When our campuses closed due to Covid-19, the cast of Fiddler on the Roof was only weeks into rehearsals. Most schools had canceled their spring performances, but our cast was determined. The students and show leaders met over Zoom to discuss whether they should continue. From the outset, there was a resounding response from the students that “The show must go on.” As one sixth grader noted: “The coronavirus has already taken so much from us—we can’t let it take our production away, too.” And so began our journey into a reimagined, virtual production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Applying the design thinking approach, our directors asked the students to reimagine the musical, to consider what to keep from the traditional musical model and how to adapt it to changing circumstances. They had to rethink many aspects of the show that are not possible to replicate with social distancing restrictions in place. They recreated scenes featuring multiple characters in dialogue or song together, and the newly interpreted scenes managed to be both resonant and modern. For example, the “Matchmaker” number has our young women sharing the same hopes, dreams and fears in song, but their “matchmaker” is an online dating app.

Similarly, whereas in the original show “To Life” celebrated the simchah of a planned wedding, our middle school production presented this song as a tribute to the students whose bnei mitzvah were revised or postponed. The changed medium also provided new opportunities for creativity that would not have been possible on stage, as in the scenes when Hodel is filmed singing “Far From the Home I Love” in front of a historic B&O railroad station, and when our Fiddler character plays her violin on the roof of her family home.

The experience held moments of unexpected joy, too. We learned with renowned producer and composer Zalmen Mlotek (of the hit Off-Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish). He even recorded a number for inclusion in our school musical! Extensive outreach to press got our story picked up by JTA, and readers across the country saw our middle school production. In addition, our show was streamed on the website of Washington Jewish Week, which also ran an article about our production.

Virtual Fiddler was the embodiment of our school’s culture of creativity, innovation, courage amidst uncertainty, and faith in the capability of students, alongside our tradition of parent engagement. In addition to a teacher/producer, two parents served as co-directors and they were supported by a troupe of volunteers with film and theater backgrounds and expertise in Yiddish, Jewish history and Jewish literature. We were inspired by the creativity, courage, talent and resilience of our middle school actors and the commitment of the volunteers who supported the student thespians to bring this production to life. Like Tevye, we were balancing tradition with changes that sometimes come unexpectedly.

Students learn best when they’re learning with each other rather than from teacher- delivered content, especially when learning online. In our fifth-grade classes, we accomplish this through real-time collaboration, by creating opportunities for an authentic audience, and by keeping students’ social-emotional wellness at the heart of our teaching.

REAL-TIME COLLABORATION

During our daily live Zoom sessions, we strive for students to collaborate in breakout rooms for the majority of the meeting. Working with their peers, students solve challenging math problems, collaboratively analyze poetry, co-create original writing, provide feedback to one another, and even work in teams on virtual escape rooms. We utilize Google docs so that students can work together on assignments in real-time despite being distanced from each other. Prioritizing real-time collaboration during virtual learning ensures that our students stay engaged with the curriculum and continue to develop the social skills needed for academic success.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR AN AUTHENTIC AUDIENCE

Our students regularly complete work independently as part of a larger project, which is then shared with a wider community audience. Last spring, they used Padlet to create an interactive Revolutionary War Museum, allowing them to teach their peers about different events and historical figures of the Revolution. Each student curated their own exhibit and then all students had an opportunity to “visit” the museum virtually.

This was one of the many opportunities where parents, teachers, and members of the community were welcomed into our “classroom” to learn from our students. We frequently showcase student writing through community events when we are physically together on campus, and we have found making these events virtual has made them accessible to a wider audience. Virtual learning has broken down the walls of the classroom and extended the opportunity for students to receive feedback from members of the school community at large.

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL WELLNESS

Knowing that our students are missing the social interaction that is inherent on campus, we regularly create non-academic spaces that foster peer-to-peer interaction. Last spring, we created a digital yearbook so that students had the opportunity to sign one another’s autograph pages, send well wishes and share memories from the school year. We make sure to celebrate all student milestones, and our fifth-grade leaders even collaborate to create personalized birthday videos for every student in our school who celebrates their birthday while we’re distanced. These rites of passage, which are important to students when we are on campus, become even more essential to re-create when students are distanced from one another.

Virtual learning has empowered us to look closely at our school values and ensure that they are prioritized even as we redesign our curriculum for this learning environment. With student collaboration at the heart of our decisions, we have been able to create learning experiences that are highly engaging and memorable for our students.

Collaboration and distance used to seem like a paradox. Now, they are a daily part of teaching during Covid. How can we teach students the important skills of collaboration, while oftentimes there is a lot of space and distractions between us?

At our school, one way we do this is with blogs. In classes from third to eighth grades, students utilize blogs to collaborate in a variety of ways: within the school, with their parents, and on a community and global scale. For example, in one class students connected with people from all over the world and collaborated with peers in a classroom in Malaysia, commenting on each other’s social studies blogs while forming friendships.

Blogs are frequently used as documentation of learning. Students blog when working through the design thinking process, participating in Genius Hour or reflecting on final drafts of their writing. Blogs are also used as documentation for learning, such as to record research, to document book club meetings or to solve math challenges. Teachers use blogs to showcase student work or communicate about what is going on in their classes. Overall, our blogs help us stay connected, even from far away.

As a Jewish school, maintaining a connection with Israel is also important. Each year our eighth graders build a connection with our partner school in the Kinneret region, Kadoorie Agricultural High School. When they visit Israel in May, they have already developed a relationship with the kids from the school, and they do homestays with their Kadoorie friends. Many teachers from around Milwaukee are partnered with teachers in the Kinneret region through a program called P2G (Partnership 2gether), to keep Milwaukee Jewish students collaborating with Israeli students, even during a pandemic.

An internal cross-grade level collaboration, started in 2006, has seventh-grade students write a fictional narrative for a second-grade student based on their interests. First, the seventh graders interview the second-grade students. This year this will be done through Zoom. This interview is a way for the seventh graders to find out all about the second grader in order to write their narrative with the second grader as the main character, surrounded by all the people, places and things they love.

Next, students work with me in English class and we move through the writing process. Often, students will continue to collaborate with their partners, in order to be sure to capture their interests perfectly. When ready to publish, the books are illustrated and then printed and bound. Finally, we visit our second- grade friends and read them their book. This year, students may record themselves reading the book.

There is no doubt that student collaboration adds many dimensions to learning: discussion about a given topic, deeper understanding of material, even adding a level of enjoyment to the most tedious of subjects. Transitioning to distance learning meant the transition into survival mode—as parents, students, educators, and as humanity. Student collaboration was the furthest thought while lesson planning—that is, until the shock wore off. It was then time to get creative in this new environment. My usual bag of classroom tricks wouldn’t work online, and this had me stumped. The turning point was realizing that it was not an unsolvable problem but a matter of reframing the situation, “Look at what we have and how can we use it” rather than “this won’t work because…”

During normal times, one of the fun hands-on activities that is popular in third grade is an “achdut bonfire,” in which after discussing the themes of achdut and ahavat Yisrael (Jewish unity and love), each child gets a precut piece of tissue paper and sticks it onto an overturned clear bowl. Before doing so, the student shares the resolution they will attempt in this area. After all the pieces are stuck, I turn on an electric candle under the bowl and we enjoy s’mores around our bonfire, sharing stories and continuing the discussion.

On Zoom, the s’mores part was easy to do, as was the discussion. The twist for the bonfire was doing one virtually and having the students “build the flames.” Enter ”virtual whiteboard” with open control setting and voila, the magic happened.

To revisit the theme of achdut during another lesson, we explored the importance of effective communication in another lesson. Again using the virtual whiteboard and open control, I asked the students to draw a picture as a group, but their microphones had to be muted and there was to be no communication. After a few minutes and multiple complaints of “Who erased my picture?” and “Who is drawing over my picture?” I asked for “hands off,” cleared the screen, and said, “Let’s try this again, but with communication this time.” The result was an organized picture in which each student had her place to draw. The added bonus was watching the natural leaders shine as they communicated and spoke with each other about the plan for organization.

The shift to distance learning presents many challenges, but collaboration should not be one of them. There are many tools that can be used online, for both synchronous learning and asynchronous learning, to enable students to collaborate. This is the time to be more creative in encouraging students to share their voice and take ownership of their learning. If only we could do the same with hugs and high-fives!

At Prizmah, we believe in the power of data-informed decision-making. Our Knowledge Center collects and houses data, research and resources for and about Jewish day schools and yeshivas. To support field leaders, we conduct original research, gather and share data, report on Jewish day school trends and partner with organizations to further important research in Jewish day school education.

Since the start of Covid-19, we conducted two pulse surveys meant to understand the state of the field of Jewish day schools and yeshivas at that moment in time. Our second survey, fielded in August, showed that most schools planned to have in-person classes. More than 80% of early childhood programs planned to open in person, close to 70% of grades K-5 and 65% of grades 6-12. 46% of responding schools planned to give their teachers the option to work remotely if needed. We found that schools widely deployed surveys and “town hall” meetings as mechanisms for feedback and communication during the last semester of school.

Covid-19 is creating a financial vortex for many schools. 80% of schools indicated an increase in tuition assistance for the 2020-2021 school year. The average increase in tuition assistance is $145,000. Moreover, schools that opened their buildings had additional expenditures such as PPE, cleaning supplies, building modifications, outdoor enhancements and additional personnel. These totalled $173,031 on average, with the highest reported total costing $909,000. Per student, the average increased cost from all Covid-related expenses is $669.

On enrollment, 42% of schools reported an expected decrease, while 37% anticipate an increase. Nearly 60% of schools are projecting a downturn in fundraising.

Most schools had budget cuts for the 2020-2021 school year, with the top cuts reported in professional development, non-program staff and administrative staff. On a positive note, 65% of schools reported an increase in enrollment inquiries, the majority coming from public school families. Both Orthodox and non- Orthodox schools reported an increase in enrollment inquiries. When looking at the enrollment sizes of schools reporting an increase in inquiries, 40% of these schools are schools with enrollment under 200 and 36% have an enrollment between 200 and 499.

While the future is unknown, this report demonstrates some of the ways that Covid-19 has in the short term impacted school budgets and school openings. At Prizmah, we use this data to inform the support and offerings we provide to schools. In the coming year, we plan to conduct additional research of current trends in development and enrollment.

https://prizmah.org/knowledge/resource/fall-2020-planning-second-pulse-survey-results

As the director of admissions at my school, I typically run recruitment events so that prospective families in the community can get to know our school. I’m looking for creative ideas to engage prospective families that go beyond a typical Zoom session, as we know that families have serious Zoom fatigue. What would you recommend?

Over the past few months, we’ve gathered a lot of great ideas for engaging prospective families in the era of Covid-19 from the cohort of schools in DSEE, the Day School Engagement and Enrollment initiative, and weekly check-in calls with admission directors.

Just as many schools are taking a hybrid approach, a mix of in-person and remote learning, consider a hybrid approach program. At Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School in St. Louis, Director of Admissions and Marketing Patty Bloom ran an online STEAM Studio program in partnership with PJ Library. Patty prepared bags of supplies (including Mirowitz swag) and invited families to stop by the school to pick up their bags in advance of the virtual program. Patty shared that the pick-up allowed her to have one-on-one conversations with prospective parents, and even give some impromptu tours around the outside of school.

Another idea comes from SAR High School in Riverdale, New York. Director of Admissions Shifra Landowne is partnering with a current student to create an Instagram account that captures life at SAR, pre-COVID. Students will be asked to share video clips and photos from previous years that represent their high school experience. Parents and eighth graders will be invited to follow the account as a way to get a taste of the SAR experience.

Rabbi Yael Buechler at the Leffell School in Westchester, New York, ran a series of programs over the summer to engage families looking for

activities for their children who were stuck at home. One model that they experimented with was a buddy program, pairing up current middle school students with prospective pre-schoolers. The middle school students would read stories to their younger buddies once a week, giving parents a break and also providing young families with a glimpse into the community of Leffell students and their families.

We’ve heard lots of other great ideas, from renting an ice cream truck and handing out ice cream around the neighborhood to outdoor socially distanced programming in a school garden or apple orchard. Keep in mind that these types of initiatives can also be a part of a retention strategy, as a way to engage current families, and in particular any new families that enrolled in your school due to the pandemic. What’s most important in designing these programs is considering what the needs of families and students are and how you might address their needs, and meeting them where they are at, whether that’s on Instagram or at a local park.

It was my daughter’s birthday a few days ago. When she woke up, my daughter was so excited to see the decorations; my wife also surprised her by making crepes for breakfast (with fruit, whipped cream and nutella).

Then the Zoom calls started to happen. My daughter was pumped chatting with her swimming friends, and then jumped on another call with her school friends. Presents and signs started to show up on our front lawn.

A large group of our neighborhood friends planned a birthday drive-by. When we started to hear the beeping and cheering, we all ran to the front porch to see what was going on. You can see her face, pure joy.

Most of the day was filled with small acts done by other people for my daughter. Each one made the day special. But more importantly, each compassionate act did something much more powerful. It allowed her to see that even when life is crazy and unexpected, it is the people who can make it better. It is the people who build our hope through compassionate action.

I’ve seen this all over the world as we are faced with a pandemic. The stories are happening right now in front of us, the compassionate actions are starting to impact all of us, and empathy is needed now more than ever.

From “The Power of Compassionate Action” on A. J. Juliani’s blog

Amy D. Goldstein, Parent

Robert M. Beren Academy, Houston

When I recited Kaddish for my parents, I davened at our school with my daughter each weekday. Throughout their illnesses, we traveled between our home in Houston and my parents’ homes in Detroit, and my daughter was allowed to participate in classes online. During shiva for my father, I heard about hospital preparations for the imminent pandemic arrival. Shortly thereafter, the school closed in-person learning on a Friday and started remote learning the following Monday.

What surprised both my daughter and myself was her resilience as she thrived in this online environment. Her writing improved tremendously. She was able to sleep more, focus more and improve her skills. While she misses the social interaction, this tradeoff has been helpful to her as she prepares her college essays. Additionally, being homebound has sparked greater creativity and intellectual curiosity, leading her to read 17 classic books on her own this summer. Whatever happens this year, our school’s online delivery has enhanced my daughter’s education and developed skills that will help her succeed throughout her life.

Jessica Cohen Banish, Parent

Akiva School, Nashville

What do our children really need to be happy? Beyond basic necessities, teaching and showing our children kindness and appreciation—and encouraging them to do the same—matter most to their overall wellness. Mitzvahs for others and small acts of tzedakah that show thought and love are so important. Drawing a picture for a neighbor, checking in on seniors, dropping off cookies, driving by a friend’s house on their birthday or volunteering within the community are small acts that make a big difference. Small acts improve overall happiness for the giver and the receiver and teach compassion.

Our school does an outstanding job of supporting this value. Educators show love and appreciation to every child. They use positive reinforcement as a tool to guide students to make the right choices, and they lead by example. The school encourages students to create fundraising campaigns and food and supply drives to help those in need, and emphasizes the importance of empathy and being kind to one another.

It’s the small acts that make the biggest impact on our children now and on the adults that they will be become.

Rachel Harow, PTA Chair and Parent

Katz Hillel Day School, Boca Raton, Florida

My family was ill-prepared for the sudden shutdown of daily life as we knew it, but we initially welcomed it as a much-needed break. It gave us a chance to breathe, get to know each other, and reevaluate our priorities. While adjusting to life at home, we learned to appreciate how very blessed we are. However, the gaps in our lives rein- forced the importance of community and reminded us that maintaining connections is vital.

Without the myriad distractions of “normal” life, my children’s eyes were opened to those whose needs have been compounded by this pandemic. They stopped focusing (as much) on what they were missing and empathetically began to uplift others. Preparing sandwiches for the hungry, donating clothing for the needy, making masks for the vulnerable, and writing to the lonely gave expression to their compassion. The ability to have a positive effect on our community made a remarkable impact on all of us, and I am profoundly grateful.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

There is no gainsaying the challenges that schools have faced this year. Illness, tuition, expenses, technology, mental health… Each word conjures a thousand pictures of heroic efforts made across the school to support, adapt, persevere. No one has gone unscathed, and no scathe has gone unnoticed and unattended by school professionals.

Nevertheless, this issue of HaYidion provides ample testimony that Jewish day schools are not merely surviving and adjusting to difficult circumstances. Instead, over and over, we see schools overflowing with thoughtfulness and creativity. Like Picasso, schools are constantly drawing plans, changing shapes, inventing new plans over them, and living in the flow that this shifting situation requires. New teams—medical professionals, architects and engineers, tech specialists—suddenly arise to take a prominent place in the constellation of school stakeholders.

Heads are communicating with humor and transparency, reaching out regularly to hundreds in the community to let them know that they care. They admit to having a million answers and none at the same time. Teachers, at times daunted but unbowed, are proving again to be the true miracle-makers, having modified curricula, embraced myriad tech platforms, taught live and remote at once, zeroed in on each student’s strengths and needs, while infusing their classrooms whether in-person or remote with the passion and intelligence they bring to their subjects.

The articles in this issue demonstrate that, remarkably, day school stakeholders are continuing to dream about their schools, their community, and their craft—and doing so with more intensity and vibrancy than ever before. All of the training, the regular preparation, the professional development and investment in change that schools made before Covid are showing their value now palpably, “in the sight of all the people” (Exodus 19:11). Even as they work to create solutions to the challenges of today, they have an eye to the future, trying to anticipate which changes will bear fruit—which “castles in the air” may acquire a “foundation”— in a post-Covid world.

The first group of articles explores ways that our school leadership has shifted and seized opportunities. Adler and Perla present the new landscape of tuition plans that are changing the way that many schools are doing business. Falchuk describes new admissions strategies that her school has undertaken. Lorch examines whether prominent leadership theories have held up under Covid, while Grebenau relates how his work now has been guided by the theory of adaptive leadership. Maayan and Rubin share the lessons they drew from a previous crisis to succeed in this one, and Hartman and Friedman show how educational leaders can support teachers through techniques of reflective supervision.

Our school spread presents creative means that schools used to promote student collaboration despite remote learning. The second section discusses unprecedented forms of collaboration, both internally within school communities and externally with other schools. A series of short articles by Gold, Shulkind, and Feifel Mosbacher showcase new partnerships among heads in different cities. Freundel introduces a partnership among day school consultants organized by JEIC, and Hindin speaks to ways that federations can operate to keep schools strong and healthy. Michaelson and Lidsky demonstrate how the communities within schools have adapted and collaborated to achieve resilience, provide succor and forge unity.

