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This study examines students’ perceptions of disparities between teachers’ views and the school ethos in a religiously oriented school, and dissects the implications of such disparities on the children’s right to adaptable education. The study draws on 102 essays of students enrolled in an American Jewish high school that employs a diverse teaching staff. Findings demonstrate that teacher diversity in a religiously oriented school may fulfill the children’s right to adaptable education by motivating children to engage in social perspective taking, and to interact with multiple spheres of cultural affiliations.

Ethical challenges confront each and every one of us in our daily lives. How honest should we be with our co-workers? To whom do we owe our greatest loyalty? How do we balance between our responsibility to family, community, profession, and self? Many view these kinds of challenges as obstacles to be overcome; others, however, see them as opportunities for schools to grow and find their most deeply held values. Much like a real-life Kohlbergian values-clarification exercise, the process of dealing with the challenges sometimes matters as much, if not even more than, the actual results. The process can help examine questions such as: Whose interests does the school place at the core? Who is involved in addressing the problem? What criteria are established for determining the most appropriate course of action? These questions touch the heart of the school’s identity, and it is questions like these to which we devote this issue of Jewish Educational Leadership.

In 2013, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston convened a task force of Jewish early childhood professionals to acquire a better understanding of how local families raising Jewish children choose preschools. The task force worked with Professor Mark I. Rosen of Brandeis University to design a study to answer this question. Over 1,400 families completed a comprehensive survey, and the data were analyzed to compare four distinct groups.

Gleanings is the ejournal of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of The Jewish Theological Seminary. The art and science of text study is an area in which many scholars and practitioners affiliated with The Davidson School devote their time, attention, and passion. We are particularly excited to have launched an initiative creating the first ever compendium of standards and benchmarks for the teaching of rabbinic literature through our Jewish Day School Standards & Benchmarks Project. We are honored to steward this project in partnership with leadership teams from over 15 day schools, scholars, and leaders across academic institutions and agencies throughout North America and across all denominational lines. To sit with them is to truly feel the roots in the legacy of the Jewish beit midrash! We hope you enjoy the wide array of perspectives on the topic of Jewish text study contained in this edition of Gleanings.