ulelamed, that every member of our community, students and adults alike, are learners and teachers.

Fostering Teacher Collaboration

Encouraging teachers to learn from one another in more formal settings sets a standard of mutual responsibility for each other’s skill development, but a more significant vehicle through which to reinforce this principle is during teacher collaboration sessions. At Epstein, we have developed our schedule in alignment with our expressed values by ensuring that each classroom teacher has roughly two hours per day for planning; of these times, at least one hour per week is reserved for collaborative discussions of specific students and another hour for exploration of curricular matters. Often, teacher teams will meet more than the required minimum.

The structure of our schedule sets up a virtuous cycle where teachers have the opportunity to collaborate, do so effectively and continue to use their time together to bolster student learning.

Prioritizing Resources

We recognize the rarity within the day school world of our teacher schedule, with its two hours per week of common planning, as part of nearly 10 hours per week for planning time. And we also readily acknowledge that such a schedule—not to mention our investment in teachers’ own personal professional development pursuits and our many schoolwide staff learning sessions—is not cheap. Annually, we dedicate approximately $150,000 directly to professional development, roughly 5% to 7.5% of our budget, excluding compensation. 

In addition to this specific line item, our staff may be a bit larger than a school of a similar size because we break students into smaller learning groups at various times throughout the day, all of which are facilitated by a certified instructor. (For Grades 1 to 8, we have leveled Hebrew and math groups, and for Grades 1 through 4, leveled reading groups as well.) Additionally, we also regularly assign substitute teachers to classrooms in order to provide coverage for teachers who are engaged in professional development activities off (or sometimes on) campus.

For Epstein, the heavy investment of dollars and staff time in developing and sustaining our intentionally built culture of professional learning more than pays off. The dividends appear in our low turnover rate, and in the high morale of our professional community, all of which, in the end, have a positive impact on student learning, school culture, finances and operations. Simply put, our demonstrated and deep commitment to valuing teachers for their work stands as a powerful antidote to the staffing challenges that so many other day schools encounter. 

The Power of Example

These structural and operational matters aside, we are eager to spread the underlying message and the strategies of how we built and sustain our professional learning culture because of the impact we see on our students. In their teachers, our young learners see role models for how they should dedicate themselves to personal advancement. If our day school community is really serious about producing the next generation of Jews who are continually striving to improve and grow, we, as educators, must take responsibility for this same striving ourselves.

The authors are grateful to the educational leadership team at The Epstein School for their essential contributions to this article and to shaping the school’s professional development system, including Susanna Ames, Idit Ben David, Aaron Griffin, Emily Heflin and Stephanie Wachtel.

There is no problem more taxing than staffing. Schools expend great resources to try to retain talented teachers. With a growth-oriented approach, many schools turn to their recent graduates who exhibit the potential to be educators, tapping them on the shoulder to offer monetary support in tertiary studies, refunded to the school in x years of service upon completion. 

It is the kind of succession planning in which communal professionals often find success. Why doesn’t it work for education? 

Sadly, communal attitudes dissuade students from becoming Jewish educators. Though schools need quality educators and parents appreciate quality educators, those same parents don’t want their children to become teachers. Every stale joke told about lack of parental pride in presidents and rabbis is even truer of teachers in the Jewish public consciousness: “What sort of career is that for a nice Jewish boy or girl?” 

Though our texts are full of praise for teachers, our communities are awash with complaints: It is not well paid; it does not advance; it takes up time and is a good fallback option. Unfortunately, we teachers do this to ourselves—every time we complain publicly about the workload, pay and disruptive children/parents without also describing the joy and meaning of educating the next generation. Finally, even as teacher retention rates fall, many graduates feel a lack of care from the community. Even if they brave the profession, what support can they expect upon stumbling?

Creating JET-Setters

It is in these challenging conditions that we sought a solution, guided by the words of Rav Kook: “Great are we and great are our sins—therefore great are our troubles, and great are our consolations.” If we wish to solve profound issues, we must unlock profound solutions.

We must engage students earlier, and better.

While an educator shortage in Jewish day schools has been a topic of conversation for well over a decade, it has reached true crisis levels: Both new and seasoned teachers are leaving in droves and not being replaced by incoming talent, as people choose to enter other professions that offer more flexibility, less stress and higher pay. It is safe to say that recruiting, supporting and retaining excellent teachers are truly among the most urgent challenges facing Jewish day schools today. 