The final section looks at ways in which the “new normal” is impacting teaching and learning, school and home life. Hyman offers techniques for teachers to partner with parents in support of diverse learners through remote learning. Cohen provides recommendations for supporting parents, students, teachers and administrators to manage the enormous stresses on our lives today. Wolf gleans what we’ve learned about educational technology over the pandemic, and anticipates what could guide us toward the future. Rutner explores alternative assessment strategies that teachers can use, and Levingston presents how moral education looks radically different given current social upheavals. Taking a step back, Pomson and Aharon share research findings that contrast the purposes that day schools serve in their students’ lives, in North America versus other regions, and how that contrast is manifested during Covid.

May all the hard work that you and your colleagues are doing during this time both enable you to thrive now and establish foundations for success in years to come.

In the world of mountaineering, there are three rules: It’s always further than it looks. It’s always taller than it looks. And it’s always harder than it looks. I have never imagined being able to climb a mountain, an achievement I believe to be beyond my capabilities, my stamina and, to be honest, my vertigo. And yet there are many extraordinary people who scale the peaks, many of whom perhaps at one time felt as I do, as if such a challenge is beyond their reach.

Is grappling with Covid like climbing the proverbial mountain, farther, taller and harder in every dimension? If it is, then I am confident that leaders and educators in Jewish day schools and yeshivas are able mountaineers. They conquer the daily challenges and will emerge on the other side of this crisis stronger, prepared for a changed society, and able to demonstrate more than ever the value of a Jewish day school education. The Covid crisis unleashed creativity and innovation intrinsic to our schools. The immeasurable value of community, support for the whole student, and deeply ingrained Jewish values—all essential features of what our schools provide—are being recognized in new ways. Jewish day schools stand tall on every dimension.

I know that right now, teachers and school leaders may struggle to see the end of this arduous climb, and the daily struggle to fulfill a school’s mission can feel overwhelming and unending. Each day, I hear more examples of the courage, determination and inspiration of our educators, and I thank each and every one for your leadership and commitment to provide the very best experience for every student.

Yet to fulfill our schools’ true potential, we need to begin looking beyond the mountain directly in front of us and prepare for the next heights to be scaled. We must dare to imagine a future beyond Covid. As we begin to do so, how might we build on our experience in crisis to inspire what might come next?

A recent McKinsey report on the future of the K-12 education system argues that “reimagining education after the Covid-19 crisis involves recommitting to what we know works and reshaping for a better future.” A central feature of recommitting to what works is a focus on people, delivering the core skills and instruction each student needs. And reshaping, according to McKinsey, includes harnessing technology to improve access and quality, supporting children holistically, as well as rethinking school structures.

The research suggests that Covid has not completely disrupted the core educational exchange: “While greater use of technology in education may be inevitable, technology will never replace a great teacher. In fact, a single teacher can change a student’s trajectory.”

A successful future, therefore, starts with people. Building on what Prizmah and many others do to deepen talent in Jewish education, there is more we can and should do together, to recruit, motivate, support, inspire and retain the best educators, invest in new models of training and development, and make roles in professional and lay leadership fulfilling, manageable and sustainable. And we need to focus on how to nurture the next generation, in Judaics and Hebrew, in general studies and in leadership.

Recommitting to what works with a focus on people needs to be blended with a commitment “to move beyond existing approaches to embrace more radical innovation.” Technology is, by definition, central to radical change; the challenge is not “just to adopt new technologies but also to incorporate them in ways that improve access and quality.” Building on our current experiences deploying diverse educational technologies, we are already finding ways to strengthen the quality of learning, provide online access to teachers and pedagogical experiences previously out of reach, and to offer greater and more effective differentiation to advance and include every learner, no matter how their learning styles and needs differ.

“Reshaping for a better future” also means “supporting children holistically. … Educators play a critical role in helping children learn how to become effective citizens, parents, workers and custodians of the planet.” Here we have the opportunity to invest in building on day schools’ existing strength in serving the whole child. Additionally, the core values of community and fundamentals of Judaism position day schools to excel in a world that needs each individual to discover his/her unique strengths and build connections for the greater good.

A final challenge as we reimagine education after Covid-19 is to “rethink school structures.” The world of business is coming to terms with the realization that Covid-19 has changed how people behave across every aspect of their lives. This matters to us as we create or adapt systems to address our current and future students and families. The possibilities are manyfold, from physical classroom transformations, to alternative tuition models that make schools more affordable and sustainable, to ways in which we might reconfigure the mix of schools in our communities to meet the needs of the rising generation and to address significant demographic changes.

We are at the beginning of exploring what might be possible, and I know that it may seem impossible right now to contemplate these questions in the midst of what each school faces day to day. When one mountain is facing you, it is hard to imagine the next one. At Prizmah, we are with you in tackling the immediate questions, seeking to support your climb so that we may all, God willing, come through this terrible period. And we are preparing to chart the journey forward with you, into our next, vibrant chapter in Jewish day school life.

I have been so impressed with the determination, resilience and creativity of our day school community in attacking the challenge of returning to in-person instruction and/or providing the best-possible virtual learning. And I couldn’t be prouder of the myriad ways that Prizmah’s professional staff has enabled schools to cope with, and even grow from, the Covid experience.

I would like to focus on the unique impact that the crisis has had on day school boards and offer three ways we can capitalize on the operating mode in this environment to improve board performance during the pandemic and beyond.

1 It is often said that we must never let a good crisis go to waste. The simple reality is that a difficult operating environment energizes lay leaders to step up to the plate. But it does not happen by itself. The board chair and professional leadership must ensure that the board has sufficient information and suggested modes of involvement that are both achievable and impactful. If done well, lay leaders walk away from the experience more energized and engaged, and with a deeper relationship with the institution and its professional staff.

As with so many other institutions birthed and nurtured by The AVI CHAI Foundation, its sunset left a major gap in Prizmah’s operating budget. Notwithstanding a long notice

period and transition support from the Foundation, replacing millions of dollars in philanthropic support was, and remains, a gargantuan task. However, everyone in the organization assumed responsibility. From the board side, lay leaders became far more familiar with the organization’s operating environment and costs, ramped up their involvement in development efforts and, in almost every case, increased their own board giving. Today, long after this crisis, our financial stability is very much a product of the changed role of the board in both giving and development.

2 The current pandemic has upended school operations, to put it mildly. All sorts of decisions must be made, often with extreme time pressure. The traditional pace and timing of board

involvement simply does not suffice for the current environment. While some schools might respond to the pace of decisions by a diminishment of the board’s role in issues that would normally be in its domain, bypassing the critical governance role that boards play and, perhaps more importantly, leaving the school without the vital buy-in and support of its board weakens the organization and detracts from the critical partnership between the professionals and the board.

Devising methods of board communication that clearly articulate potential avenues of approach, with a detailed listing of the pros and cons of each option, allows a board to quickly make difficult decisions. Figuring out those issues that need, or can benefit from, board engagement ensures that limited board time is used in an effective fashion and that board members feel that their involvement affects the reality on the ground and utilizes the talents that they bring to the boardroom table.

3 When board decisions are made and shared with the broader school community, there is often a torrent of questions and comments from community members—especially in the current environment, where everyone seems to have absolute and definitive views on the proper course of action for the school. At day schools, perhaps because the stakes are so high—nothing less than the Jewish future—everyone cares a great deal.

One of the most effective board functions is the presentation and explanation of decisions made by the board. While parents and other stakeholders may disagree with a decision, they will accept it far more readily if they understand how the decision was made, who was involved in the decision-making process, and the factors and alternatives that were considered. Board members can and should be equipped to fulfill this role. Big decisions should be accompanied by a clear set of talking points, and board members must speak with one voice. Board members can even practice how to present decisions in role-playing scenarios within the safe space of a board meeting.

Emboldened by their commitment to the school’s mission and purpose, board members who are properly engaged in decision- making and communication will meaningfully assist school leadership in navigating the challenges of Covid-19. Focusing on these processes will improve board utilization, effectiveness and satisfaction during, and hopefully long after, the Covid-19 crisis.

The Covid pandemic has had a significant impact on Jewish day schools, increasing enrollment at some, forcing others into a virtual existence. It has also caused many schools to reexamine their tuition and fee structures.

About a decade ago, alternative tuition programs began to proliferate as individual schools, federations and donors realized that new, more creative approaches to tuition setting were necessary to underscore and demonstrate a clear commitment to day school affordability. Many of these first-generation tuition programs were based on the hypothesis that a lower tuition for targeted segments of a school population would lead to improvements in both recruitment and retention. While a handful of individual schools and federations introduced programs that significantly lowered tuition for all families, the majority of alternative tuition programs targeted specific cohorts of families through a needs-based approach.

FIRST-GENERATION PROGRAMS

Three years ago, Prizmah and Measuring Success undertook a study of these programs. The most common programs we examined included middle-income affordability programs, including income- cap programs; flexible or indexed tuition programs; non-needs-based tuition- reduction programs, and discounts for Jewish communal professionals. The primary purpose of the study was to assess the efficacy of these early programs in recruiting and retaining 10 more day school families. While the study results seemed to indicate that communally designed, donor-funded programs performed better than programs that were school-designed and lacked donor support, the results of the study were generally inconclusive and failed to establish causality between tuition reductions and enrollment growth.

One of the explanations for the study’s inconclusive findings was a lack of intentionality in program implementation. Our research found that many of the first generation programs were designed without clear data analysis, and sometimes without buy-in from the school’s leadership. Some of the programs were created solely in response to a donor’s wishes and were discontinued as soon as the donor became disenchanted with the program. Other programs lacked donor support altogether and were undertaken by schools with the mistaken belief that a rising enrollment would sustain the program financially. Such programs were often dropped within a year or two of their launch.

SECOND-GENERATION PROGRAMS

The design of more recent, second- generation tuition programs suggests that schools and communities are materially adapting their approach. These programs are notable for their embrace of data.

This includes both local and national data related to family income levels and scholarship, local and national data related to school satisfaction among existing parents, and local and national surveys related to perceptions of day schools. Second-generation programs are more likely to be backed by significant multiyear philanthropic support to allow time for the programs to succeed and for modifications to be made, if necessary. Alternative tuition programs at both San Diego Jewish Academy (SDJA) and Westchester Day School (WDS) are examples of this new, data-driven approach.

SDJA’s Open Door tuition program offers significant discounts for new families who enroll their children in entry-level grades: kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades. SDJA conducted research and analyzed extensive family income data before launching their highly successful program. It commissioned an independent research firm to survey middle-income families in the San Diego area on their views of Jewish day school and tuition prices. The survey indicated that more than 1,100 Jewish families with school- age children in San Diego would consider a Jewish day school if its tuition was between $10,000 and $15,000. Based on its findings, SJDA lowered its tuition in entry-level grades to the mid-level of this range for new families. Three years in, the school credits the donor-funded program for its record enrollment.

WDS began to experiment with alternative tuition programs nearly a decade ago when it lowered tuition prices in some lower grades in an attempt to accelerate enrollment growth. Later on, the school created an income-based tuition cap program based on a more sophisticated, data-driven approach. Through the program, middle-income families can apply for up to 40% off full tuition based on a simple application. The school even developed an online tuition calculator so that families could easily project their tuition obligation with a few inputs and the click of a button.

Three years ago, TannenbaumCHAT, a community high school in Toronto, had two campuses and charged a tuition in excess of $28,000. The school was experiencing significant declines in enrollment and undertook a detailed survey of current and prospective day school families to understand the role that the school’s tuition price was playing in their enrollment decisions. The survey results suggested that many families would be interested in enrolling their children if tuition prices were more in line with middle school tuitions they were used to paying.

Based on this data, the high school announced the closing of its northern campus and lowered tuition prices at its southern campus by nearly 40%. The federation played a pivotal role in the program’s design and helped the school secure a multiyear, multimillion dollar gift to ensure the school’s financial stability. Enrollment at the school’s south campus has increased dramatically (over 25%) since the program’s inception, and the school has retained the overwhelming majority of its north campus students.

Where first-generation programs often took a needs-based approach to tuition discounts, many of the latest programs have lowered tuition either in entry-level grades or for all families, regardless of need. As an example, New England Jewish Academy (NEJA), in West Hartford, Connecticut, recently lowered its tuition for all families. While it is too early to determine the success of the effort, the school reports that early enrollment results are promising. Like other schools that have lowered their tuitions, NEJA hopes that lower tuition will enable the school to be more attractive to both existing and prospective families. They also anticipate that wealthier families will be more likely to make voluntary, tax- deductible contributions if their obligatory tuition is lowered.

It is also worth noting that the collection and analysis of additional data and ongoing donor support can lead to adaptations in existing tuition programs. Nearly a decade ago, Kadima Day School in Los Angeles announced a significantly reduced tuition level for first-time families to the school. A strong backlash from existing families who were ineligible for the lower tuition level ensued. Based on extensive survey data, the school discontinued the original program and worked with its initial donor to create a revised program that dramatically lowered tuition levels for all families. The school reports two years of consistent enrollment growth, a trend it attributes in large part to its revised, donor-funded program.

COMMUNICATIONS

Alongside the improved programmatic elements in recent alternative tuition programs, there is a critical element to success that should not be overlooked: messaging. How a school or community messages its tuition program speaks volumes about its principles and values and should align with its stated mission. Alternative tuition models afford schools an opportunity to articulate these values and actualize their mission.

Consider the language used by the Greene Hill School in Brooklyn to describe its sliding-scale tuition program and how it connects directly to the school’s mission: A sliding scale tuition means that families pay the tuition that is appropriate for their family’s income and financial resources.

Practically, Greene Hill has established seven different tuition tiers, and a financial assessment will determine which tier is appropriate for each family.

An independent private school, Greene Hill is committed to diversity, and the sliding scale is one of the ways that we live our mission.

The Solomon Schechter of Greater Boston uses a description of its iCap tuition program to articulate two critical and complementary values: Tuition should be predictable in order to encourage parents to confidently enroll all their children; parents must be prepared to make a meaningful contribution toward tuition.

Schechter is committed to partnering with families who are ready to make a meaningful contribution toward tuition in accordance with their financial means... ICap Tuition Program is designed to enable families with children in kindergarten through grade 8 to anticipate their maximum future tuition obligation and confidently enroll their children at Schechter year after year, regardless of the number of children in each family.

The Hannah Senesh School in Brooklyn uses messaging in its strategic plan to inform parents of its values regarding school sustainability and parent affordability:

We will analyze our various and potential income streams, and research and review tuition models, in order to select and implement the options that will likely best achieve our goals of generating sufficient income while easing the burden on our parents.

The statements on these school websites are examples of clear and transparent messaging about tuition assistance to the potential customer. They express the school’s commitment as well the range of programs offered in an effort to find the best fit for each family.

In summary, many second-generation alternative tuition programs have benefited from greater intentionality in their program design and a focus on data-driven analysis. Partnerships with local federations and donors who make multiyear financial commitments have ensured that programs are set up for success. Recent results have been promising, and the field needs to carefully consider the scalability and applicability of these programs. Messaging these programs in a way that conveys a school’s core values and connects back to its mission is critical.

Prizmah is conducting more research aimed at better establishing causality between lower tuition prices and student recruitment and retention. We also plan to convene school and communal leaders, both lay and professional, to share our research and to help us plan a series of programs and initiatives related to tuition and affordability.

We look forward to sharing our research findings and to unveiling new initiatives soon. Both efforts will enable Prizmah and the field to carefully consider the scalability and applicability of these programs in the future.

In the cycle of Jewish day school admissions offices, summer and fall are very busy times for team building, strategizing and planning. It takes an enormous group effort to coordinate and implement a successful admissions campaign, and each year we infuse new vision and ideas into our process. However, this year is like none before, and while the methodology is the same, the delivery is different. There are no balloon bunches being designed for open houses, nor in-person tours and interviews.

This year, the stakes are even higher to bring in a full class, and our retention goals are more important. At Gann Academy, we have fostered a high retention rate and are cultivating a strong recruitment season. This success has been achieved through a new communication strategy, expanding financial aid programs and dollar amounts, re-structuring our educational model, and varying our admissions process.

We began with an inside-out approach to our community, initially focusing on the retention of current families. As main stakeholders, current families deserve transparency in communication. Messaging was, and continues to be clear, concise and prompt. In addition to town hall Zoom meetings over the summer, we sent frequent communications to keep our families updated on our thoughts and planning. We realized that parents appreciated our emails in their inboxes, and while there is such a thing as too much communication, we settled on a flow and volume of emails that seemed right. This clear communication strategy proved beneficial in terms of retention; we knew what families needed from us in order to continue a Gann education, and we were able to provide that support.

For example, it became abundantly clear that families were worried about affording our education. In partnership with our board of trustees, we created a new campaign, “Gann Cares,” built as a Covid relief fund, to support both new and returning families. Additionally, we were able to allocate an extra $1,000,000 in financial aid, and more than 30 families were retained as a direct result of our Gann Cares campaign.

We next focused on re-opening to in-person learning, not only to secure retention but also to increase recruitment prospects. Our school day had always been long, with eight academic classes, prayer and extracurriculars; students stayed on campus from 8 am to 5 pm. With a shift to hybrid learning, the possibility of having to go fully remote at any time, and feedback from our stakeholders, we knew we needed to change our program. After research and consultation with academic leaders across the country, we chose a two-semester model, with four academic blocks each semester. This approach gave us the ability to work intensively in a subject, but also provided flexibility for our learners.

Classes last one hour and meet four days a week. On Fridays, we are fully remote, and students have the opportunity to work with teachers as needed on independent study. For students who are unable to attend in person, we created an online option which included academic classes, minyanim, sports, arts and wellness.

This holistic approach to academics and safe re-entry to in-person learning has positively impacted our recruitment and retention. Current families are thrilled to know their children will continue a high-quality education with physical and mental health supports, and prospective families are beyond excited to have a school committed to in-person learning. Committing to in-person learning alone earned more than 12 late applicants.

The continuation of our robust in- person academics, vibrant student and Jewish life, and strong learning supports ensured a successful admissions yield. Families outside of Gann suddenly found themselves without classes, without friends for their children, and without clear communication from their school systems. Suddenly, we had an influx of new families looking to come to Gann, as well as new families with financial concerns. To balance this influx and promote recruitment, we again relied on flexibility.

In previous years, we were not able to offer late admits financial aid. This policy presented a barrier for families who were off-sync with the traditional admissions cycle; changing it has rolled out the welcome mat for the high number of late applicants. Concluding that there are many other ways to assess a student, and understanding that testing is less accessible now, our admissions team decided to make Gann SSAT-optional. We are now using the “character snapshot,” affiliated with the SSAT through the Enrollment Management Association, as part of our process.

