Mapping Professional Development for Jewish Educators
Source: The Fisher-Bernstein Institute for Jewish Philanthropy and Leadership
This report describes professional development efforts in Jewish education in North America. It begins with a list of desirable and necessary features for effective professional development in education. The list comes from the literature on professional development in public school education, which is informed by extensive field experience and research. The next section of the report presents current professional development opportunities in Jewish education, describing them by sub-sector (i.e., camp, year-round informal education, Hillel, day school, congregational school, and Israel). In the final section, current offerings in the Jewish sector are viewed in light of the desiderata for professional development in order to find possibilities for future growth and improvement.
Most of the information on opportunities in the Jewish sector comes from the database on Jewish education currently being built by the authors. The database currently houses information on every rele vant national organization and program that could be located. It also contains information on organiza tions and programs in the eight communities included in the study: Boston, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The report thus catalogues and describes professional development activities that are sponsored by national entities or are homegrown in one of the eight local communities.