Prizmah Race and School Culture Collaboratives are intentionally facilitated groups from multiple schools working towards a common race and school culture goal. In a Prizmah Collaborative, participants share learning, ideas, work samples, challenges, and successes around a specific aspect of their race and school culture work. The group’s work is designed to be responsive to the specific needs of its members. Collaboratives include approximately 8 synchronous meetings, online resource sharing, and opportunities to learn from experts. In addition to working towards an educational goal and benefiting from the wisdom of the group, Prizmah will provide a facilitator and content area experts to offer you training and guidance in order to be responsive to the group’s needs.
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Prizmah Race and School Culture Collaboratives
WHEN?
The Collaboratives are designed to run during the 2021-2022 school year.
WHO?
We strongly recommend that schools send a minimum of two professional or lay leaders to any Collaborative you choose to join. Collaboratives will launch if there is sufficient interest to form a group.
COST?
Participation is fully subsidized.
HOW?
To join a Prizmah Race and School Culture Collaborative on any of the topics below, fill out this brief form.
Collaborative #1: Engaging your stakeholders in race and school culture work
As your school community goes deeper into the work of race and school culture, there are key stakeholders who both lead and inform many of the decision-making processes. These stakeholders include the board, parent body, donors, alumni, and the community-at-large. Ensuring that stakeholders are engaged and supportive of your race and school culture work is essential in creating the conditions for success. This Collaborative will address the following questions:
- What are some tried and true ways to keep stakeholders informed and engaged in order to ensure their long-term partnership?
- What are the differences in the roles of stakeholders and school professionals in this work and how can we leverage those differences for school growth?
- What successful models of lay leader, parent, alumni, donor, and community engagement have been used in independent schools throughout North America?
- How can we design an engagement model that fits our specific school’s context?
Meeting dates:
December 6, January 4, January 18, February 1, February 15, March 1, March 9, March 29
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET // 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM PT
Ideal participants:
School professionals who work directly with stakeholders
Facilitators:
Nishant Mehta and Ilisa Cappell
Collaborative #2: Addressing aspects of race and school culture work unique to Orthodox communities
There are aspects of the race and school culture conversation that are unique to the Orthodox community. Housing choices, curricular decisions, economic diversity, the religious system, and political diversity, all which keep the community strong, also present complexities in the work of race and school culture. Through the creation of a shared space, the leaders in this Collaborative will
- Articulate the advantages and challenges that Orthodox community members experience in racial equity work.
- Co-create a set of group goals and/or individual school goals in the work of race and school culture which both leverage those advantages and address those challenges.
- Support one another through the iterative and incremental development of next steps for your school community.
Meeting dates:
December 8, January 12, January 19, February 2, February 17, March 2, March 7, March 23
12:00-1:00 pm ET // 9:00-10:00 am PT
Ideal participants:
School professionals in Orthodox communities
Facilitators:
Nishant Mehta and Debra Shaffer Seeman
Collaborative #3: Developing a faculty professional development plan on race and school culture
This Collaborative is designed to expose you to multiple faculty professional development tools which can be used in addressing race and school culture in your community. Together with professionals from other Jewish day schools, deepen your personal knowledge of race and school culture, so that you can bring a thoughtful professional development approach back to your school. This Collaborative will address the following questions:
- How do we design a Collaborative Professional Learning Community on the topic of race, ensuring that our faculty has a productive learning experience?
- What are the elements of actionable professional development which I should consider when working with faculty members around this multi-dimensional topic?
- How do we talk about bias, privilege, and equity together when our faculty members hold a range of views on these topics?
- How do we design a professional development plan that is customized for our school’s specific context?
Ideal participants
Educational leaders who are responsible for designing, coordinating, and/or offering faculty professional development.
Facilitators
BetterLesson and Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch
NOTE: While this Collaborative is full for the 2021-2022 season, if you are interested in these topics, or any others, please don't hesitate to reach out to Debra Shaffer Seeman.
Collaborative #4: Teaching about identity, bias and race in an elementary school
Teaching about identity, bias, and race at the elementary school level is a potentially transformative experience. Join elementary school classroom educators in a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of this work. Learn how to address sticky questions that may arise together with a cohort of peers around North America doing the work with you. Topics to be covered in this Collaborative include:
- Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning
- Classroom Culture in Culturally Responsive Teaching
- Curriculum for Social Justice
- Building Understanding about Race in Mostly White Classrooms
NOTE: While this Collaborative is full for the 2021-2022 season, if you are interested in these topics, or any others, please don't hesitate to reach out to Debra Shaffer Seeman.