As we look toward our upcoming admissions cycle, we are retaining the beneficial changes implemented last spring and continue to be open to veering away from tradition. Like most schools this year, we are not allowing visitors to our campus. A critical part of our admissions cycle is our large,

in-person open house in the fall. Now we are creating a new way to showcase our school, involving virtual tours and interviews, engaging online information sessions, and more nuanced and individualized outreach. We are also continuing to partner with our feeder schools on outreach programming. The evolving nature of the Covid-19 pandemic requires recruitment efforts to be digital but also interactive, nimble but focused, and above all creative.

Reopening in a pandemic has required learning. We have learned the value of being flexible and are reminded each day of the importance of proactive planning and communication. This learning has proven its worth; our successful programs, both in person and remote, have become so popular that we have an overall retention of 98%, a waiting list for grades 9-11, and interest in providing an online learning program for students outside of Gann. Though the flexibility required of students, faculty and staff is intensive and ongoing, our school has proven that both retainment and recruitment are indeed possible during a pandemic. We will continue to be flexible in our approach, our pedagogy and our operations as we anticipate the shift back to post-pandemic school.

The heroic stories of Jewish school leaders who transformed their schools in the face of a pandemic of daunting scale are legion. Principals and curriculum coordinators spearheaded and supported their faculties in overnight transitions from in-person learning to remote learning and in subsequent refinements of online teaching practices. Board leaders and directors of finance responded to parents’ financial distress with creativity and compassion and scrambled to access newly available financial and material resources. Heads of school formed task forces, advisory groups, and response teams, collected and analyzed survey data, and expanded their communication with various constituencies, constructing web pages, convening town hall meetings, and increasing the frequency of their email and social media blasts.

Participation spiked in school leader discussion groups and listservs (many sponsored by Prizmah), as well as in webinars with experts in fields that had previously been peripheral to school operations, such as public health, remote learning and architectural design. Schools were not paralyzed by the magnitude of the challenge; on the contrary, they sprang into action and engaged in high- quality leadership activities of nearly every imaginable kind.

One notable exception comes to mind: the flurry of activity tended not to be grounded—at least not explicitly—in theories of leadership and change in schools and organizations, theories that might have served as obvious go-to resources for school leaders during a challenge of this scope and complexity, such as adaptive leadership (Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky), systems thinking (Peter Senge) and good-to-greatness (Jim Collins).

In keeping with the classical rabbinic tradition of publicly confessing one’s shortcomings before the congregation, the next part of this article is written in the first person singular. As I sought to respond to an emergency that challenged nearly every one of my operational assumptions, from teaching and learning to school finance to community and connection to mental and physical health, it never occurred to me to revisit or mine the literature on leadership and change that I had studied and taught extensively in graduate education courses and in day school leadership training programs.

This lack of appeal to theory flies in the face of one of the maxims of social science: “There is nothing as practical as a good theory” (Kurt Lewin). How are we to make sense of this disconnect? What can explain my seemingly counterintuitive flight from theory at precisely the moment when it might have proven most useful?

HYPOTHESIS #1: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRISIS RESPONSE

In the throes of a crisis, theory may be an unaffordable luxury. An individual faced with a life-or-death threat casts about for solutions, finds none, and is therefore at a loss as to how to cope with it. As Abraham Maslow wrote,

For the man who is extremely and dangerously hungry, no other interests exist but food. He dreams food, he remembers food, he thinks about food, he emotes only about food, he perceives only food and he wants only food… Anything else will be defined as unimportant. Freedom, love, community feeling, respect, philosophy, may all be waved aside as fripperies which are useless since they fail to fill the stomach.

For Jewish day schools, the onset of Covid-19 produced a series of existential crises: how to remain a school without a physical space called school; how to conduct classes without classrooms; how to respond with compassion and pragmatism to the distress, economic and otherwise, of families; how to survive a massive loss of tuition and fundraising income; how to meet the learning needs of children when nearly every strategy known to educators was unavailable. Overnight, I found myself in an epic struggle for my school’s continuing relevance, if not its very survival. In such circumstances, perhaps expecting myself to contemplate theories of leadership and derive lessons for my practice is tantamount to expecting a starving person to write poetry.

HYPOTHESIS #2: THE LIMITS OF LEADERSHIP THEORY

The leadership literature may not be well suited to moments of crisis. Though the various theories purport to provide ways of thinking and acting that make organizations more nimble and better able to withstand threats and transform themselves in crises, the strategies that they delineate purport to develop the capacity in advance that will enable the organization to thrive later, when crisis strikes.

For example, Collins’ timeless prescriptions are all preconditions to achieving greatness. Cultivating Level 5 leadership (the CEO combining humility and will), getting the right people on the bus, and rethinking the organization’s hedgehog concept (an understanding of what the organization can be the best in the world at) are critical factors in the organization’s ability to weather a crisis and come through it stronger than ever. They are not concepts to first explore when the crisis hits.

Similarly, Senge’s key disciplines are ways of transforming organizations into learning organizations; they are not guidelines for how to respond to profound crises. Personal mastery, building shared vision, team learning and systems thinking are elements of a framework for preparing to deal with the dynamic complexity of situations and forecasting the effects of interventions. With the possible exception of the concept of leverage (a small, non-obvious “change which—with a minimum of effort—would lead to lasting, significant improvement” systemwide), they are not strategies for survival in an existential crisis.

Heifetz and Linsky offer a framework that is directed inward at organizational challenges, and less toward external existential risks that are much larger than the organization. Alternating between the dance floor and the balcony (being both a participant and an observer), cooking the conflict (applying moderate pressure for change) and creating productive disequilibrium (motivating people by focusing on tough issues while reducing anxiety and turmoil) make sense as strategies to awaken an organization to the need for wrenching transformation. They are not well suited to crises that are so threatening that they eclipse all other activities or challenges.

Why, in the turbulence of a once- in-a-century pandemic, did I not consciously step back, take perspective and contemplate the relevant lessons learned from leadership theory and their immediate implications for my daily practice? On the one hand, the leadership lessons were mismatched to the rhythms of a dynamic, fast-paced crisis. On the other hand, it was too late. If I had not yet learned the lessons, synthesized them into my practice and begun seamlessly applying them to the issues and decisions at hand, first developing plans to roll them out in the midst of the pandemic would likely have proven counterproductive.

HYPOTHESIS #3: THEORY IN PRACTICE

Perhaps many of the actions that Jewish day school leaders took in response to the Covid crisis did benefit from a theoretical framework, just not explicitly so. Chris Argyris and Donald Schon explain that professionals have what they call theories of practice, which are often not clearly articulated, but rather become visible through the actions they adopt and the explanations or predictions they have in mind to justify their choices of actions. The measure of effective professional practice, they claim, is the extent to which these theories of practice can subsequently be publicly espoused, challenged and tested.

For example, when heads of school recruited medical advisory groups, legal advisers and human relations consultants to support them in their planning and decision making, many of them were acting on one of Collins’ key findings: the importance of getting the right people on the bus. By preparing for multiple scenarios and implementing them as conditions dictated, they were following Heifetz and Linsky’s advice to observe, interpret, intervene and repeat. The feedback loops that they established with their schools’ varied constituencies— faculty, staff, parents, students, donors—reflected the understandings about shared vision, team learning and transparency that they may have derived from Senge. Whether intentionally or not, many of their actions, if not most, reflected key insights drawn from the leadership theories that they had studied at earlier stages of their careers, without which their actions might well have proven less effective.

TACHEL SHANAH UVIRCHOTEHA — COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS

Another school year, and a new Jewish year, 5781, have begun in the shadow of corona. After the strangest, most disorienting half year school leaders have ever lived through, they are prepared for the worst and hoping for the best.

Among the blessings we should count are the lessons our leaders have learned that raise their sights, inspire them to meet new challenges resourcefully, and embolden them to take courageous and incisive action. May our blessings this year be as plentiful as the seeds of a pomegranate.

WORKS DISCUSSED

Argyris, C. and D. Schon. Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness.

Collins, J. Good to Great and the Social Sectors.

Heifetz, R. and M. Linsky. “A Survival Guide for Leaders.” Harvard Business Review, June 2002.

Maslow, A. H. “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psychology Review, 1943.

Senge, P. M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.

Back when the word “corona” evoked an image of an ice-cold beer, the concept of adaptive leadership was not on the front burner for most schools. Adaptive leadership enables organizations to identify changes needed to move forward guided by agreed-upon values. Thanks to its focus on leading in dynamic systems, however, it is especially applicable to this uncertain time of ongoing change.

In the midst of the coronavirus, the speed of change in our schools has accelerated to an unhealthy hurtle, and adaptive leadership is more important than ever. The challenge before us as school leaders is being able to turn leading through Covid-19 into an opportunity to learn new leadership skills that will help us to better administer our schools regardless of the specific challenges and contexts that are down the road.

ADAPTIVE VS. TECHNICAL

Adaptive leadership distinguishes two types of challenges: adaptive and technical. A technical challenge can be very complex, but has a clear solution. A playbook can be used to react to the challenge successfully, and there is a known goal where we want to end up. Replacing a faulty heart valve during cardiac surgery is a complex technical challenge. There is significant room for error, and it is tough work, but the technique needed, and the goal, are both quite clear.

An adaptive challenge, on the other hand, is an enigma of conflicting values where the direction and the path to achieve the goal are unclear. Adaptive challenges pit some of our deepest-held convictions against one another and require a specific type of leadership to move forward. This category has captured much of our work for the past months, as our most cherished values of pedagogy, safety and community have been in constant conflict and required painful concessions.

DIAGNOSING

Adaptive leadership asks leaders to distribute not just work but authority. It requires leaders to engage their staff in the work of examining and debating conflicting values on the way to changing hearts and minds. The goal of adaptive leadership is to identify the changes, however painful, that are needed for the future health of the organization. This requires an experimental mindframe and cycles of observation, interpretation and intervention. When diagnosing a problem, it is critical to stay low on the ladder of inference and hold numerous potential interpretations at once, rather than quickly identifying the cause of an issue.

Over the summer, we experienced a series of teachers resigning in quick succession. There was clearly an element of this trend that was related to anxiety over Covid. Although some quickly wrote it off as just “Covid makes people crazy,” others on the leadership team cautioned that we need to make sure there isn’t anything else going that needs to be understood. We stayed low on the ladder of inference and focused on the rate of faculty turnover, even given the unusual context. The fact that more than one or two teachers were actively looking for other opportunities was something we needed to understand, and we needed to be open to multiple possible explanations. Having our human resource professional perform exit interviews with the exiting staff allowed us some insight into how other changes in our schedule and pay structure might have played a role. Being open to other interpretations allowed us to continue to search for this feedback, which might otherwise have been overlooked.

CALIBRATING DISCOMFORT

One of the central ideas of adaptive leadership is calibrating discomfort. When there are conflicting values and adaptive challenges, people will feel a sense of disequilibrium. The goal is to remain in the zone of disequilibrium long enough to harness the conflict and discomfort in order to truly unearth what values may be in conflict and the best direction for the future. However, the leader must make sure that they do not remain in disequilibrium so long that the level of anxiety and discomfort is too much for the teachers to tolerate. If we leave the zone of disequilibrium too early, the organization has avoided the tough work that will result in discovering solutions to adaptive problems. Staying too long in this zone may cause the leader to damage trust and relationships with staff.

Recently, in a meeting with teachers as we planned programming for this challenging year, I harnessed discomfort when I did not allow us to go to the quick solution of using our same recipe for programming and just subdividing the student body into pods. I had to repeatedly bring us back

to the idea that we were thinking out of the box to come up with an idea that we would feel good about continuing even after Covid. It would have been far more comfortable to move on and solve this issue with some of the initial suggestions, but digging into the disequilibrium netted a more creative and satisfying solution.

GETTING ON THE BALCONY

Another important aspect of adaptive leadership is the concept of “getting on the balcony.” In my own research on new principals in Jewish day schools, one participant referred to this as “time in the shade.” This meant taking the time to get out of the hustle and bustle of the school day and reflecting on the general picture of the school as well as on your own part in the system.

This work can’t only be relegated to the summer, but summer is a good time to intentionally begin this process with other administrators and set aside time during the year to continue the process.

I have seen a number of schools have offsite meetings for strategic planning, including for staffing decisions or creating the schedule. This same approach can be used for having regular balcony meetings or balcony moments to reflect on the overall picture of the school.

CHALLENGES TO ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP

The benefits of successful adaptive leadership are a culture aligned with the goals and values of the institution and the agility to continue to make changes as needed. I’d like to conclude this article by discussing one area of challenge to this type of leadership: discomfort—one’s own discomfort and the discomfort of others. Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky speak about the fact that adaptive leadership means intentionally disappointing people who confer power on you. In our schools, both our teachers and our lay leadership frequently want us to focus on fixing what is currently not working well. Taking time away from the present concerns to deal with the culture and values conflicts is frequently not applauded and must be continually justified to these constituencies.

This reality is paralleled by our own discomfort in dealing with adaptive challenges. During the past months, I have found myself drawn to some of the more mundane tasks of administration even when there were other important priorities for the school. As I reflected on my preoccupation with more technical challenges, I realized that school leadership had for many months been a steady stream of adaptive challenges. Adaptive leadership means that we can’t really control (or even predict) the outcome of how a challenge will be dealt with, and that is scary. The more comfortable, technical challenges of school administration were oases of control for me, and I reveled in them.

When we embark on our own pursuit of adaptive leadership, we must be mindful that we too may be uncomfortable in this space and would also like to spend more time just putting out fires and making things better. To deal with adaptive challenges, we must allow ourselves the space to get up on the balcony and spend the time diagnosing and strategizing in a way that is future-looking, fighting the all-consuming needs of the present on behalf of the uncertain but nonetheless inevitable road ahead.

Winston Churchill once said, ““Never let a good crisis go to waste.” We who work in the Jewish day school world are familiar with crises, both large and small. All of them offer opportunities to learn. Our particular crisis a decade ago has made us stronger, more resilient and better equipped to learn, reflect and innovate in our day school in this unprecedented time of Covid-19.

The Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School in St. Louis was formed in 2012, the only known successful merger of a Reform and a Conservative day school. The new community school was created on the heels of a recession, over a two-year period, though a process that was excruciating, but also rich with learning.

Initial exploratory discussions about sharing office software and music teachers grew into conversations about bigger dreams: merging. One school had a new building, while the other leased space in a neglected temple education wing. One school’s head wasn’t continuing, whereas the other had a committed and respected leader at the helm.

Negotiations surged forward, then slammed into resistance. Both schools walked away at one point. Boards and staff struggled with deciding how we would eat, how we would pray, how we would teach Judaics to a pluralistic community. We couldn’t envision how everything we would lose could bring about something greater than the sum of its parts.

As the board president and head of school for one of the schools, we were catapulted into a world in which we had little experience. It was a 24-month roller coaster ride of rapid change, vocal and impassioned opinions from board members, faculty, rabbis, community stakeholders and parents. Fear, stress and trepidation about what we might be losing clouded our ability to identify the opportunities before us. It was hard to envision the future when we were facing our natural reaction to transformational change.

Nonetheless, we were exhilarated by the enormous potential of this new vision. The promise of a combined K-8 community school, with newly crafted mission and values, many more children and an unwavering commitment to excellence pushed us to persevere. Ultimately, with a strong board-head relationship, boards that ultimately looked at the big picture, and community leaders and donors who invested in the dream, the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School was born.

Several key ingredients made this possible. We sought out advice from others: federation leaders, merger experts, financial gurus, day school veterans in other cities, PEJE, NAIS and the best independent school leaders. Both boards weighed the pros and cons, and made brave decisions based on what was best for the children and the community.

We engaged in frequent communication with key constituents, especially parents. We listened. We shared carefully crafted information at key points. We surveyed, held coffees and town halls. We asked for feedback. We made mistakes along the way but absorbed, adjusted and advanced. There were arguments; tempers flared and coalitions formed; people mourned and resisted. Ultimately everyone awakened to the realization that the combined school was a much better place for our children.

Which leads us to the pandemic. Who could have possibly prepared for a pandemic and the way it would affect our students, teachers, board and community? Little did we realize how deeply our experience managing transformational change during the merger would impact the strength with which we navigated the uncharted waters of 2020.

We had experienced fear of the unknown and uncertainty about how long the crisis would last. We had learned to shut out the noise and put excellence for students first. We had sought out and applied the best advice from experts in the field, from board members and community leaders. We had leaned on the board-head partnership and supported each other once critical decisions were made.

So it turned out we were more prepared than we realized. We learned more than we thought and were able to call upon that experience, reflect on how we could apply a past lesson to the pandemic, and innovate.

HERE ARE THE LESSONS OF OUR TWIN EXPERIENCES:

Having gone through a crisis made us more prepared to manage transformational change. We made decisions on the fly, with good but often incomplete data. Yes, we made mistakes, but acknowledged them and kept moving forward toward our goal.

Steady and strong is vital (even when you’re not feeling it inside). The community trusted our commitment to making things right for the children of Mirowitz.

Seek out the gift of wisdom and experience from experts. We couldn’t do this alone. Our tagline should be, “Surround yourself with people smarter than you.” We gathered expert medical advisors and sought wisdom from board members on legal and organizational decision making. Our money has never been better spent on membership in Prizmah, NAIS, ISACS, DSLTI and others.

Listen, listen, listen. We’re going through a time of high anxiety, enormous uncertainty. People are nervous: parents, students, faculty, board. Acknowledge that anxiety, be kind and flexible whenever possible. Remind people of our ultimate shared goals: academic excellence, health and well- being of our students and teachers. Reassure that we will all get through this.

Change is hard; be sure to mourn what once was. But also celebrate what you’ve achieved that you couldn’t have imagined: new and rapid proficiency of technology; a quick pivot to remote schooling, a “Gala in the Cloud,” heightened partnership between board and head of school; launching a remote camp led by our young adult alums.

All this allowed Mirowitz to resume five day a week in-person school this fall. We are adhering closely to all CDC, state and county guidelines. We keep health and safety foremost in everything we do. And we continue to listen, learn, adjust and improve. It’s our fervent belief that going through a different but in many ways similar experience like the merger gave us the resiliency and confidence to come out stronger and better.

Early childhood centers that have been reopening since early summer have a word of warning for schools: Don’t forget to make time for supportive supervision.

More than ever, educators isolated in their classrooms or behind their laptops need support. The early childhood field has a unique model of supervision, rooted in relationships and collaboration, that day schools could implement to their benefit. This article will demonstrate how the model functions and will argue that the unique benefits of reflective supervision are tailor-made for our time.

PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS

Reflective supervision developed in the field of infant mental health and is a kindred spirit to Parker Palmer’s The Courage to Teach. Just as Palmer instructs that teachers project the condition of their own souls onto their students, this model invites teachers to work with their supervisors to “hold a mirror to the soul.” Through entering what Palmer calls the “tangles of teaching” with a supervisor, the teacher is strengthened and brings that wholeness to his or her work with students.

In this way, reflective supervision acts as a “parallel process,” meaning that the quality and characteristics of the session (relational, reflective and co-constructed) model the ways that teachers engage with children and families. The parallel process, an interlocking set of gears between supervisor, teacher, and children and families, relies on the idea that “as we are nurtured, so we are enabled to nurture” (Sherryl Scott Heller and Linda Gilkerson, A Practical Guide to Reflective Supervision).

THE STRUCTURE

A reflective supervision session, scheduled in advance and taking place for 20 to 60 minutes at least twice a month, is a supportive and collaborative opportunity for teachers and supervisors to talk about the teacher’s work and challenges. In these sessions, teachers have agency to determine how the time will be spent, with supervisors prepared to ask questions of their own. The approach is generally summed up in three words: collaboration, reflection and regularity. Another way to explain this is to make clear what reflective supervision is not: It is not a therapy or venting session, it is not evaluative, and it is not for curriculum planning. Any one of these items may feature in a small way in the session, but these are not the purposes.

For a closer look at what really makes these sessions tick, this year we engaged 15 Jewish early childhood educators in a research project to learn how teachers experienced reflective supervision. Their reflections taught us that supervisors foster an environment that is emotionally attuned to the teacher, engage in a shared dialogue and a language of encouragement and inquiry, and, through these processes, positively impact teachers’ sense of self-efficacy.

SETTING THE ENVIRONMENT

According to teachers, a reflective supervisor cultivates an enjoyable and relaxed environment where they feel heard, respected, appreciated and seen. Within this safe space, the educator knows that this time is sacred; in the words of one teacher, “This is my time with the supervisor and it really is.” As the relationship progresses, that level of knowing enables the supervisor to “know my growth, and see it, and remind me of it when I tend to forget where I came from.”

The environment is intentionally focused on engendering growth in the context of a collaborative relationship built around trust, honesty and consistency. The supervisor’s emotional responsiveness sets the tone for generating innovative perspectives and solutions together.

This is achieved through supervisor behaviors characterized by “supportive listening,” investing in teachers’ ideas and interest, recognizing teachers’ agency and suspending judgment.

One teacher highlighted how her supervisor “makes it very much focused on you.” The “focus” on the individual participant signals an important insight into educational leadership: the central role of attunement. The attunement a teacher experiences with their supervisor, then, reflects and models the attunement that a teacher employs with students and families. Online engagement will put the attunement of educators to the test this year, challenging its implementation at a time when it remains critical to the wellbeing and learning of all members of the school community. Naming the centrality of and modeling attunement is a critical reflective step for all educators, now and always.

BEING A SUPERVISOR OF VALOR

What does the supervisor do in these sessions? According to teachers, they are not telling the teachers what to do. Rather, they are advising, affirming, approving, asking questions, asking teachers about their own growth, celebrating successes, challenging the educator, checking in on the educator as a person, cheering on the educator, coaching, commenting rather than criticizing, expressing confidence in the teacher, empathizing, encouraging,

enhancing, expressing concern, guiding, listening, making practical suggestions, offering advice and new perspective, praising, reassuring and understanding, and validating. Educators describe a particularly trusting method of being challenged by their supervisors: suggestions and advice are offered, and when educators are, in their words, pushed, it is to take initiative. As one educator explained, “She pushes me just enough to make me want to do better, but is not overwhelming.”

THE MAGIC OF THE DIALOGUE

These regular, comfortable sessions, in which supervisors engage in dozens of leadership actions, catalyze a metamorphosis in the teachers, giving birth to new ways of thinking and doing. (See Tables 1-3 for examples of how the behaviors of each participant contribute to the advancement of the conversation.) One teacher shared the importance of having a “sounding board,” making clear that through shared power and partnership, the supervisor “never made me feel like she was above me; [rather,] the reflective supervision gave me room to reframe the challenge I was experiencing.” These sessions elicit teachers’ concerns, interests, feelings and needs. Through this experience, supervisors adjust to consider what practices and approaches would best support the co-created goals of the session (Rebecca Parlakian, Look, Listen, and Learn: Reflective Supervision and Relationship-Based Work). The dialogue, within the context of collaboration and authentic care, produces new insights that teachers apply to their work. As another teacher shared, “I think it is eye- opening. It’s pushed me… she gave me some good ideas to build upon.”

Table 1

In our time together I:

explain | listen | express my feelings | am finding my place

prioritize what I want to discuss | can be honest

Table 2

My supervisor helps me:

think | hone | navigate | face challenges | solve problems

make sense of things | develop as an educator | find my voice

see the big picture | see a different perspective

find my passion so that I can focus there | improve my communication with team

know where to find resources

Table 3

Together we:

touch base | find clarity | plan and reflect | engage with honesty

get to our why | put a plan in place | talk through things

go deeper in talking about our students | talk about the meaning of a child’s words

MAKING TEACHERS MORE CONFIDENT

Teachers report that the supervisory relationship plays a central role in impacting their self-confidence. Numerous studies have demonstrated that teachers’ beliefs in themselves impact their effectiveness. The early years in a person’s career are particularly vulnerable, and the steep learning curve can make or break the educator’s decision to stay in the field for the long haul. The supervisor’s role seems to be that of buffer or scaffold, helping the educator through challenges.

As a teacher poignantly reflected: “I don’t think I would have the courage or stamina—the motivation maybe— if it weren’t for my meetings.” This stamina and commitment rely on the enhancement of positive feelings about oneself as a teacher through the reflective supervision experience. As the supervisor “valued my thoughts,” the teacher felt an increase in confidence and left meetings feeling inspired.

LEADING THIS YEAR

The emotional reality facing teachers, children and families offers school leaders an opportunity to more fully actualize a vision of leadership that is as attuned to social-emotional development and as collaborative as are the classroom environments that schools promote.

Leadership that is attuned to social- emotional development. The population returning to us has, to varying degrees, experienced trauma. As one school leader recently told us, “Another week— another teacher calling me to say she won’t come back.” The same is true as school leaders take last-minute calls from families withdrawing from school out of fear of contracting Covid. Amanda Moreno, who directs the Social Emotional Learning Initiative at Chicago’s Erikson Institute, talks about trauma and stress by explaining that “all of us have limited cognitive space. If that is being taken up by lots of things, there won’t be room available for things like learning.”

This is what is happening in the minds of the human beings who are returning to schools this fall. Moreno warns that all the talk about resilience over the last decade has falsely convinced us to stand far back from those we care about. Instead, she cites recent brain research that suggests that resilience is not about sitting back and expecting children and staff to bounce back. Instead, resilience is the result produced when caring adults soften the landing for others, especially those who are under stress.

While it might feel challenging to take on a new practice and implement it perfectly right now, it is important to remember that at the core of its relational design is the potential for mismatch or mistakes in the process. Prior to Covid-19, participants informed us that even when “I wished [the session] were longer,” “sometimes it gets canceled,” or “she doesn’t seem eager to meet,” reflective supervision remained a transformative method for growth due the overall level of attunement between supervisor and educator. As within all relationships, missteps happen, and it is not plausible to be fully receptive to and aware of someone’s needs at all times. Yet, like Winnicott’s notion of the “good-enough parent,” imperfect but genuine care and support are enough to foster growth.

Leadership that is collaborative. Supervision, like social-constructivist learning, should not be a didactic exercise. Just as the sages suggested that a blade of grass grows through encouragement, so do children, and so too do their teachers. Reflective supervision, then, illustrates the idea that leaders are nurturers and, in a riff on Heschel, positions leaders as midwife to the birth of an educator’s reflective stance. Furthermore, this process is not unidirectional. That is, leaders themselves can grow in their practice as they embody a more collaborative approach, seeing their leadership role as that of host rather than hero, a shift that leadership science has been advocating for decades. Overall, this means that a supervisor’s leadership in relation to teachers has a powerful impact on student learning, and that this classroom learning, in turn, has the potential to impact the overall culture of the school community.

Early this summer, Alex Pomson and Frayda Gonshor Cohen wrote that “the beating heart…of day school education” is its “relational core.” These wise words are only as true as the calendar of a school leader reveals. When sacred time on the calendar is devoted to one-on-one reflective, collaborative conversation with each and every member of the teaching team, school leaders have the potential to radiate healing and improve teaching throughout the school. This year those sessions may take place via Zoom, in well- ventilated offices or at a picnic table on a quieter part of the campus.

At this time of great stress, when schools may feel compelled to streamline programming, establishing open-hearted, relational and effective supervision practices is among the most positive investments school leaders can make. From the perspective of one veteran teacher, the reflective supervision adopted by her school is “probably the single best thing I’ve done as a teacher.”

Boston: Going Far Together

AMY GOLD

The Boston Jewish day school landscape is a rich one; there are multiple Orthodox schools of different sizes, a Reform day school, a Conservative Schechter school and four community pluralistic schools. Our schools serve children from preschool to high school in communities ranging from Marblehead on the North Shore, to Sharon on the South Shore, Framingham in the west, and cities and towns in between. Our schools are generously supported by Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), the Jewish federation in Boston.

Until March, much of the efforts and work of the heads of school was done individually. While we have gathered together over the past few years, the challenges and needs of individual schools often overruled the time and energy needed to collaborate on shared challenges such as transportation, group health insurance and marketing the value of Jewish day school.

On Thursday, March 12, two days after Purim, the Jewish day school heads convened for a conference call to discuss the public health crisis facing our communities. An hour later, in consultation with physicians from multiple preeminent Boston hospitals, we collectively made the bold decision to close our schools until after Pesach to safeguard our communities from Covid-19. Friday morning, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Massachusetts convened administrators from public and private schools and cautioned against closing schools—a decision that was reversed four days later.

While this call was taking place, day school teachers were preparing their students and families for emergency remote learning, which would start the following week. It was an incredibly bittersweet Kabbalat Shabbat gathering that Friday afternoon. We had no idea that we wouldn’t see our students in person for the rest of the school year. For the next three months, while the calendars in classrooms were frozen in time, the heads were as busy as ever writing letters to parents, sharing templates for these communications, reassuring faculty and exchanging ideas, fears, struggles and successes together.

At the suggestion of CJP, a weekly call was set up for heads to discuss issues, brainstorm together and support one another in the rapidly changing landscape. As a group, we were fortunate to have the continued support from the physicians who became our medical advisory board. Their wisdom guided us through many decision points as they generously offered their time and expertise, each of them a day school parent from across the religious spectrum of our schools. As the spring marched on, we found ourselves sharing remote learning plans and ideas for community building. And in June, when the calendar dictated that the school year was over, our heads group committed to meeting all summer as a way to support each other with back-to-school planning.

There is an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Never has this rung more true to me and my head of school colleagues. Throughout our work this summer, we pushed ourselves to think more broadly than ever before. We committed to making decisions as the Boston Jewish Day School Community. Gone was any notion of one school being ahead or competing with one another. Instead, we saw the strength in our unity.

Collectively, we proudly committed to opening our schools for in-person learning in the fall. We offered a webinar for every Jewish day school faculty/staff member to hear from the medical advisory board about returning to school; over 300 participants attended.

Weeks later, we gathered our parents for the same webinar. They conveyed their belief that our shared decision to return to in-person learning in the fall, with many layers of safety protocols in place, was in the best interest of our children.

Our schools banded together for group purchasing of personal protective equipment (PPE). We shared reopening plans with one another, and we swapped data about cameras and microphones that best support at-home learners. Not surprisingly, we created our own Google group and WhatsApp chat to streamline conversations as our emails threads were lengthy and numerous. As time passed, we became not just colleagues but friends and each other’s support system.

Perhaps one of our greatest achievements was the decision to write a Boston Jewish Day School Community Pledge. Taking a verse from the Talmud, Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh (Shevuot 39a), we wrote a communal pledge asking families to agree to safety practices out of school, which would enable us to keep our students in school. This pledge addresses topics such as mask wearing, social distancing, daily health screening and travel quarantining.

With the school year having started, our heads group has celebrated each others’ increased enrollment and opening, and supported each other as problems have arisen. There are months ahead with many unknown challenges, but knowing that we have each other to rely on makes it easier to face the myriad and complex questions, problems and dilemmas that await us. The Boston Jewish community is stronger because of the heads’ collaboration, and our students’ education and experience is enriched by the wisdom and spirit of our partnership.

Chicago: ‘Together for Good’

ZIVYA FEIFEL MOSBACHER

Over 5,000 students in the Chicagoland area are enrolled in more than 15 Jewish day schools. While these schools represent diversity in size, religious affiliation, educational philosophy and more, they all came together to navigate challenges posed by Covid-19.

At JUF/Jewish Federation, where I work, it has been our practice to support heads of school, principals, social workers and early childhood directors through communities of practice. Along with our partners at ATT and REACH, we bring these educational leaders together to discuss shared needs, challenges and collective goals. This year, in the face of Covid-19, our day school leaders

began convening more frequently in unified efforts to support students, families and staff. We held weekly meetings to discuss physical and mental health, safety, remote instruction, logistics, increased scholarship need and more. Late night emails flowed

freely between schools, with sample language for school communications, bus protocols and newfound resources like health apps. We are seeing an openness to engage at all levels of these institutions; school administrators, teachers and lay leaders are working tirelessly to meet community needs.

In addition to operational issues, we’ve come together for group learning. Through the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC), a partnership between four local funders in Chicago, JUF and Boardified, school staff have participated in virtual programming around employment law, financial planning, technology support, and health and safety considerations. This partnership has enabled schools to access the support of experts in a direct, coordinated manner, free of charge. We have then used our regular convenings as a place for group processing, as participants consider what implementation looks like at each of their schools.

Working together has helped our schools get what they need, faster. In April, schools raised concerns about cash flow, so JUF advanced allocations. In June, day schools and other Jewish organizations voiced the need for affordable, high-quality PPE. In response, JUF built an online shop to leverage our bulk purchasing power. Recently, we’ve heard that teachers need more professional development to support their practice of instruction in distance/flexible learning environments. JUF is working with TAC to bring virtual workshops focused on these topics to local teachers.

At every step of the way, schools have been providing timely, honest requests and feedback; JUF has done what we can to raise funds and send them out the door quickly; and schools have nimbly addressed very real operational concerns. We are all working toward our shared goal of making Jewish education safe and accessible for the children in our community.

Let me be clear: This hasn’t been a perfect process. Community planning never is. Timelines have not always aligned, schools have had to make decisions and then re-make decisions when new, changing guidelines have emerged. But we have remained in constant conversation with each other about new needs and challenges and how we can support each other in developing next steps. This is the key takeaway: Communication, partnership and a willingness to innovate are the foundation upon which we, collectively, have executed a comprehensive response.

Our day school system is an integral part of the larger infrastructure of Jewish communal life in Chicago. As the long-term implications of Covid-19 continue to shape our community, schools can increasingly serve as conduits, connecting families to needed supports such as mental health counseling and employment services. We are currently exploring how to leverage JUF human service agency expertise in this arena. In this instance again, listening to schools about the needs they are seeing, and adapting supports accordingly, is the best plan forward.

There is more work to do. And we will do it, together.

Los Angeles: Creativity Thrives in Limits

SARAH SHULKIND

In our pre-pandemic world, our Los Angeles Jewish day schools operated under the assumption that unbounded learning environments are critical to both creativity and academic rigor. Though we often did not have the interest or the student population to support it, we associated excellence with breadth of program and expansiveness of facilities. Consider these examples:

All three major high schools employed computer science teachers and specified language teachers, none of whom had full teaching loads.

Nearly every Jewish day school in Los Angeles, even those within walking distance from others, built maker spaces.

Schools with struggling middle school enrollments raised capital funds to build extracurricular spaces.

Many schools with struggling enrollment run advanced studies classes that are only partially full.

At that time, our schools ran without serious consideration to shared resources and collaborative initiatives. Orson Welles once said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” Covid-19 has taught me, head of the Milken Community School, and many of my colleagues at other Jewish schools, that it is limitation—not openness—that forces the rigorous, collaborative thinking that leads to groundbreaking innovation.

The captain of Milken’s globally ranked robotics team told me that the constraints make the build interesting, and the more there are, the more creativity is fostered. This reminded me of watching two different versions of a lesson. In the first, a second grader had the unbounded engineering task to create a free-standing structure sturdy enough to hold an egg. Moderately challenging, maybe. The second version of the lesson was the same challenge with the following constraints: first graders have to work in groups of four; they can only use a roll of tape, ten straws, five pieces of string, and three paper clips; the structure has to be at least seven cm tall; and, they have only 12 minutes to complete the task.

Covid-19 gave Milken, de Toledo High School and Shalhevet High School what the lead educator at the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco calls “creative constraints.” With the unpredictable unfolding of the pandemic, the yo-yoing of enrollment and tighter financial resources, all three schools were interested in how we could work together to maximize programming, minimize expenditures and foster the collaborative relationships we had as heads of school and wanted to translate to our school communities.

Initially, we were in touch about operations: when we were closing, how we were communicating with families, what digital platforms we were using, what were we doing about the need for more financial aid. In the late summer, these conversations morphed into more generative discussions about possibilities for the future. We talked about collaboration in three major domains.

SHARED EXPERTISE

What programs or facilities did each school have that were unique and could be shared? For Milken, this uniqueness lies in many of our signature programs, such as our Art, Architecture and Design Institute, or our signature spaces such as the Guerin Family Institute and Fab Lab.

SHARED COURSES

How might virtual learning open up the possibility of joint enrollment? Could Milken’s Positive Psych class be open to students at de Toledo? Could Shalhavet’s computer science class be open to Milken students? Could we have one Chinese teacher between our three schools and run a joint program?

SHARED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

What training might we deploy for the shift to the virtual platform, and how could we think together about this to build a robust, differentiated program? We talked about mentor teachers at different sites, and how this program might enrich our training and onboarding programs.

As we brainstormed, so much of what we discussed seemed obvious. Why hadn’t we thought of it? What was stopping us? As our extraordinary online learning consultant Claire Goldsmith wrote (paraphrasing Churchill), “An education crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” For us, Covid-19 accelerated conversations and collaboration that has been long overdue. Covid-19 made all three schools have so much more in common and emphasized our overlapping missions. While this collaboration is still in a formative stage, we are hoping to actualize these opportunities this year.