I was honored to participate in the Jewish Day School Educators Pipeline Working Group from March to October 2023. This initiative, sponsored by Prizmah and the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge, was designed to take action and channel innovative ideas to address the shortage of Jewish day school educators. The Working Group drew on expertise from individuals across the entirety of the Jewish education field: day school educators and leaders; academics; informal Jewish educators; those in Jewish education–adjacent fields; representatives from central Jewish agencies; and organizations such as Jewish New Teacher Project (JNTP) of New Teacher Center that support the career development of Jewish day school educators. 

Through my role as executive director of JNTP, I support beginning teachers and novice administrators, helping them get better faster so that they are more skilled, effective and confident, ultimately creating optimal learning environments grounded in instructional excellence. In order to cross-pollinate expertise across the various focus areas of the working groups, known as pillars, I was assigned to a pillar that focused on “Creating Working Environments for Success.” The group included Dr. Dan Glass, head of The Brandeis School in San Francisco; Lisa Klein, managing director, Jewish education, from the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston; Rebecca Rohr Ritter, head of teaching and learning at New York’s Shefa School; Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch, former director of education innovation at Prizmah; and me. Our goal was to identify barriers to successful working environments for educators and suggest solutions that would ultimately improve the educator pipeline. 

What we concluded as a group as the key to creating successful working environments for teachers is what JNTP has known all along: Ongoing learning and opportunities for professional growth over time, in the context of consistent support in a positive work environment, leads to teacher success and satisfaction, which in turn leads to teacher retention. 

Teacher Pipeline Crisis: The Challenges

As a partner of more than 300 Jewish day schools across North America over the past 20 years, JNTP has had a front seat to the unfolding pipeline crisis. Based on this experience, and supported by research, we believe that a leading indicator for retention is a teacher’s self-efficacy—the confidence that they are effective in the classroom. A recent article from JNTP’s parent organization, the New Teacher Center, explains that evidence suggests that poor self-efficacy is linked to higher teacher burnout and stress, which in turn leads to a higher rate of leaving the profession. The goal, then, is to help teachers have early success and gain confidence in their abilities, so that they have greater job satisfaction and evidence a stronger commitment to staying in the profession long term.

In the mid-afternoon of just about any school day, a group of students gathers in the Yeshivah of Flatbush Middle School conference room. Depending on the day, they will either engage with their teacher in person or on Zoom. 

Recruitment and retention continue to be a significant stumbling block to strengthening Jewish education. At the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS), we spend a lot of time advocating for the vital role teachers play in our community. Aside from the need for new teachers, the community also needs existing teachers to be valued and provided with the time and incentives to maintain their passion. Below is a description of a program we run, Project Innovate, that aims to accomplish just that. 

Changing the Narrative

After about seven years on the job, many teachers hit a professional plateau. Their initial idealism for the work starts to wane; they may feel overstretched, a lack of opportunities for growth, exhausted by the demands of students, parents, administrators. Some start looking for new lines of work; others dig in to their roles for the long haul but with a “curbed enthusiasm.”

At LSJS, we aspire to change the narrative. A career in Judaic studies teaching needs to move away from the unfair portrayal of uninspired and stressed professionals, toward something that the idealistic graduates and role models that we desperately need would be excited to participate in.

Project Innovate, a cohort learning program that launched in September, aims to address some of these challenges. We provide a forum for existing teachers to collaborate with one another and invite them on a learning journey, with a shared quest for greater impact in our schools. Thanks to our partnership with UnitEd, we offer a small stipend toward this commitment, together with financial support for an impactful project at the end of the program. 

However, this is a professional development program with a twist. Unlike other professional development opportunities, the sessions do not always conclude with obvious practical strategies to support classroom teaching or leadership. We don’t advertise that “by the end of the course, you will be able to xxx” (fill in the required teaching skill). Instead, the project promises to provide what we believe our teachers need the most, namely, time to think.

Project Innovate Cohort 2023-2024

The theme of the project this year explores a shared challenge: How do we develop a meaningful relationship with God in our classrooms? On this learning journey, we intend to provide a safe space for our teachers to grapple with this question and in turn develop their own thinking. The hope is that each of the monthly sessions would leave our teachers inspired, challenged and valued. 

As a scientist, I’m familiar with running experiments in the lab and discovering unexpected things. Except this time my lab was the classroom, and my unexpected discovery was an untapped source of enthusiastic future teachers.

In 2021, schools were trying to return to normalcy after Covid-19. The gap in my students’ science skills was evident, as were elevated feelings of anxiety and isolation. Innovative solutions were needed; tutoring was not an option for all, since some families’ finances had taken a hit. Teachers were burnt out and couldn’t be expected to take on extra hours or projects. So I started a peer tutoring leadership program at SAR, where students were provided with tutor training, mentoring and an opportunity to contribute to their community in a positive and meaningful way. My mission had an impact on students in ways that I hadn’t expected.

