Search results for: Leadership

Three outstanding Jewish educators who are taking their visions of deeply engaging Judaism and igniting them into reality - are the 2017 recipients of The Covenant Award. Rabbi Tully Harcsztark, Founding Principal of SAR High School in Riverdale, NY; Meredith Englander Polsky, National Director of Institutes and Training at Matan in New York, and Developmental Support Coordinator at Temple Beth Ami Nursery School in Rockville, MD; and Dr. Jane Shapiro, Co-Founder of Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning in Skokie, IL are the recipients of the Award, which is among the highest honors in the field of Jewish education.

Findings from the first part of a groundbreaking three-year study identify the conditions that can support effective educational leadership in Jewish day schools. Commissioned by CASJE (the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education) with funding from The AVI CHAI Foundation and The Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation, and led by a research team from American Institutes for Research (AIR), Leadership in Context: The Conditions for Success of Jewish Day School Leaders yields highly valuable and usable information about effective educational leadership generally, and insight into the distinct characteristics of effective Jewish leaders. According to Mark Schneider, Vice President at AIR and the Principal Investigator, “This research will help school leaders improve their schools by pointing to specific areas in which they can invest their time and resources that lead to higher levels of student success.”

Three outstanding Jewish educators who are leaders of innovation and impact - and who by their very successes are pushing the field to take notice of the power of inclusive, creative education – are the 2016 recipients of The Covenant Award. Daniel Henkin, Director of Music at The Ramaz Upper School in New York and at Camp Ramah Nyack (NY); Rabbi Benay Lappe, Founder and Rosh Yeshiva of SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, Chicago; and Ilana Ruskay-Kidd, Founder and Head of School at The Shefa School, New York are the recipients of the Award, which is among the highest honors in the field of Jewish education.

'Excellence' is a goal to which many, if not all, day schools subscribe. This issue of Hayidion provides perspectives on this elusive term, offering diverse notions of what day school excellence means and looks like, and suggesting pathways and structures for schools to achieve excellence. Each school must define what excellence means for its community and how excellence relates to the other values in the school's mission.