It took a crisis to remind us of one of the central themes of Sukkot: Limitation fosters creativity and brings us back to the essence of who we are and who we could be. Building a sukkah is not an open, boundless challenge. Quite the contrary: In our sukkah, we must be able to see the stars and feel the rain, and our sukkah must receive more shade than sun. We move from our permanent homes— equipped, for many of us, with every modern convenience imaginable—into the sukkah, a transient, primal dwelling. There, we eat our meals, reconnect with friends and family, and study Torah. There we return to the sense of the infinite possibility. Stripped of so much that we were convinced defined us, we now imagine what we truly could be.

In many ways, Covid-19 has helped Jewish day schools in Los Angeles imagine what we could be.

I will be happy if I never hear some un words again: uncertain, unprecedented, unknown and unavoidable. I feel the same way about re words such as regression, recession and reduction, not to mention the co words coronavirus and Covid. Two re and co words do give us hope and optimism, however: remodeling and collaboration.

CREATING AN UNPRECEDENTED COLLABORATIVE

In 2019, several philanthropic partners initiated a new type of remodeling project in the Jewish day school field, one that could significantly change the impact coming from the professional development sector. Arnee Winshall, founder and then CEO of Hebrew at the Center, approached The AVI CHAI Foundation and JEIC with an idea that had never been implemented before: creating a professional learning community (PLC) composed of different educational providers who develop embedded expertise in day schools, ranging from pedagogy and curriculum to leadership development and culture change. This collaboration would bring leaders of various organizations together so they could learn about each other and from each other with an eye to sharing practices and exploring possible synergies.

The goal was for the group to identify and develop effective approaches for creating systemic, systematic and sustainable change in Jewish day schools. Our hunch was that remodeling the professional development provider sector would yield better and more enduring results for day schools seeking to transform their own cultures by embedding specific strategies based on provider expertise. Ultimately, we aimed to strengthen the lasting impact of these professional development providers on the day school field and to reduce day schools’ long-term reliance on them to sustain the new paradigms they were building into their schools.

Both The AVI CHAI Foundation and JEIC thought this was an intriguing idea and co-funded a pilot project, which we labeled DEEP (Developing Embedded Expertise Program). We envisioned DEEP as a conduit, built on collaboration, to accomplish a number of short- and long- term goals that would catalyze radical improvement in Jewish day schools.

Rachel Mohl Abrahams, then at AVI CHAI and now at the Mayberg Foundation, Arnee Winshall and I worked closely with Marc Kramer, long-time day school field leader, whom we engaged to facilitate the in-person and online meetings.

The kickoff meeting held in New York City in December 2019 foreshadowed a robust future for this initiative. The representatives of the provider organizations, while in initial trust-building mode, worked constructively together during a two-day gathering to envision what such a PLC might entail and how it might benefit the field of Jewish day school education. We developed two smaller working groups: one to explore synergies between the organizations and to discuss sustainability, and the other to map the provider field, gathering data not only on who these providers were and their pedagogies, but their educational philosophies and approaches to creating embedded experts within schools.

PIVOTING TO COVID

As the pandemic began, we put our collaborative minds to work. Of course, March arrived and with it, the dreaded co words. Our work as a PLC was temporarily put on hold. And yet, when we reconvened online just after Pesach, the positive co word, the spirit of collaboration that animated this journey, took hold of this PLC. Initial goals for this project included confronting difficult issues through group discussion in order to construct collaborative solutions, and developing trust among people and organizations. Remarkably, we saw these goals come to fruition right before our eyes in quite an organic way. The discussions became candid much sooner than expected with participants openly revealing their vulnerabilities and sharing the acute issues their organizations were confronting with the onset of the pandemic.

Concerns ranged from how to develop relationships from a distance with new school participants to how to navigate unexpected financial challenges. The members of the PLC began independently arranging meetings and convening sessions together. The potential of the group, which we thought would have to evolve slowly, quickly accelerated because the providers realized the valuable benefits that could result from collaboration and sharing, especially during uncertain times. I coined a Hebrew expression to capture the spirit of the project: Be’et hitbodedut, ein tacharut. In a time of isolation, there is no competition.

In April and in May, we had two whole- group remote gatherings in which the PLC members displayed their openness, honesty and sensitivity. Among the topics that surfaced and have been explored thus far: how to model continued calm and perspective—for our staff and for those in schools working with us; how to manage difficult interpersonal issues such as the need to make staffing changes; how to best pivot from in- person workshops, service, support and coaching to remote models; and how we might navigate unexpected situations that will inevitably arise from the constantly fluctuating conditions in the day schools.

SETTING NEW GOALS

In August, we continued this remodeling project with a further focus on collaboration. The group members reconvened to share with each other what they have learned from their work with the field and from the past few months of collaborative conversations. With continued transparency and candor, the group surfaced the following themes that will guide the PLC’s shared professional practice for this school year:

Creating online lessons requires a great deal more time and effort than in-person lessons for both teachers and providers. A hybrid structure where some students are in person and others are online is even more time-intensive and complex. Because of that, and because of ongoing ambiguity in terms of learning’s “location,” teachers have little headspace to look further out than the near term.

Previously, social-emotional health was in service to academic learning; that paradigm has flipped. Now, we see clearly that children can only focus on the academic pieces of school when they feel safe and a sense of belonging. The current conditions have elevated this point for administrators, teachers and parents—a point many DEEP organizations have emphasized for years.

To that end, many DEEP organizations are restructuring roles, processes and methodologies while maintaining their core principles. Their focus is now on developing relationships with educational leaders and teachers, as well as guiding school staff to do

the same with all of their students. It is essential to intentionally build in time for adult and school-aged learners to get to know each other, to connect on a personal basis, to develop authentic relationships with each other and to develop a sense of community.

While we need to find alternatives to in-person classroom observation for developing teachers, we also need to be vigilant about protecting children while they are online. This will require much pre-planning and reflection. An abundance of caution is needed when recording lessons in which children are visible or audible, and especially regarding the sharing of such recordings. If educational providers need examples or representations of active teaching, pre-recorded lessons are available at no cost from some of the PLC members.

As we move forward with DEEP, we are cognizant that while looking at the acute needs of Jewish day school education, we must support the remodeling that is taking place before our very eyes. We believe this newfound group effort among educational providers will serve to strengthen our day schools, yielding a more powerful, impactful and enduring learning experience for our students.

We see DEEP emerging as an important initiative that contributes to fulfilling our JEIC mission to help schools “optimize student internalization of Jewish wisdom, identity and decision making.”

As I look back on what happened with this DEEP PLC, I realize that there is an un word that will improve the field of Jewish day school education. That word is united. May we all continue to be united in our mission to ensure we are providing the most effective and engaging educational paradigms to our schools and their students.

We welcome organizations whose professional development model is to embed expertise within the individual day schools. If you believe that your organization might fit the paradigm of the DEEP PLC, please let us know.

Local federations, such as the Greater MetroWest, New Jersey Federation where I work, play an important role in supporting Jewish day schools. Traditionally, schools rely upon the annual allocations and supplementary educational content that federations provide. More recently, federations have worked to create new opportunities for partnership. In our community, the investments that our Federation had made in our four local day schools (Golda Och Academy, Gottesman RTW Academy, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, and the Jewish Educational Center) supported their efforts to quickly pivot to virtual learning. This article will outline the ways in which we have supported our day school community during the Covid-19 pandemic to date and lessons we have learned.

DOLLARS (AND OPPORTUNITIES) ARE PERISHABLE

As soon as the pandemic struck and students and teachers were forced from their classrooms to their living rooms, the federation was proactive to offer help. It became clear that the best way to help our schools in that moment was to help their families. Traditionally, the federation rarely issued grants to day school families directly. This was clearly one of those moments. A quick needs assessment combined with a sense of urgency that compelled our lay leadership to act allowed us to pool together $275,000 (a combination of federation emergency funding, gifts from generous private donors and dollars from our day school community fund endowment) to be used toward scholarships of up to $2,000 per family to directly offset the cost of tuition for families with significant income loss.

A key lay leader set the tone for the entire project by framing these dollars as “perishable.” Though money shared is always money appreciated, the very value of delivering these dollars quickly, and during the height of the shutdown when families were most fearful, allowed its use to be even more impactful. We awarded grants to 181 families in our community in the course of just five weeks from the beginning of April to mid-May toward remaining tuition balances in 2019-20. This alleviated pressure for both the schools and the families, just as fear and uncertainty due to shut down in the spring was at its height. The same $275,000 disseminated in this current school year as supplemental tuition assistance dollars would have surely been less impactful.

Sometimes, process and perfection are less important than speed. This was one of those moments when it helped to be nimble. The balance of speed and process is something we will continue to reflect upon and urge our colleagues to as well.

SUPPORT HEADS OF SCHOOL

Heads of school are the drivers steering the truck down the freeway of Jewish day school education, carrying teachers, students and, this year, PPE, HEPA filters, tents and more. Heads of School face headwinds and roadblocks in the form of well-meaning and legitimate input from the community, board of trustees, parents and more. Federations can play an important role in reducing the isolation that heads may feel in their own school communities. In Greater MetroWest, we have worked hard over time to bring local heads together for meaningful discussion and opportunities for trust-building. Pre- pandemic, we convened them regularly. The routine nature of these meetings allows for meaningful support for one another and more regular practice of sharing information.

In addition, as an outside, neutral entity, federations can play a role in publicly thanking and honoring heads of school. Throughout this experience, we have considered various ways to acknowledge our heads of school. Small tokens or gifts, heartfelt private and public thanks as well as creative and thoughtful accolades are some ways that we have recognized their outstanding work.

KNOW WHEN NOT TO COLLABORATE

Collaboration has been our guiding principle since the establishment of our Day School Council over 12 years ago. And yet, when working with the schools throughout the initial crisis period, we were certain that this was not the time to invoke the collaboration principle. As the schools rallied to reopen, there were times when joint purchasing, joint conversation and joint advocacy were valuable—and we did all that. But at other times, we needed to respect the fact that each day school community is its own unique system, with its own needs to fill.

Each of the four schools in our catchment area required its own model for school opening based on many differing factors.

We were there to support them in their efforts, advocate for funding and then defend their individual choices. Collaboration is not an on/off button, but rather a continuum. In some respects, competition is healthy and necessary; schools can collaborate by engaging in respectful recognition, conversation and convening. At the other end, through ongoing collaboration, schools can achieve full teamwork toward a joint goal, and even total integration in certain areas. Federations can help determine which of these levels of interaction to activate at the appropriate time, in many different scenarios.

INVEST IN YOUR TEACHERS

Prizmah’s August pulse survey indicated clearly that when budgets need to be cut as they do now, the first thing to go is usually professional development (PD) for teachers. In Greater MetroWest day schools, a survey of educators, parents and alumni confirmed that the single best community-wide investment we made to help us weather the remote learning and adapted learning of school years 2019-20 and 2020-21 was the targeted, deliberate PD of more than 450 teachers. During the past nine years, the Quest for Teaching Excellence program has funded a dean of instruction at each school, school- based PD and collaborative programming. A coordinator drives the goals of the program and oversees its many pieces. The culture of improving professional practice has served the schools well as they moved into uncharted waters. While by no means perfect, this investment allowed our schools to fare well during the initial shutdown.

As teachers continue to rise to the occasion, we are offering mental health training sessions for faculty from the schools, as well as 1:1 counseling opportunities for teachers through a local federation agency. We believe that every single dollar that we have invested in PD for our teachers has provided great return. We would suggest that federations even with modest day school budgets consider the ways that running multifaceted PD programs can benefit the community.

ACCEPT THAT NOT EVERYTHING WORKS

This summer, we tried an alumni grant to attract new families to Greater MetroWest. Based on a “Smart Move” grant that we have been offering to families who move to Greater MetroWest and enroll in day school, we bet that many more families would be flocking to the suburbs from New York City. We invested time and dollars in the enhanced program to entice alumni, but only one family took advantage. We are reworking this program. Some initiatives have been more successful than others, but the intention to work with the schools toward a common goal helped build community and trust.

GET OUT OF THE WAY!

In a typical school year, we touch base with our schools throughout the summer and then leave them to their work during the first two weeks of school as everyone settles in. This summer, we worked closely with each of our schools on the reopening plans and then stepped back earlier, two weeks leading up to school opening and the first two weeks of school.

One of the best ways that federations can support their schools is to learn their workflow and then veer around it. Normally, federations hold schools accountable through an appropriate feedback loop, grant reports and impact reports. However, since the start of the pandemic we have worked to request significant funding on behalf of the schools while requiring minimal “process” on their part. Federations often require a great deal of reporting but can be flexible when necessary through strategic effort and institutional knowledge, even while working with them on major projects.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, BE THEIR ADVOCATE

Building longstanding partnerships with our schools, knowing their strengths, honoring their achievements, and then promoting the schools and advocating on their behalf is one of the greatest values that federation professional and lay partners can bring in supporting local schools. Federations can often see the wide-angle view that schools themselves do not immediately recognize. Federation can then step in to identify opportunities as needed. In our community, as the schools were busy working tirelessly to safely reopen, I had the opportunity to represent schools to donors in an effort to obtain significant reopening reimbursements.

Throughout this phase of the Covid-19 crisis, the foundations and partnerships we have worked hard to build for decades have given us the strength to meet the most pressing needs of our community. We will look back at this time as one of great sadness and unease, but we will also look back with satisfaction at the way we have pulled together to strengthen our day school–federation relationship.

Resilience, the ability of an individual to bounce back through difficult times, is often achieved through participation in larger systems of work and community. The verb “resile” means to abandon a position or course of action, to recoil, retract and rebound. Covid-19 has tested our ability to bend, shift and adapt. However, if people link together, accept the current disturbance and collectively resile, they can achieve positive change. Collective resilience not only allows us to bounce back but also to learn, grow and become a better people, better institutions and a better community.

In the spring of 2020, the structures and systems of schools were forced to change in record time. Like many Jewish day schools during this large-scale challenge, Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit kept its mission and core values at the forefront, bringing the community together. We learned that an educational community proves strongest when it links together, person by person, forming a bond that provides the foundation for a successful school year. The attached links, at times, can bend, flex and resile; they can even detach through a crisis. Yet through problem-solving and collaboration, the links can reattach, sometimes in a stronger form. This collective resilience, the capacity for community-wide perseverance through challenges and change, can enable schools to adapt by attending to the whole child, their academic, social, emotional and spiritual needs.

ADAPTING ACADEMICS

The instructional approach to academics changed rapidly once schools went remote. Educators were quickly forced to think out of the box, learn new skills, modify lessons and constantly adapt routines and expectations. The virtual academic transformation proved to be hard. Technology became necessary and critical for learning, making problem-solving pertinent.

Since teaching remotely would not be a replica of an in-person school day, teachers and curriculum coordinators needed to work together to carefully choose the most critical benchmarks for learning. They had to learn to capture students’ attention differently through a screen, keeping them actively engaged. This challenge was not easy to overcome due to inconsistent Internet connection, shortened class time and limited remote learning training.

Mindsets had to shift. Specialty teachers needed to create outlets and opportunities for movement, making, building and problem-solving. Seesaw, Google Suite and Screencastify became the main platforms of communication. Former live programming transformed into virtual products, using platforms such as Flipgrid and Wix.com. Flipgrid, a user-friendly online teaching tool, empowers students to use their voice by posting videos and receiving comments from many members of the school community. Third graders, who researched inspirational individuals before remote learning, hoping to present a Wax Museum for families and peers, instead, dressed up at home, recorded themselves and posted their presentation on Flipgrid. The students received direct and immediate feedback from their viewers, an audience that became much wider than the prior in-person event.

Using Wix.com, a free website builder, fourth graders re-created their Michigan Night: Discover Michigan, into an interactive, interdisciplinary website using tech tools such a Bookcreator, Google Suite and Scratch. Success came from the collective dedication, creativity and resilience of each community member: classroom teachers, specialists, learning specialists, administration, parents/ guardians and the students.

Teachers also discovered that much of what they learned to use in a virtual model would be effective in any context. Teachers learned to ask what were the most essential skills that their students needed to learn. How can technology enhance learning? What does school teach us about being human? How has remote learning changed me for the better? When all members of the community ask these questions, whether remotely or in-person, academic learning becomes more meaningful, and collective resilience is built.

STUDENT WELL-BEING

The adaptation of academics is one layer of providing a successful learning experience for students during challenging times. Another layer that needs to be intact for ultimate success is the social and emotional well-being of students. Students require comfort and security. They need to learn and practice skills such as self-regulation, self-awareness, perseverance, empathyand responsible decision-making. For this to happen, student-teacher relationships are paramount; they are the foundation for student confidence and help students develop the resilience to cope with challenges and emotions.

With a screen separating physical connection, schools and teachers had to get creative. Finding opportunities to feel linked became critical. Routines such as morning announcements every day, morning and afternoon meetings over Google Meet and Zoom, and mentsch winners at the end of the week provided familiarity and connection. However, what made a true difference were the staff’s efforts to go above and beyond expectations: countless hours giving specific feedback on assignments, guiding students through the difficulties of learning at home, personal FaceTime calls to students, drive-bys for student birthdays and physically distanced, outdoor visits to homes. We even had an ice cream truck visit every student’s home during the last week of school. These acts of kindness and efforts by our school made the links stronger than ever.

Also, social workers and learning specialists provided one-on-one time with students in need, created wellness videos and activities, and constantly touched base with students and families who needed social and emotional support. Mr. Leibow’s Lounge, created by our elementary school social worker, Harrison Leibow, provided kid-friendly messages, goals and activities to students about respect, inclusion, perseverance and courage. Throughout remote learning, students learned to adapt, they gained problem-solving skills, and they learned the importance of saying “thank you” to essential workers and “get well soon” to those who are sick, making relationships expand throughout the community. Through the valiant efforts of our teachers and school, our community learned the power of relationships and the importance of social and emotional life skills, resilience among them.

SPIRITUAL SUCCOR

One of the beautiful aspects of a Jewish day school is the ability to connect to the spiritual side of students. In-person, there is a feeling within the building that exudes Judaism and our core values, as well as visuals around the school to remind the community that we are a united people. Without the physical holy space of our building, we needed to frame kedushah in a way that engaged community members daily and intersected their lives with frequency.

As we moved out of our home base into remote learning, we shifted our Jewish experience from our holy space into holy time. Our spiritual week began with virtual Havdalah, moved to an evening story time and Shema, and concluded with a virtual candle lighting on Shabbat. Each of these events honored different community constituents: faculty, eighth- grade graduates, local clergy, essential workers and a beloved staff member we lost to Covid-19. Additionally, each Jewish holiday, ranging from Pesach to the Yoms to Shavuot, offered unique moments of celebration and strengthened each child’s integrated experience of their family traditions and school learning. As a collective community, these days tightened our bond, which was growing and finding rejuvenation across new conditions.

The Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School opened our virtual school doors on March 15, just three school days after the Ontario government closed all public schools for the foreseeable future. This began a journey that saw unprecedented changes for our academic model, our families and our school community. With quick but careful and consultative planning, our virtual school environment blossomed into a place where academics thrived. We created warm, welcoming online forums that helped our school become a far-reaching, connected community for students, classes, families and even alumni, grandparents and friends. Strategic partnerships put in place by our administration and board with other schools, professionals and medical experts saw our school evolve as a leader in academic excellence, health and safety standards, and creating caring communities.

As a development professional, every conversation I had, every session I attended, started and ended in the same place: How will we both reassure our families and our wider community that we will take care of them and ensure that our school survives this pandemic? We made a plan and put it into action fast. With the support of our board, our administrative team made phone calls to every family in our school within two weeks to discover how each member of the household was faring.

We extended our reach beyond our current families, calling and connecting with alumni families, grandparents and supporters of our school. Our faculty and lay leadership team described many phone calls that demonstrated the depth of our role in the lives of our families. One school parent confided that their ill parent had moved to palliative care in the time of Covid-19 and they would only be able to say goodbye to them online. That caller was able to provide a safe space for grief and sharing. Another ambassador spoke to a family whose overseas saba and savta had attended our “Zoom 101 for grandparents and friends” session and was now connecting weekly with the family face-to-face.

A call was made to a long-time supporter of the school led to implementing a multigenerational Shavuot program that saw each activity led by a different constituency group from our school family: stories read aloud by alumni and grandparents, sundaes with faculty, yoga with school parents. This is one example of a wide array of virtual programs offered by members of our school community: family fitness classes, grandparents get-togethers and learning sessions, a virtual dance party and lots of online baking. Community blossomed both planfully and organically, and saw teaching extend beyond the screens of the digital classroom. On the very first Friday of our first virtual week, over 60 people gathered to bake challah, for science class, with a school parent of two alumni and two current students.

A three-generation, interfaith family that participated in many of our online offerings described the impact of these programs:

We have three children in the school, but none of their grandparents live in Toronto, so they have had few opportunities to be part of this community. Virtual programming opened the school to them. They joined lectures and programming, participated in talks and classes, and my father even brought classes for virtual tours of his dairy farm as part of their units on planting food and community helpers. During a class with a rabbi and school parent, my husband’s mother shared that as a person of faith who is not Jewish, she felt that Paul Penna DJDS was a place where our whole family belonged. All the grandparents now feel like they are part of the school family and have personal connections with faculty, students, parents and other grandparents. Most importantly, our children are excited and grateful that their grandparents are part of the school that they call home.

Our school has seven core values: Community (Kehillah), Diversity (Migvan), Individuality (Yechudiut), Israel (Yisrael), Learning (Limud), Place (Makom), Social Justice (Tikun HaOlam). During this time, we asked ourselves, How do we continue to embody these values on a daily basis? When transitioning from a small, in-person, close-knit community school to a wired workplace became necessary, our school’s professional leadership, our board, our Parents’ Association leadership and our faculty preserved our school’s excellence in delivery of integrated curriculum and community creation.

The working partnerships that were fostered between our school and other Jewish day schools, with our local federation, with expert health and safety professionals and with countless other experts in relevant fields, were invaluable. We emerged quickly as a leader among schools in our city, as did most of the Toronto Jewish day schools, resulting in our highest enrollment ever this year. There are many places to credit this growth. The desire of families with small children for quality virtual programming inspired our program Plugged into PreSchool, taught by our kindergarten and music teachers and offered for free to the youngest children in our community. Participating children and families were able to learn and experience our unique Jewish community from their home.

When Covid-19 shut down our physical school, teachers were trained on technology, adapted lessons and created new ones. Our school community responded with appreciation and enthusiasm. New prospects came to our school through word of mouth spread by grateful, well-cared-for families. Faculty community was intentionally created on many different levels: virtual programming and get-togethers, check-ins between administrators and teachers, provision of professional and emotional tools for learning and staying healthy, and of course, gestures of appreciation such as fresh Shabbat challah deliveries. A current parent and donor to our school made an unsolicited one-time additional major gift in recognition of the accomplishments of our teaching team in these unprecedented times.

Among our students, graduating sixth graders may not have been together physically, but they gathered and worked together in so many different ways. The in-person school musical, Fiddler on the Roof, was almost immediately cancelled. Their moreh, educator and tech expert, worked with the class to create a virtual performance of “Tradition” that was premiered to an adoring audience of school grandparents. The class “traveled” to New York City to visit and complete curricular activities at the Bronx Zoo and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, joined by their teachers and parent volunteers, like any in-person field trip (minus the subway).

With the help of every faculty member in the school, the sixth graders evolved as leaders and mentsches. Despite the physical distance separating students in the school, they planned and executed their traditional Lag Ba’Omer field day over Zoom, showing leadership, creativity and an awareness of long-held school traditions. Their year culminated with a meaningful virtual graduation ceremony that families from all over the globe could attend followed by an in-person, socially distant diploma presentation—and water-gun fight. All this was planned and executed by faculty and parent volunteers in partnership.

It was not just the oldest students who benefitted in surprising ways from Zoom. With the careful planning and implementation of curriculum by their teacher, younger students became socially and technologically savvy beyond what could have been imagined. One SK parent commented that their five-year-old son was able to manipulate Zoom as well as, if not better than she could. From our youngest children to our graduates, students rose to the digital occasion.

Two videos created at the end of our 2019-20 school year sum up the magic that took place last spring. Two tech-savvy parents, with the help of every family in the school, created a thank you tribute to our teachers, with each student passing on their gratitude. As the school year drew to a close, our marketing team interviewed and collected testimonials of teachers, administrators, families and students. The pride and thankfulness each person felt toward our school community shone through their words.

There are concrete strategies and supports for diverse learners than can be translated into support for online learning, a vital necessity for virtual and home schooling. There are four key areas of focus, all anchored in the first: partnership with parents.

We build those relationships at the best of times, but there has perhaps never been a time when this relationship has been more critical to the success of our students. More than ever, we need parents as partners and allies, because our students need all of us to be on the same page (and screen), working together.

At the same time, teachers and parents working together for the ultimate benefit of students should never mean that they should become dependent on the adults in their lives as learners. On the contrary, much of that great, coordinated adult support around student learning should be aimed at self-monitoring. The more students are able to own and internalize positive learning practices and healthy habits of mind, the more they are able to read their own cognitive, emotional and physical needs independently and self- adjust using the tools and strategies we help them acquire.

This provides the foundation for what educators struggle mightily now to achieve: active participation. Although active participation is what we always aim for, this is a different challenge in the online learning space. Note I say different, but not impossible. The unique aspects of online learning do require some new thinking and adapting of the tools we have in our in-person teaching repertoire.

One principle that may help you make this shift is to think about how to provide concrete learning supports in the virtual world. While the digital platforms may be virtual, we want and need the learning to be real.

PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS

The shift to online teaching changed the expectations not only for teachers but for guardians as well. We have all been witness to or heard stories of families attempting to juggle their own professional responsibilities and provide academic support to their children throughout this pandemic. Look at any social media page and you will see memes on this subject that make you laugh (and cry).

The partnership between schools and families right now is vital. As much as we are working to support children, we are being given the challenge to think creatively about how we can also support their guardians. They need our help, and we need theirs.

Have you ever ordered from one of those meal-in-a-box services that gets delivered to your door, which includes each ingredient carefully measured out with step-by-step instructions to assist you in creating a fantastic, gourmet feast? I encourage us to use that same model when helping families to create stable learning environments at home. The small act of sending just a few materials to the home can go a long way with building rapport and providing families with the confidence (and the actual things needed) to set their child up for success. Here are some materials to consider including in your kit:

• A design checklist of the student’s workspace
• Focus (fidget) tool
• Small white board and marker
• Teaching manipulatives (e.g., snap cubes, dice)
• A visual outlining expected behavior (much like the posters you had up in your physical classroom)

This kit can also include personalized items for students who may benefit from specific tools. Have fun pulling these kits together, and be confident that families will be truly grateful for your efforts and time.

SELF-MONITORING

Behavior analyst Jessica Minihan states that “developing self-monitoring skills reduces unwanted behaviors and empowers students. It’s an important step in helping them learn to cope with challenging moments while being aware of and managing their own behavior.”

In the classroom, remotely and in life in general, we want students to become skillful at reflecting on and regulating their own behavior. To do this, students need ways to monitor their behavior. Now, more than ever, as students learn from home, we are eager for them to become further aware of how their behaviors are affecting both themselves and the people in their learning space. Just as dieters become more aware of what goes into their body when they write it down, when students are given time and prompts to reflect upon and document their own behavior, they become more aware of it.

Many recording systems are available. Some students may do best with a tally system, placing a mark on a paper each time they engage in the targeted behavior. The behavior does not have to be negative; for example, if the issue you are trying to address is the student’s call-outs, have them record how many times they raise their hand, which is the socially appropriate, alternative behavior you are hoping they use.

Some students may do better with a rating system. Have students give themselves a rating at the end of the class on how well they engaged in positive, target behaviors (raising hands, staying in their seat, work completion). To encourage accuracy, the teacher may give a rating as well and the student’s goal is to match your rating. In this way, you work toward mutual trust and honesty.

Even if the student rating is low, you can then provide them with positive praise for matching your rating and encourage a higher rating in the next lesson. A student using a rating system may also benefit from doing a check-in at the beginning of class—setting a goal for what rating they hope to achieve—then rating themselves half-way through and again at the end. This provides a chance for them to reset if things are going poorly.

When implementing self-management systems, it is crucial to have the students’ buy-in. As we of course are aiming at intrinsic motivation, it may be appropriate to introduce and launch the practice by including some kind of tangible reinforcement for participating in the collection of the data, such as access to a preferred activity or mutually agreed upon item contingent on participation, or providing a certificate or feedback of merit. Most importantly, a self-management system, like any tool, requires teaching. While it would be far less time-consuming to give a student a piece of paper and tell them to keep track of their behavior, this, like any academic skill, requires practice, guidance and feedback.

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

There are many ways to help focus student attention and increase active participation. One example is the use of Academic Bingo Boards for specific subjects. To do this, provide a student with a single sheet of paper with boxes in a Bingo card format and in each box, illustrate words or phrases that are likely to be said by you during the lesson. If you are teaching a lesson about Passover, you might include boxes with the words “Moses,” “Plagues” and “Egypt.” This tool can be used with select students or by the whole class. Either way, students are tasked to listen for those words and place a dot in the box when you say them. Their goal is to fill up the entire page. This can help keep the student focused on the lesson and provides them with a hands-on action to engage in at the same time.

CONCRETE LEARNING SUPPORTS

Visual Schedules

For students (and for all of us), knowing what is coming next helps to ease anxiety. The use of a visual schedule is just as important, if not more, in the virtual setting. It empowers people with a feeling of control over their environment and their experience of time.

Placing a visual schedule up on the screen as students log into the class allows them to see the plan for the day. It can also be used as a transition tool by placing it back up on the screen each time you move to another task. I am always amazed to see how a visual schedule, when used to its full potential, can be a powerful preventative strategy for challenging behavior. It helps lower anxiety among those students who are most prone to be anxious. In turn, as their anxiety wanes, so too does their tendency to engage in challenging behaviors.

Fidget (Focus) Tools

Fidget tools are a popular support in classrooms. They are typically used by students as a way to channel their energy and movement in a way that is least distracting to themselves and others, while at the same time helping them to focus on the task at hand. For that reason, I like to call these items focus tools, as that is their purpose, to help students focus.

How do we replicate the use of focus tools during online learning? Have students create a box of 3-5 focus tools that are available to them during online lessons (or include a few in the kit you send home). Should a tool become disruptive to the student or others, the teacher can use a verbal prompt to have the student trade out their item for a new one, by saying, “It looks like that tool is being used as a toy; please switch it out for another approved tool that will help you focus.”

Should the student end up cycling through all the approved tools, a discussion can be had about other ways to help them stay focused. At that point, a new set of materials can be chosen to explore as focus tools, or a different strategy to address concerns about on-task behavior should be explored. A visual outlining the use of focus tools during lessons is also an excellent way to make the expectations of their use clear.

Manipulatives

Give yourself permission for hands-on learning to continue in the remote setting. Our homes are filled with creative items that can be used as manipulatives (toys, recyclables, clothespins, toothpicks).

We can also use household items as ways for students to respond (a True/ False sign made from toilet paper roll).

One unique way teachers are having students respond is by having them collect three types of wearable accessories from their home (sunglasses, hat, scarf). Ask them questions and have them put on the item that represents their response: Yes = scarf, No = hat, Maybe = sunglasses. Students are now moving, participating and keeping their hands busy, which means they are less likely to engage in disruptive behavior and more likely to be engaged in learning.

WHAT CAN I DO NOW?

The above strategies and supports can seem overwhelming, and by no means are there any expectations that a teacher would put all of these into effect. But if we can keep two overarching factors in mind, I think we have a better chance of being successful: Continue to implement teaching strategies that you are confident using in-person, now translating them for the virtual space; and “design for the margins.”

Ceasar McDowell, an MIT professor of civic design, coined the term “design for the margins” to illustrate the idea that when you create supports for individuals considered to be the margins of society, it has this beautiful side effect of benefiting everyone. Journalist, author and educator Kara Newhouse further explained that “the idea that creating equitable and flexible design can benefit all members of society undergirds universal design, a concept developed by architect Ronald Mace. Rooted in the disability rights movement, universal design is typically applied to products and the built environment.” McDowell teaches us that these “principles offer a valuable way to reimagine educational spaces, particularly during the coronavirus crisis. With the rapid switch to distance learning, schools struggled to serve students who are at the margins.” At a time when almost all of us are on some margin at some time, what an incredibly empowering and liberating way to approach curriculum design and classroom management in general. Plan for those students with unique learning needs, and you are more likely to be successful with every student.

Explore these options and expand upon them in ways that fit your class and each of your student’s needs. Then pick the one that aligns best with your teaching style and learning culture, and implement it. If you approach curriculum and classroom management through the lens of reaching all learners, coupled with online adjustments to your already existing practices in the classroom, you are setting up everyone, including yourself, for success.

There is widespread consensus that this year every school’s primary focus will be on health. We have all gotten a crash course in immunology and epidemiology, and have spent many hours and significant financial investment to minimize the risk of Covid transmission. Our schools have held in-services and developed lessons about the protocols of mask wearing and physical distancing. We have labored to figure out ways to teach while keeping everyone safe. The next task at hand, one that is likely to exist long after Covid is gone, is creating protocols to mitigate the emotional challenges our students face as a result of the pandemic.

Rates of depression and anxiety among children and adolescents have been steadily rising over the past 10 years, from 5.4% in 2003 to 8.4% in 2011- 2012, according to the CDC. Schools have been and continue to be at the forefront of helping children and their parents navigate these mental health challenges. As students return to school, be it in person or virtually, we expect to see an increase in both health anxiety and generalized anxiety stemming from a deep sense of uncertainty about the future. We expect to see an increase in rates of depression due to prolonged isolation and reduced physical exercise, and we anticipate social challenges stemming from lack of face-to-face contact.

Most children spontaneously recover and are able to overcome these feelings. To ensure that resilience is achieved and to protect those who will not be able to overcome these difficulties on their own, our focus this year should be on teaching resilience skills. As we search for a vaccine to immunize us against the virus physically, we can already “vaccinate” our students against the stress and anxiety they are experiencing and teach them positive approaches to coping. We do that by creating multitiered systems of support, starting with caring for our caregivers.

PARENTAL SUPPORT

Research on ways to reduce rates of PTSD in children who experience ongoing threats to health and wellbeing indicates that one of the most effective interventions is the reduction of anxiety and stress for parents. Children whose parents report better stress management abilities demonstrate less stress and anxiety and better ability to cope with fearful situations.

Parental stress over health concerns, financial challenges and child-care difficulties contribute to a stressful home environment. Younger children in particular are prone to absorbing parental stress and are less likely to be able to articulate it. This is particularly salient when children are “Zoom”ing in from home. Some parents will not be able to supervise learning or to compensate for services that are usually provided by trained learning specialists.

When planning lessons, teachers must take into account the level of parental involvement that might be required and modify accordingly. Offering educational programs for parents where they can learn to identify and modify their own stress reactions will help shore up parents who will, in turn, scaffold children.

Consider:

Offering stress-management classes for parents.

Asynchronous learning to afford parents flexibility in terms of when they need to be available for their children’s educational needs.

Maintaining ongoing dialogue with parents via phone calls, emails or Zoom in order to modify expectations accordingly.

Providing parents with positive language to use when framing for their children how to overcome challenges, for example using the rose, bud, thorn technique in which children need to identify what’s working well (the rose), an area to be worked on or explored (the bud), and something that isn’t working well (the thorn). The aim is to help children see a fuller picture of their current experience in which we can identify a range of experiences and emotions.

Teach parents how to model and use emotionally validating language (“I understand why that feels overwhelming”).

Teach parents how to model and use coping statements (“This is hard and I can get through it,” “Let me think what would be helpful right now”).

TEACHER SUPPORT

Teaching is hard work, now more than ever. Our teachers are being asked both to create in-person lesson plans and to be ready to switch to virtual lesson plans within hours. Teachers are tasked with helping children and adolescents (who have been out of the classroom for many months and may continue to be out for more) reintegrate back into a social environment. It will fall upon teachers to remind students how to socialize appropriately and to help them maintain, be it in vivo or virtually, a sense of decorum and the stability of routines. Our teachers need to inspire, motivate and maintain discipline.

While most educators report that teaching is a profession replete with meaning, it is also a profession that has high rates of burnout. In a survey of 5,000 teachers, conducted by CASEL and the Yale Center for Emotional intelligence, the most frequent emotions reported by teachers were anxiety, fear, worry, feeling overwhelmed and sadness. Teachers cannot be present for the students’ emotional needs if their own psychological needs are not being met; therefore, supporting our teachers during this time is paramount.

Teachers would benefit from psychoeducational workshops on how to cope with their own stress and anxiety, and from instruction on how to support and enhance students’ social- emotional wellbeing in the classroom. Additionally, as demands upon teachers’ time increase, it is important to remain mindful of teachers’ need for work-life synergy and the need for their own “mask breaks” (literally and figuratively). It will be beneficial to provide faculty with a safe and supportive environment in which to share their concerns and provide them with evidence-based interventions designed to regulate emotions. We can only teach that which we know; allowing faculty to learn and practice social- emotional strategies will in turn allow them to teach those strategies to their students.