When the peer tutoring program was scheduled to end on Memorial Day weekend last May, I noticed that some tutors continued to log additional meeting hours well into exam season. I reminded tutors that the program had ended, and they no longer had an obligation to continue tutoring. Their response was that they found tutoring rewarding and wanted to continue. I was intrigued.

I run a small school in a small community. How can we draw more interest among Hebrew and Judaics teachers to come work here?

Finding Hebrew and Judaics teachers in a small community where the talent pool might be limited can pose a challenge. Here are strategies you can employ to attract candidates for these positions.

1. Reach out to local synagogues, Jewish community centers and other Jewish day schools or yeshivas. They may have connections with individuals who possess the necessary qualifications and are interested in teaching and perhaps can share roles in more than one organization. They may be able to recommend recent graduates or alumni who are seeking teaching positions, or you may be able to propose a job share opportunity to create a more enticing role.

2. Incentivize qualified candidates by offering competitive salaries, professional development opportunities, and comprehensive benefits packages. While small schools may have budget constraints, investing in talented educators is essential for the school's long-term success. Provide relocation assistance for candidates who may need to move for the position, and offer information about housing options and community resources in the area. Be willing to help with connections for spousal/partner employment needs as well.

3. Highlight your school’s unique mission, values, culture and educational approach in job postings and recruitment materials. Emphasize the importance of Judaics education within the curriculum and the school’s commitment to fostering a vibrant Jewish community. Highlight the benefits and rewards of being part of a smaller school.

4. Communicate opportunities for career advancement and leadership roles within the school. Prospective candidates are more likely to be attracted to positions that offer professional growth opportunities. Be sure that mentoring will be available, and communicate that as well.  Be clear on the value proposition of being a member of the faculty at your school.

5. Join online forums, groups and social media platforms frequented by Jewish educators. Engage with these communities by sharing job postings, participating in discussions and networking with potential candidates.

6. Explore the possibility of hiring remote Judaics teachers who can deliver instruction through virtual platforms. This expands your candidate pool beyond the local area and allows you to tap into talent from different regions. Perhaps you can offer the talent of one of your teachers to another school who can “loan” you one of their teachers for the role you need. This does not replace a full-time hire, but can open up new possibilities and build new partnerships.

7. Consider flexible work arrangements, such as part-time positions or job sharing, to accommodate candidates who may have other commitments or preferences.

By implementing these strategies and actively engaging with potential candidates, you can increase the likelihood of attracting Hebrew and Judaics teachers to your school, even in a small community with limited local talent.

One of the most difficult aspects of teacher retention is understanding the relationships between individual teachers, the professional climate in which teachers find themselves and the larger school mission. They all play a delicate and balanced role in generating teacher work satisfaction and creating a climate where teachers want to stay long term not only in the school but in the profession as a whole. 

Long-term, sustained, positive teacher culture is critical for success. In his groundbreaking work Visible Learning, John Hattie identifies the single most impactful indicator for school success as “collective teacher efficacy,” the collective belief that a faculty can bring about positive student outcomes in learning. Schools that maintain long-term positive faculty culture, defined as a “we can” attitude, thrive and have much higher rates of retention than schools that do not.

So what are some of the critical factors that generate collective professional efficacy? One essential is a leader who will work tirelessly to create a culture where teachers are valued and can work together for the benefit of students.

The leader needs to do the hard work of sustaining a positive working culture, where talented teachers want to join the ranks of a school with a reputation for faculty empowerment and development. Heads of schools and principals who last five years or less do not stand a chance of building such a work environment. Determination, stamina and consistency of leadership go a long way to making schools great and generating vibrant teacher cultures. 

The Jewish School Leadership Enterprise is a new initiative seeking to recalibrate the Jewish community’s lens on who should lead our schools and why. From the perspective of boards to current school staff and educators to the wide expanse of professionals in the Jewish world, we hope to inspire passionate individuals wanting to make a meaningful impact on the next generation. 

The skills JSLE believes are critical for future leaders are much more complicated than just knowing the latest learning strategies or even knowing what great teaching looks like. Here, we provide a simple list of leadership skills, in order of importance, essential to building excellent teacher culture and ultimately making teaching in our schools an exciting career pathway.

