Source: AVI CHAI Foundation
Summer is the perfect time for day school leaders to reflect, dream, and plan on how to strengthen and improve their schools in the coming year. To help them do just that, AVI CHAI sponsors selected day schools leaders to attend one of two leadership institutes at The Principals’ Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Fifteen leaders attended the summer’s first institute, Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership (AOL), from June 21-27, 2015. The goal of the institute was to help identify areas of school improvement, establish priorities, develop strategies, and build a base of support around a change initiative.
Attendance drew from administrators of private and public schools from across the country with 1-5 years of leadership experience. In addition to the programming with this broad group, Jewish day school leaders also met as a cohort to discuss how to apply the learning to their own particular environment. While the overall Principals Center program focused on implementing change, the members of the AVI CHAI cohort had a more specific goal: enhancing and advancing the Judaic mission of their schools. In addition to the cohort sessions facilitated by Jonathan Cannon, which took place during the institute, participating leaders will be practically applying their Harvard learnings this coming year. Each will develop a significant Jewish mission/vision project at their school – focusing on areas such as curriculum, classroom instruction, professional development, or Jewish practice, such as tefillah.
Amongst the benefits of the Harvard experience, participants overwhelmingly mentioned three: the opportunity to reflect; the practical Harvard know-how on leadership best practices; and the diverse peer network for learning and support.
Read more at the AVI CHAI Blog.