Consider:

Providing psychoeducation regarding anxiety and depression and the way they manifest in the classrooms.

Strive to provide the opportunity and time for work-life synergy by allowing time off for familial obligations that are Covid-related.

Allow faculty to express their own fears and concerns.

Plan mask breaks for teachers.

Show gratitude and appreciation.

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

“No person is an island,” not even an administrator. In addition to coping with the same reality as the rest of the world, administrators are also carrying the responsibility of making major health, academic, social and emotional decisions for large numbers of students and their families and for teachers. Thus, they too need their emotional needs addressed in order to set the tone for and be available for all those affected by their choices as well as being aware of their ability to help bolster the resilience of faculty and students alike. Providing administration with a spirit of flexibility and adaptability will reduce the stress placed upon them as they are charged with making decisions in a world of uncertainty.

Consider:

Time off (hours off if days are not possible).

Encourage lay leadership to act with a spirit of flexibility and adaptability.

Training in approaches toward modeling social-emotional skills to faculty, parents and students.

STUDENT SUPPORT

Through supporting parents, teachers and administrators, we can create the warm environment that our students need in order to be resilient in the face of this challenge. Children are coming back into our classrooms having encountered a diverse range of experiences. Some children have suffered a loss of a loved one; others had to take over parental responsibilities while parents were sick or had to work. Children may be feeling anxious about the changes to their schedules, the new physical distancing rules and masking. Additionally, the challenges of social interactions after months of isolation need to be addressed as well.

Ongoing conversation between teachers, guidance staff and students on how to manage difficult emotions and building strong relationships are necessary. We need to ask, “What is going on in my student’s life, and how can I demonstrate empathy and understanding?” The ultimate aim is to develop strong, protective, appropriate relationships with students as well as support students in developing strong peer relationships.

Integrating skills such as having and expressing gratitude into the curriculum provides children with an additional protective factor during challenging times. Finally, it is important to support the children who may be the most vulnerable. Children who indicate more severe symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD should be identified as early as possible and be referred for more focused therapeutic interventions.

Consider:

Help students fortify social relationships, with friends, family members, teachers and the larger communities.

Provide opportunities to reflect gratitude while acknowledging challenges.

Teach and model emotional regulation skills and have students practice them in school.

By abiding by social-distancing regulations, we do our part to protect ourselves and others from the physical risks of Covid-19. By emotionally supporting parents, teachers and administrators and teaching them how to model and incorporate social-emotional teaching in their interactions, we can do our part to protect and help heal our children from the virus’s psychological toll. Hopefully, with both approaches together, we and our students will emerge from this challenge of sound body and mind.

Almost subconsciously, I signed off many of our weekly edtech professionals check- in calls quoting Elroy Jetson being hoisted by his suspenders after a playdate at the end of his school day taught by a robot in his futuristic classroom. Beginning in early March, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced Jewish day schools and yeshivas to pivot quickly and launch online teaching and learning, a group of edtech professionals has gathered online for a weekly conversation, learning from each other, comparing experiences, crowdsourcing solutions and developing supportive colleagues and peers. The Prizmah EdTech Reshet has since become an online community discussing topics such as edtech tools, classroom technology setup, professional development for teachers, Zoom functionality, mobile device management and online assessment of student learning.

In a 2013 Smithsonian Magazine article, Matt Novak explored the future of education through the cartoon experience of Elroy Jetson and a comic strip from the 1950-60s by Arthur Radebaugh, “Closer Than We Think.” Both Radebaugh and The Jetsons portray a futuristic vision for education, and looking back over these last six months, we can imagine Elroy feeling very much at home in our pandemic learning environment.

The description of Radebaugh’s classroom puts it best: “Teaching would be by means of sound movies and mechanical tabulating machines. Pupils would record attendance and answer questions by pushing buttons.”

As entertaining as it is, the futuristic portrayal of education is different from our current reality in that it focuses most on the technology, and not on teaching and learning. Technology is only effective in a school when it supports and helps teachers and students achieve their educational goals.

The grand experiment that we are currently engaged in is providing a window into the question of an effective use of technology as an educational tool for schools and can potentially serve as an accelerant for educational technology throughout our field. According to a United Nations report, at its peak in mid-April, the coronavirus caused school closures in 190 countries, impacting 90% of students, or almost 1.6 billion people globally. At that same time, the download and use of education apps surged 90% compared to the fourth quarter in 2019.

Before the pandemic, Jewish schools varied widely in the extent of their incorporation of educational technology. Some schools intentionally limited the use of technology, some employed a 1:1 device policy, while others developed extensive technology-enabled, personalized learning. Despite prior differences, the coronavirus crisis has put everyone in the same position: Technology is the lynchpin of a school’s coronavirus response.

Technology has been essential for learning and has touched every aspect of school life. Schools celebrated and commemorated, gathered online for Jewish holidays and graduations, extracurriculars, co-curricular activities, student, parent and community meetings. Schools reached well beyond the walls of their buildings and campuses, hosting adult education, virtual tours for prospective parents, town hall meetings to update the community on their response to the crisis, share guidance from medical experts, and provide access to elected and religious officials, positioning schools differently, and in many cases, giving schools much greater exposure than they had before. The pandemic made it necessary, and a new relationship with technology made it possible.

An innate culture of innovation as well as, for many schools, previous investment in integrating technology into the educational environment contributed significantly to their initial success. Whether through 1:1 device programs, Google Classroom or edtech tools teachers were already using, many Jewish day schools already had some degree of technological aptitude. After the transition, synchronous learning was the initial default for many schools; teachers taught students through some online video interface like Zoom, Google Meet or Teams. The Brady Bunch or Hollywood Squares of classes kept teachers and students in contact with one another and provided continuity for teaching and learning that was an essential first step.

“Zoom fatigue” quickly kicked in, and many school leaders, parents, teachers and of course students realized that recreating the classroom environment online required more pivoting, revisiting curricula, exploration and adoption of additional edtech tools, resource investment and professional development. The weekly Reshet check-ins dove deep into these areas and many others. The professionals wove a peer- to-peer network and supported each other in the myriad decisions they were being asked to support, make and enable through technology.

The online learning models that schools continued to hone through the end of the school year were a testament to the commitment to educational excellence no matter the modality. Naturally, challenges remain. These include engaging students, creating classroom community and relationships with teachers, improving the ability to learn remotely, enhancing facility with and access to technology for teachers and students, differentiatiing lessons, assessing student learning, and caring for the social and emotional health of students and teachers.

The return to school this fall saw continued online learning for some schools and a return to in-person teaching for many. As we move through the opening weeks of our school year, even as schools are attending to current challenges, they are considering more long-lasting impacts on education. Will the great edtech experiment change how Jewish day schools use technology to achieve our educational goals? Will the technology that became an essential resource during our Covid-19 response be integrated into how we educate for years to come? Can the Jewish day school experience with educational technology through the pandemic accelerate adoption of new methods and models for teaching?

To answer these questions and design the future of educational technology in a post-pandemic world, leaders of Jewish day schools will need to reimagine the role of technology in their schools. Any conversation will be more thoughtful and informed given what we’ve learned from our forced experiment, and school leaders will need to take into account any and all of the above challenges schools have faced. At the core of these conversations, though, are two key issues that can serve as the foundation for what we can imagine for the future:

An articulated vision for educational technology that aligns with school values and educational goals;

Dedication of resources to support the successful integration of educational technology.

Technology is not a goal in and of itself; it is a means to achieving an educational goal. Many schools can clearly articulate their goals. For example, they may seek to educate students for future success, teach students to convey their ideas, foster intellectual curiosity and empathy, differentiate instruction, empower and assess student learning. A vision for educational technology should articulate how technology is in service of goals like these. School leaders are often negotiating external and internal pressures in schools to rapidly adopt technological solutions without articulating what the solution is for. The pressures to move to 1:1 devices, use Smart Boards, flip classrooms, use online curricula and instruction create scenarios where schools have building materials but no plan. Beginning with the technology solution before articulating educational goals and how they align with school values will result in an environment where educational technology is not widely adopted, is not serving an educational goal, and feels more like a shiny toy rather than a powerful tool for learning.

Throughout their coronavirus response, schools have invested significantly in educational technology. To prepare for the fall 2020 academic year, a Prizmah pulse survey reported that schools spent on average $36,367 and as much as $200,000 on educational technology. Clearly, there is a monetary investment that is necessary for educational technology, and that price tag can be significant. That has always been coupled with a concern for smart investment. Will the hardware or software become obsolete? Will faculty and students adopt the tools? But the financial cost and budget implications are only one dimension of the resource question.

When considering the role educational technology will play in classrooms, we must also weigh the other resources that need to be dedicated for successful integration. Any new technology leads to both an investment in and additional burden on the faculty. How much more can we ask of our teachers in service of the educational excellence to which they are the most committed? Any new tool or resource demands hands-on training, ongoing support and experimentation to encourage adoption throughout a school faculty. The student experience is also essential to address. Without an intentional and focused vision for educational technology, students may be forced to use and learn a whole litany of tools, facing a learning curve just to remember which app to use for which class. In addition, we must ensure that we do not compromise on the social- emotional learning of students when developing our visions for educational technology.

Finally, our weekly check-in has led me to deeply appreciate another essential resource: educational technology professionals. Their tireless efforts have contributed significantly to the expanding value proposition of Jewish day schools. Their roles have evolved

during the pandemic, and much of what schools have been able to accomplish in classrooms—online or in person, through community engagement, with digital health screening, in outdoor learning spaces, and in every aspect of school that is being made possible through technology—rests on their shoulders. What many of them have been convinced about for some time, that educational technology promotes good pedagogy and should play a central role in education, has clearly reached its moment. How can we invest in their role in framing these essential conversations and promote their leadership in our schools?

From the early days of Covid, administrators, teachers and edtech professionals have continued to learn and iterate, investing in technology and ongoing professional development to promote educational excellence. Now is the time for us to consider the future.

How will we accelerate the adoption and integration of educational technology into our schools?

This past spring, as our living rooms turned into classrooms, we shifted our teaching, learning new technologies such as Trello boards and Kahoot and creating Bitmoji classrooms to engage our students. One question we all struggled with was how to assess our students authentically in this less-than- ideal teaching and learning environment. Teachers were challenged to find other ways of tracking how much their students understand.

The limitations they faced opened the door to more meaningful and different ways of assessing students’ progress that could remain even when in-person classes resume. Some schools created a new grading policy that essentially eliminated classic high-stakes summative assessments. Many teachers became creative and focused on formative assessments and group projects.

But the questions remained: What could and should assessments look like while the pandemic is still raging, and then when we are in a post-pandemic world? This time period has had many of us asking ourselves, Why do we assess in general?

These were questions that might have been asked before the pandemic hit, but Covid-19 has brought them to the fore. In every crisis there is an opportunity to learn and improve. We have become a society that is grade-obsessed and metric-obsessed, so that assessments have become more about the number than about mastery of content and skills. Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to rethink and perhaps make some long-lasting changes to our testing systems. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, if we ask ourselves some basic questions, we may arrive at an assessment that works in our school culture and in our classrooms for now and in the future.

FRAMING QUESTIONS

When we think about assessments in general and in particular now, we need to ask ourselves a series of questions. First, what are we teaching? For most of us, this is easy: While we are teaching specific content, we are really teaching the students in front of us, whether they are in person or learning remotely. These students deserve to have clarity on and what we are teaching, what they need to know and be able to do when they complete our course. I am a strong advocate of standards- based learning, which can often help in creating meaningful assessments for our students. Our standards may be about teaching topic sentences, solving complex problems or asking questions.

Second, why are we teaching? I believe we are teaching to expose our students to the world and to pique their curiosity. Even if our students think they do not need to know certain topics or information, there may be material that inspires them. There is important content knowledge for them to learn and understand. We need to convey to the students the importance of learning different topics and opening their minds to new ideas and new ways to think about the world around them.

We are teaching our students to help them gain skills. Sometimes those skills are tangible: Can I add or subtract? What is photosynthesis? What is a topic sentence? Sometimes the skills are less tangible: Can I work equitably in a group? Can I respect the opinions of others who disagree with me? Can I think critically about the topic in front of me?

We are also teaching our students because we love what we do. We want to forge healthy relationships with our students to inspire them, to help them find their passions just as we have found ours.

When we can clearly articulate to ourselves why we are teaching and what we are teaching—content, skills and inspiration—we then need to ask ourselves why we are assessing. Is it to prepare our students to be able to take standardized exams?

Standardized exams have become the staple of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, two attempts to improve education in the United States. But standardized exams have had notorious problems, and the focus has shifted from learning content and skills to test-taking. This year when our world changed, many states canceled their standardized tests and colleges went either “test blind” or “test optional” for the SAT and ACT exams.

Are our assessments part of the learning process? There are many times when our assessments are spitback; students need to memorize facts and then write them down. They may show us they know how to memorize, but what have they really demonstrated? Knowing facts and dates are very important, but there are better ways to assess mastery of this information.

The term assessment has its root in the Latin word assidere, which means to sit beside. In a recent podcast, Stamford Senior Lecturer Denise Pope discussed the purpose of assessments. She described it as a way to help students understand what they know and what they don’t know and get them to the point of knowing. When we plan for assessments, we need to keep in mind our why and make that clear to the students.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ASSESSMENTS

Once we and our students have clarity on what and why we are teaching and why we are assessing, we can begin to think about the most impactful assessments for our students. What type of assessments should and could we be administering?

Assessments should require students to utilize their prior knowledge in order to construct an answer or product, instead of simply selecting from multiple-choice options. They may include open-ended questions, opportunities for student voice, student self-reflection, creative-thinking tasks, creative use of a variety of media to demonstrate student learning, student choice in the execution of the final product, open dialogue or discussions or peer-review of material.

In A Teacher’s Guide to Standards-Based Learning, the authors present three types of meaningful assessments. The first is obtrusive assessment, which interrupts the learning process by administering a test; students are aware that a classroom event is happening. There are multiple ways this exam can be constructed. This is the way that many of us have tested our students in the past. This type of assessment can have value at the conclusion of a unit.

A different type of assessment, which they call “unobtrusive,” can include think-pair-share (a form of collaborative problem solving), journal entries or teacher-student conferences. Short, frequent formative assessments can be very informative for the teachers and students, and can help both parties garner useful data about student performance.

The third type is student-generated assessment. This is an opportunity for students to think about how he or she wants to demonstrate understanding of the content or mastery of a skill. Students have choice and voice in assessments. Assessments can be part of the ongoing dialogue that we have with our students in our classes. This may not be a comfortable form of assessment for teachers who have not used it in the past, but it may increase engagement of students as they feel they are a part of the process and have ownership over their decision.

ASSESSMENT OPTIONS WE CAN USE NOW

As the pandemic continues and we are remote, in person or hybrid, what are the best types of assessments that work for our learning environment? Zoom fatigue was a well-documented phenomenon last spring, and for those students who have returned to school, mask fatigue has begun to set in. Assessments need to be short and meaningful for students who may have a more limited ability to focus due to the realities of their learning environments.

One form of an assessment that can be effective is short exit tickets, completed by students at the end of class or soon after. Questions can check for understanding or have students apply what they learned to new scenarios. I found those particularly effective in my classroom in the spring during remote learning. The students were given a few minutes to answer questions.

These formative assessments provided feedback both to me and to my students. After reading them over, I had a clear understanding of what my students had grasped in the lesson.

In this way, I could craft my lesson plan for the next day, reviewing and potentially re-explaining material, or if the class understood I could build on the students’ knowledge and go to the next level of learning. My students were giving me feedback about my teaching and how I needed to teach to enable them to learn well. More importantly, exit tickets provided feedback to my students from me. When my students answered the questions and saw my responses, they understood what they knew and what they had yet to master in our classroom learning. This is a practice that I have continued as we have returned to in-person learning.

There are many different types of technology that are available for individual or interactive assessments. For example, Flipgrid gives students a prompt to answer, and then other students can comment. This platform can reveal what the students know and what they have not yet grasped.

Another modality, authentic assessment, assesses students’ abilities in contexts that closely resemble actual situations in which those abilities are used. In ELA, for example, authentic assessments ask students to read real texts, to write for authentic purposes about meaningful topics, and to participate in authentic literacy tasks such as discussing books, keeping journals, writing letters and revising a piece of writing until it works for the reader. In Talmud class, students might be challenged to apply the concepts studied in class to a particular scenario. Both the material and the assessment tasks look as natural as possible.

Authentic assessment values the thinking behind work, the process, as much as the finished product. Students demonstrate mastery over the material by applying their understanding to other situations. These assessments don’t have to be long and can be performed in a classroom or remotely. At a time when students may have more difficulty focusing due to being remote or mask wearing, this type of assessment may encourage them to be more engaged.

The most important takeaway from our experience as educators during Covid-19 is the ability to be open to new forms of teaching and assessment. We can move away from the classic summative exam, where students sit with a pen and paper, and answer questions for long periods of time. We can use technology for exams, infuse creativity in our tests and try different types of assessments that we might not have tried in the past. By doing so, we instill in our students the knowledge that there are multiple ways to approach learning.

The coronavirus pandemic has inspired our pluralistic school to place a higher priority on moral education than ever before. While it isn’t new to us to attend to the social and emotional needs of our students and to their moral development, the pandemic, awareness of racism, economic inequities and public calls for justice around police brutality have pushed us to accelerate the drive.

Each year in Jewish studies, our students address moral issues through a combination of text study, project-based learning, advisory group discussions, assemblies and programming from the Derech Eretz Honor Council. The topics covered are:

Sixth grade: the meaning of peoplehood and identity

Seventh grade: honoring parents, respecting and returning lost objects, pursuing justice and tzedakah

Eighth grade: gossip and inappropriate speech

Ninth grade: pluralism

Tenth grade: medical ethics, business ethics and moral issues in Israel

Eleventh grade: moral exemplars in the Tanakh and deep moral questions related to reward and punishment, free will and repentance Twelfth grade: gender, sexuality and identity

It is an equally high priority for our general studies departments to take up moral issues through the study of complicated literary characters, historical events and leadership decisions, and issues in bioethics and other fields. The tenth-grade English program focuses on power and alterity, and throughout the curriculum read short stories, speeches, narratives and novels by a wide range of African-American and African writers, in addition to short film, video and music clips.