Human Management and Engagement

Whether a candidate comes from within the profession or from without, can the candidate lead teams and get people pulling in the same direction? Are these leaders skilled at creating teacher networks in their schools? The hard work of being a classroom teacher can seem like a transposable skill set to adults, but that would be a red herring. 

Adults have different needs and learn differently than children. Headship should not be the first place a newly hired leader practices or demonstrates successful learning strategies for adults, which Malcolm Knowles refers to as andragogy. Have these individuals demonstrated the ability to rally a group of professionals, having them “raise their hands” together in order to act as an effective team? 

Effective Communication

How are communities of teachers expected to feel a sense of collective mission if that mission is either being articulated incoherently or is constantly changing in terms of how it is communicated? Having sat on several committees as both a day school parent and as a consultant assisting in a board search for a new head, it was a revelation to lay leaders when I suggested we get candidates to communicate both in written and oral form as part of the hiring process. 

The interview process with boards and current faculty is not good enough. Great leaders clearly communicate cause and effect to their staffs, expressing how a set of actions and behaviors can lead to fulfillment of a school’s mission.

Presence and Attentiveness

Sheryl Sandberg, ex-CEO of Facebook, states, “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” Do a head’s or principal’s words and deeds permeate into department and section meetings and teacher lounge conversations? Do teachers feel that they are heard when they speak with leadership? Does a leader know how to ask great questions, to listen, to be curious? Teachers want to work in schools and in a profession where they feel connected and an essential part of the decision-making process.

Leader-makers

No head or principal actually runs a successful school alone. Successful schools are run by collections of extraordinary educators who feel empowered to be at their best every day and transform the lives of their students. Leaders need to demonstrate the ability to cultivate, generate and liberate leaders, turning them into change agents with real authority. 

Ninety percent of student time is spent with teachers. Great leaders serve to create systems that empower faculty ownership and responsibility of how schools are run and become extraordinary places.

Celebrators

As a head, can you be more than just a cheerleader, and can you acknowledge and help teachers see when they are doing terrific work? Do you bring that positivity every day into your leadership? 

“Catching teachers doing good,” individually and collectively, should be the mantra of every school leader. These leaders also teach the rest of the community to do the same. If we want people to see education and teaching as a worthy profession to enter, our heads need to regularly and authentically celebrate when people do worthy work.

A refocusing of our lens on what constitutes excellence in school leadership can do more than expand the pool of possible candidates for headships. Its permeating effects can also expand the pool of people who want to go into education in the first place. All of the above skills can be professionally developed, but so can a new leader’s understanding of what makes for a great curriculum, educational program or excellence in teaching. 

The reality is that the five skills and practices mentioned above need to be more highly prioritized as part of the leadership search process. There are now a number of examples of talented individuals who did not formally start their professional careers in education who have become highly successful leaders. They bring new energies and new lenses in problem solving in order to move our schools forward in positive ways. 

It behooves us to widen the lens of possible leaders we might consider for school leadership, looking at candidates from a variety of fields. The common denominators would be their passion for Jewish education and their desire to have a positive impact on the future of the Jewish people. The collective process of creating great schools and reigniting a generation’s interest in the teaching profession requires that we rethink our paradigms for leadership.

From early childhood through high school, schools introduce students to professionals and professions. Whether it is a dentist who teaches preschoolers how to brush their teeth, a high-tech entrepreneur who explains his discovery as part of a STEM program or an author who give a book talk to students, by highlighting careers schools make an implicit statement of the value of certain professions. Similarly, middle and high schools create clubs and internship or volunteer experiences to respond to students’ interests but also to promote skills and careers with which students will engage. 

As I regularly receive impassioned pleas from Jewish educational leaders for qualified and inspiring educators, I cannot help but experience career envy. Schools and career guidance/advisement professionals may think that since students are exposed to those in the teaching careers every day, they see what teachers do. However, they do not have the opportunity to see inside the profession and to hear about the rewards and fulfillment it offers. 

Additionally, by omitting education from career nights and internships, what message are schools sending about career choices? How might we elevate the teaching profession and give students a real opportunity to consider the career path that is perhaps the most critical for the growth of the Jewish people?

Choosing a Career

There are multiple theories about how career choices are made. There is the popular notion that if you see it, you can be it. Certainly, all students see teachers, and many may even see teachers that are culturally similar to them, though there are exceptions, especially in Jewish studies. Having Ashkenazi teachers for Sephardi students and vice versa may limit students’ identification with the teacher and the career. A similar challenge may occur when Jewish studies are provided by educators whose religious observance is considerably different from that of their students. Gender is equally important, especially for women who need to see Jewish women as Torah scholars and Torah educators.