In a new interdisciplinary and cross-cultural class for this school year called “From Hallel to Hip-Hop,” students are exploring connections between religion and music from the Psalms through Gregorian chants, Christian and European classical works such as Handel’s Messiah, Protestant hymns, Negro spirituals, the blues, works by jazz artists such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis, singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Emmylou Harris and 20th century orchestral works by William Grant Still, Ernest Bloch and Leonard Bernstein. Culminating in the work of recent hip hop and pop artists from Kanye West and Joey Bada$$ to Subliminal and other artists from the United States and Israel, students are exploring how religious themes permeate the music they listen to, offering comfort and reassurance when the times such as these are so demanding.

FIRST TRANSITION: COVID

In the absence of in-person classes and assemblies, we had to find new ways to touch the moral lives of our students. We formed a new moral leadership team and task force called SSEL: Spiritual, Social and Emotional Learning. Faculty members of the Health and Wellness Committee and the administrative task force called “We Love Jewish Life!” joined together to form this new task force that brings faculty and administrators together. We took action in several ways, beginning with attending to our students’ physical and spiritual health and wellness:

Recommended and achieved reductions in weekend homework.

Recommended and achieved changes in assessments, moving from traditional assessments in many classes to project-based learning.

Changed the daily schedule by reducing the number of class periods each day, beginning each class day later, ending earlier and instituting “Wacky Wednesdays” with no afternoon classes.

Some curricular units began to feel more urgent and relevant than ever. Middle school Jewish studies classes that had discussed gossip in the fall came to discuss anti-Asian prejudice and name-calling that emerged as a result of the transmission of the virus from Asia to the United States. Our high school sophomores who had studied medical ethics considered the moral implications of privacy, access to health care, and the responsibility of federal and local governments in a pandemic.

As excited as we were about these new initiatives, there were costs, including the loss of learning time and the possibility of shortchanging our curricula in every subject; the loss of face- to-face contact time; a physical library and hard copy texts that should be shared side by side. But the gains included the elimination of commuting time (75% of our students have a commute of one hour or more) and students who appeared more healthy because they were sleeping more each night, in tune with adolescent circadian rhythms. Advisory periods showed that students were more aware of contemporary issues than they usually are, and nearly everyone knew someone who had contracted the virus or whose life and livelihood had been affected, often for the worse.

SECOND TRANSITION: BLM

The SSEL task force was beginning to coast and congratulate itself as we were counting down the final days of the school year, when public unrest erupted around the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The SSEL task force took on a new moral challenge, focusing not only on physical and mental health in the time of the pandemic, but also on the moral health and culture of the school at a time of increased awareness of systemic racism. We have already taken some steps, with much more momentum needed ahead of us:

Our students of color shared that they had been the targets of racism and racist comments both in public and in school. They called for an examination of the curriculum and for outreach to future teachers and students of color.

Our LGBTQ students voiced their renewed concern about homophobia and reminded us that having gender-neutral bathrooms was not enough.

Two graduating seniors developed a curriculum focused on antiracist practices and texts that has fueled curricular conversations about a new learning module for all students that will complement what we teach already about pluralism.

Our Derech Eretz Honor Council mobilized to prepare questions for advisory group discussions and to propose programming ideas for the fall.

Our professional leadership met at the request of concerned parents and students and acknowledged that our school leans towards “Ashke-normative” practices, with Ashkenazic Jewish culture dominating Shacharit observance, holiday celebrations, Shabbaton practices and some informal language that refers to “Shabbos” instead of “Shabbat,” in effect delegitimating Sephardic practices and language, Israeli culture and culture brought by Jews of color or adoptees.

We appointed a colleague to become a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion coordinator to guide our thinking and steps in hiring, student admissions, curriculum and programming.

Our Jewish studies and general studies curricula are focusing more on questions related to public health, access to health, diversity, what we mean when we talk about “Jewish values” and systemic racism.

The pandemic forced the school leadership to confront its four Derech Eretz values of honor/kavod, moral courage/ometz lev, kindness/chesed and community/kehillah. Because we value honor, we have to honor the differences among our students. Because we value moral courage, we have to make curricular changes and allow voices to be heard that may make some feel discomfort. Because we value kindness and community, we have to make special efforts to include those who have felt themselves to be at the margins and extend our sense of community to include new members as well who ruled us out as a spiritual and educational home. While it is unlikely that we would open our school to people who are not Jewish, we can find other ways to make sure that our students encounter diverse voices.

The SSEL task force is determined to address several questions going forward:

Now that we have a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion coordinator, how can we support his success?

At our pluralistic Jewish school, how can we transform our co-curricular programs from Shacharit to athletics, health education, drama, advisory and the faces of our students and teachers to be more inclusive of different voices, abilities and traditions?

To what extent can we, as we teach, celebrate and transmit our unique Jewish heritage to our students and join together in partnership with schools that represent other religious and ethnic heritages?

To what extent is the board ready to expand its membership to bring in new voices?

Living in the midst of the pandemic has meant that we are hungry for meaningful connections, so we will continue to convene virtual meetings with diverse constituencies as we answer these questions, mindful that the pandemic has led us to expand our notion of health to include moral health. We are filled with hope, both for a vaccine and an end to the pandemic and also for the kind of moral growth that will enable our school to thrive and be better than ever before.

Thanks to the ubiquity of high-quality cellphone cameras, we’ve all become aware of how different an object is when viewed through a wide-angle lens compared to a telephoto lens. We can play with such differences ourselves. The wide angle brings into view the context and broader landscape in which an object is situated, yet it also loses textures and details, things seen close up. Different lenses yield radically different perspectives, as in the photos below taken from the same point in Yosemite National Park.

This photographic commonplace comes to mind when reflecting on data that our team at Rosov Consulting gathered from day school students about their experience of remote learning since the onset of Covid-19. When we looked exclusively and deeply at data from students in North American high schools, the conclusions we reached were quite different from those prompted by looking at North American data alongside data from schools in Europe and Latin America. The wider context altered everything.

THE STUDY

As part of work with the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, our team was asked to develop a survey for day school students in Europe and Latin America about schooling during Covid-19. The survey explored student access to technology, student satisfaction with the remote learning pedagogies their schools employed, what they felt they gained from this experience, and how Judaic studies and general studies compared when delivered remotely. Five schools in Europe (part of the Educating for Impact network) and two in Buenos Aires (from MaTaCH’s Unit.Ed initiative) took part, with 795 students responding in total.

Subsequently, we were given an opportunity by the Jim Joseph Foundation to explore how high school students in North American day schools experienced this same period. Sixteen schools were recruited to take part, six Community or Conservative high schools and 10 Modern Orthodox schools. 1,383 students participated, all of whom were enrolled in ninth through twelfth grade during the 2019–2020 academic year.

After data analysis was complete, interviews were conducted with school leaders at the schools whose students had responded most positively in order to learn about their educational practices during this period. Findings from the North American study are accessible at Prizmah’s Knowledge Center.

A TELEPHOTO LENS

North American day schools have been praised for the nimbleness with which they responded when schools were required to cease in-person learning. The North American data are consistent with this impression. When asked, “Do you feel that remote learning has set your education back in some way?” a majority (60%) reported that remote learning did not have a particularly notable negative impact on their education.

It is true that a plurality of students (41%) reported they were set back a little, but write-in comments indicate that most students who selected “a little” recognized that while schooling from home was not the same as being physically present in school, they were not badly impacted. Here are some samples:

I found that I continued to understand concepts and I feel comfortable with the topics we studied while online. However, I feel like I missed out on group and hands- on activities that would have been done in class.

I think that in-person learning is far more valuable than remote learning. While I did complete my classes’ curriculum, I think that I would have a better understanding of the concepts if learned in a normal setting.

Those students who felt least badly impacted brought a positive mindset to this experience. This is a strong feature of the write-in responses of those who answered “not at all” to this question; these students found positives even in this most challenging of situations.

It just felt like school came to my house. I still had the same assignments, tests and quizzes, so there was nothing I could complain about. The same things were taught. I could even argue that it boosted my education, because many schools around me were shut down while I was fortunate enough to have class and learn.

I feel that remote learning has given me an opportunity to find myself and discover what kind of person I want to be.

I feel it gave me new skills to have in the future. It was a process getting used to, but I am very glad we had this challenge!

To be clear, even these most positive students recognized that their education had been impacted: 27% in this positive (“not set back at all”) group recognized that they had “learned less remotely compared to when school was in session.” And yet these students also saw a bigger picture: 55% of the students in the “not set back at all” group felt that “remote learning contributed “somewhat” or “very much” to their “being a stronger candidate for the college of [their] choice.” Acknowledging their challenges, they were able to view the experience positively.

GETTING THE JOB DONE

To what extent did remote learning strengthen students’ connection to…

Note: Options included “not at all,” “a little,” “somewhat,” and “very much.” The percentage of students who selected “somewhat” or “very much” are displayed here.

Overall, the impression left by the data from North American students is that their schools competently, even creatively, carried off a challenging maneuver. Of course, it was not perfect, and for most students it was not the same as actually being in school. When students were asked, for example, how much they enjoyed classes on Zoom, how much they enjoyed school projects at home and what they thought of the videos sent home by schools, they indicate that they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

Their responses were consistently three out of five, squarely at the midpoint of a five-point scale. It is as if the students were conveying a sense of “it is what it is.” It could have been better, but it wasn’t bad. This is consistent with the fact that write-in responses indicate that very few students (fewer than 5%) felt their schools let them down during this period. The students recognize and appreciate that their schools got the job done.

A WIDE-ANGLE LENS: BRINGING THE SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DIMENSIONS OF SCHOOLING INTO VIEW

And yet, there are aspects of the students’ responses that provoke questions, and even concerns, especially when we switch from a telephoto to a wide-angle lens— that is, when we compare responses from day school students in North America with those from elsewhere.

Day school research has rarely explored the experiences of students in different countries. Covid-19 has created such an opportunity. The pandemic’s global reach is terribly dispiriting, but it does have some marginal benefits. For the first time, as far as we are aware, we can compare how day school students—high school students, in this instance—from across the globe respond to the same questions about the Jewish and communal dimensions of their school experience. In doing so, provocative insights surface that touch on the core purposes of day school education, while acknowledging that those insights derive from relatively small samples of students.¹

First, and maybe stating the obvious, day school students in North America are generally fortunate in the extent of their access to technologies that enable robust remote learning. Just 5% had to share a device for remote learning with another family member. In Buenos Aires, almost a third did. While 13% of students in North America report having argued during the last week with siblings about access to on- line learning technology at home, more than double that proportion did in the European and Argentinian day schools.

In this sense, North American day school students have access to tools that enable them, individually, to move forward with their education even when sheltering in place. (It’s a sad fact of life in North America that many young people in the general population are not as fortunate as those in Jewish day schools.)

The word “individually” in the last paragraph was not casually chosen. By contrast to day school students elsewhere, those in North America seem to have engaged in remote learning in a somewhat isolated fashion. Asked “To what extent has online learning strengthened your connection to [various entities],” the majority of students, irrespective of location, reported being more strongly connected to “other family members.” However, significantly more European and Argentinian students report a strengthening in their connection to their “school community” and their “local Jewish community” than is the case among North American students.

To what extent has online learning contributed to you…

Note: Options included “not at all,” “a little,” “somewhat,” and “very much.” The percentage of students who selected “somewhat” or “very much” are displayed here.

There are similar differences between students’ responses with respect to social-emotional outcomes of remote learning. Significantly more students in Europe and Argentina report that online learning contributed to feeling they were not alone and to having fun with friends. Indeed, these survey items saw some of the greatest differences between students in North America and elsewhere.

SCHOOLS WITH DIFFERENT PURPOSES

Curious about these regional differences, we interviewed senior educators in participating schools in Europe and Latin America to understand the extent to which they had purposely cultivated such outcomes. Strikingly, we did not hear these people talk about particular interventions or programs. What they emphasized was how their schools are organized and to what ends; they drew attention to their priorities and functions. In Buenos Aires, for example, during normal times as well as during the pandemic, a mechanech—a pastoral educator—is assigned to every 50 to 100 students. This educator’s primary role is to support students’ personal, emotional and social development through programs and through ongoing direct contact with students and their families. During the pandemic, this has been profoundly important in keeping students connected and emotionally supported, especially in schools with thousands of students.

In many European and Latin American countries, families have a different relationship to day school than in North America. In Buenos Aires, families choose a school for life, often over the generations. They don’t tend to shop around. And in a highly secular community, schools rather than synagogues serve as centers of community. That’s why a thousand families at a time have attended school Zoom events during the pandemic. In Italy, there were similar themes. Synagogues are important in Milan and Rome (they were formed by different ethnic Jewish immigrant groups), but the Jewish school is perhaps the only place where the whole community comes together, especially in cities where the Jewish community is dispersed. Schools are first and foremost sites of community, and that function has been amplified by the pandemic.

In normal times, a consequence of these patterns is that students can often feel a bit too much at home in school. This is a phenomenon that challenges educators. Students are as likely to come to school to have fun as they are to prepare academically for life after school, especially in Jewish communities where there is a strong culture of going into a family business after school rather than onto college. What were previously seen as difficulties have become sources of social-emotional strength at this most challenging of times.

Finally, there may have been another force shaping student responses, one not created by the schools but by circumstances that have shaped students’ experience of schooling during Covid-19. In Europe, in some of the cities where we gathered data (Madrid, Milan and Rome, for example), Jewish families live in apartments, many without balconies, and were strictly locked down between February and April. School provided the most powerful means by which students could connect with the outside world and with friends. With their cities in acute crisis, school brought fresh air into their homes.

CHALLENGING TIMES PROVOKE ULTIMATE QUESTIONS

North American day schools will never become European, nor should they. They are formed by profoundly different Jewish and civic cultures. They provide a much more intense grounding in Jewish literacy and Jewish life than is typically the case in Europe. And yet these data from other corners of the day school globe offer an intimation of ways in which day schools can more fully serve students and be something else to their families, especially at times of severe social disruption. With these data, a wide-angle vista comes into view of a different kind of day school.

To clarify, we do not see this as a zero- sum game, a straight choice between academic and social-emotional outcomes, between a more collectivist ethos and a more individualistic one. In those North American schools where more students do indicate they have been connected to their school communities during the pandemic (although perhaps not at Latin American levels), the students were also more likely to say that their education had not been set back. While some of these North American schools have drawn on circumstantial advantages that echo those in Europe—they are tight knit, sometimes isolated communities—they have also invested in extracurricular programming that has cultivated a sense of community among their students: some form of daily prayer; town-hall meetings for students; and extra-curricular events such as shelter-in-place color war and a Yom Ha’atzma’ut parade that came to every student’s home. These drew on and developed a powerful sense of intimate community and school spirit, all of which was to the social-emotional and academic benefit of their students.

With schools and students facing the prospect of many more months of uncertainty about how and where education will happen, there is all the more reason for schools to ask themselves whether they are ready to invest more intensively in their community-building functions. The answer to that question depends on the answer to another even more ultimate question: What indeed are Jewish day schools for?

¹ Of course, such comparisons are fraught with methodological challenges: Do students understand certain concepts the same way even when framed in their native language; for example, in Budapest, Buenos Aires and the Bay Area do they think of the concept “local Jewish community” in the same way? Do they have the same understanding of survey scales? A four out of five in Madrid might be much less positive than in Manhattan where respondents might be more reluctant to award high scores. If, in Europe, schools tend to be regarded with more respect than in the United States, does that mean Italian students will be less inclined to criticize their teachers than those in the United States? These questions are important to consider when making sense of the data.

Cheryl Rosenberg

DEAR EDWARD

By Ann Napolitano

This novel was the perfect balance of page-turning meets thought-provoking. It follows the life of a young teen during and after a tragedy in his life, and the heavy world that he carries with him at all times because of who he is and what he has lost. Edward manages to do what most of us cannot—to heal his deep wounds and allow new relationships to flourish despite all the pain he has endured.

Edward is similar to all of us because his world changed in an instant, unexpectedly, and he had to learn how to start fresh, with new and uncomfortable realities. And, inspiringly, he still manages to find joy.

Hannah Olson

WASHINGTON BLACK

By Esi Edugyan

In my efforts to amplify the voices of Black authors and Black experiences, I turned to this story of a young man growing up a slave on a sugar plantation in the West Indies in the 1830s. In this work of historical fiction, Edugyan captures vividly—and horrifically—the brutality witnessed by the child called “Wash” and the learned fear that comes from being raised in an oppressive environment.

When the kind brother of the plantation owner selects Wash to be his assistant, a new world of previously unimagined possibilities opens up. As the two take unexpected journeys both together and apart, Wash struggles to understand how he fits into different societies around the world, and what his blackness might mean to himself and to others.

Elissa Maier

THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME

By Robert Iger

I have used the Disney Institute for leadership programs I have designed, seeking to learn the tips and tools of an organization that is customer-focused. So I was curious to learn the secrets behind Disney’s CEO’s successful leadership of a mega-corporation.

Among Iger’s 20 principles is creating space regularly to let your mind wander beyond your job description, “to turn things over in your mind in a less pressured, more creative way than is possible once the daily triage kicks in.” This is a powerful lesson from a company built on creativity. Other lessons include being able to share a clear roadmap for the work of an organization and to have concise organizational priorities that are used to evaluate opportunities and decisions.

More than half of the principles are relationship-focused. A leader should be self-aware and humble: “True leadership comes from knowing who you are, not pretending to be anything else.” The lessons also include investing in the leadership of others, giving them the opportunity to learn and grow. He speaks about valuing ability more than experience and putting people in roles that require more of them than they are aware they can do. Iger cites multiple examples of the extraordinary mentors who invested in his leadership growth.

Not surprisingly, the overarching leadership lesson in this book is that the most valuable resource of any successful organization is people: “If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.”

Machele Daye

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS

By Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist. I have read many of her books over the years, and when we quarantined, I returned to her beloved works on my bookshelf. This book is a poignant and poetic account of Maya’s life up until age 17.

The memoir honestly reveals the cruelty, indignity and injustice that confined African-Americans in the 1930s and 40s—the cage—but also celebrates her spirit, humor and courage. It chronicles young Maya being sent by her mother to live with their devout Christian grandmother in a small Southern town. Maya and her brother, Bailey, endured the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the town. At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya was attacked by her mother’s boyfriend. After the assault, she shut down and did not speak. She returned to her grandmother, and a patient teacher encouraged young Maya to talk again by asking her to read poetry aloud.

After moving to California as a teenager, she survived a period of homelessness, became a single mother at 16 and San Francisco’s first Black streetcar conductor. Today, this book still illustrates how innate strength and a love of literature helped to overcome racism and trauma. Her words continue to touch hearts and will change minds for generations to come.