Transparency Files – Page 7 – A Floor, But Not a Ceiling

O Canada? My Serendipitous Return to the Headship

Do they celebrate Purim in Canada? – Maytal M., Age 9

I’m not going to lie.

I distinctly recall the first day of the 2014-2015 school year. It was the first time I drove carpool as a day school parent (only). I was wearing shorts, flip-flops, and a t-shirt and as I wheeled through the line, I locked eyes with my colleague Rabbi Jim Rogozen who had just replaced me as head of my children’s school. He had just returned to the headship after a brief time out and I was just beginning my first year out of the headship after nine years in. I said goodbye to my girls, waved to Jim wearing his tie and nice clothes, turned up the music and headed back to my new home office to begin the day.

I was not unhappy.

To be clear, I had not been unhappy in my work. Leaving my headship at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School to become Executive Director of the Schechter Day School Network was an agonizing and bittersweet decision. We were just becoming the school that so many of us had worked so hard to begin to be; the chapter in the life of the school that I was there to help author was not complete. But I was called into service for Schechter and I ultimately answered that call. It was both that simple and that complicated.

Now, I realize that nine years sounds like either a long haul or a blink of the eye depending on your vantage, but after nine years of night meetings, living and dying with each enrollment decision, going to synagogue and the supermarket with the potential for bumping into the micro-drama de jour, etc., I was ready for something different.

Like so many of the happy accidents that constitute my career path, these last three years have been a blessing. Having had the chance to be on the national stage, to engage with the foundations, agencies and donors who sustain our schools, to view the field from a different vantage, to visit over 50 schools, to help reimagine what a “Schechter” education can be, to participate in the birth and launch of Prizmah, and to dig deep into educational innovation – these have all been extraordinary professional experiences. I have learned so much more from my colleagues, first in Schechter, then in Prizmah, not to mention all my colleagues in the field that I could scarcely describe it.

I have also benefited from the opportunity to be more present in my family’s life than ever before. Despite a heavy travel schedule, when I’m here, I’m more here than ever before. Breakfast with my daughters each morning, carpool, the ability to participate in school activities, being home for bedtime, I know that these three years have bonded me with my family like never before at ages where my daughters still appreciate my active engagement (tick tock!).

So, with all the benefits that come with not being a head of school, why am I jumping back in? And why so far North!

Here is the simple truth.

A career is a function of what jobs are available when you are looking, which jobs you get, which jobs you don’t get, which jobs you want, which jobs you don’t want, who else is looking, how each interview is structured (or is unstructured), who you meet when, how you respond, how you are feeling, how other people are feeling, and who knows how many other variables. It is a remarkably unscientific process considering how important it is for everyone involved. I wrote about it at length when first considering it from the other side of the search process at Schechter.

When I describe my career as a series of “happy accidents,” I don’t mean to suggest that I wasn’t an active player, that I didn’t make choices or that I didn’t earn the jobs I received (or didn’t not-earn the jobs I didn’t get). I’m just being real – there are variables outside one’s control, there is a measure of luck, and sometimes the universe lends an unseen hand pushing you towards things you may not have chosen to explore on your own.

I’ve written and discussed many times the almost comical series of events that led me to become the founding head of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Las Vegas considering my professional experiences to that point. I’ve candidly shared that when “Jacksonville” popped on the list that I assumed it would be somewhere near Miami until I looked at a map. Yet my time here in Jacksonville made my career. Schechter was a calling I felt compelled to answer. And Schechter led me to Prizmah…

Once the decision was made to leave Prizmah, I found myself back on the market for the first time in a long time. Did I consider other positions besides head of school? I did. But as my process went on, it became clear to me that my passion for the headship remained intact. Looking at my options, what was most exciting, to me, was the opportunity to apply all this new learning I have accumulated at Schechter and Prizmah to the craft of the headship. These last three years have provided me with the humility of knowing how many great ideas other people are working on at Jewish day schools across North America. These last three years have shown me what can be done at schools of all sizes, flavors and geographies. These last three years have not had the power of intimacy, relationships, community and impact that nourish my soul.

Winter is coming… – Game of Thrones (HBO) and everyone who finds out we are moving to Ottawa

We may not know the story of Canadian Thanksgiving, Boxing Day, the metric system, or a word of French, but we do know a warm (no pun intended) community when we see it.

Our experiences, both professional and personal, here in Jacksonville were critical in our decision-making process this time around. I know that with generous donors, a committed Federation, a nourishing board, a passionate community, supportive parents, and talented and dedicated faculty, that you can be a school of global impact regardless of size or geography. We know that with kindness and love, that our family will thrive regardless of the number of kosher restaurants or the weather.

Putting it all together, when it came time for us to decide on the next chapter for our family, it was clear early on that we would seek to write it in Ottawa, Canada where I have enthusiastically agreed to become the next Head of the Ottawa Jewish Community School.

I’ll have much more to say in the weeks and months ahead about the work, the school, and the move. We are neck-deep in emigration law and relocation logistics. I appreciate all the unintentional political jokes moving to Canada provides at this unique moment in time. I know it will be cold.

But I also know something else. It will be great.

The Transparency Files: Annual Membership Survey

Another strange confluence of secular and Jewish holidays means that the beginning of the end of the 2014-2015 school year is upon us. Being in my first year in ten not serving as a head of school, I am not sure how accurate my “how quickly the year has gone by-omoter” is, but it does seem that summers are shorter than ever. As soon as you wrap up your last teacher meeting, you are planning for next year’s first! My hope is that all of our schools – their professionals and volunteers – will take the time this summer to relax and recharge, to look back in pride and look forward with anticipation, and to be as fully present with family and friends and we know they are to a fault with students and their families.

Here at Schechter we, too, want to begin wrapping up this historic first year of rebirth and regrowth and look to learn how we can be even better at meeting the needs of our schools and the field in the year to come. I have shared some reflection on how I think my first year as Executive Director has gone, and indicated places where I believe I need to learn and grow to do and be better next year. Here, I will share the feedback we received from our first Annual Membership Survey. In the weeks to come, we will lay out more detail about our programmatic agenda for next year and how feedback may have played into our decision-making process.

A few thoughts before the data…

This survey was completely anonymous. We have no idea who filled it out. It was sent to the entire family of Schechter schools (full and affiliate members) which numbers nearly 90 schools. We received 18 responses, which by percentage is appropriate for an online survey, but is only representative to a degree. The data will be taken seriously, regardless, but we know that the larger the sample size, the higher the degree of validity. One clear goal for the future will be to inspire more completed surveys.

The complete results have been/will be shared out. Although space will not allow each question’s answers to be shared and analyzed and open-ended responses will not be quoted in full, the entire survey – all responses, regardless of how positive or negative, – has been or will be shared transparently with all the staff and lay leaders who benefit from such knowledge. We as staff cannot plan effectively for the future without be willing to listen. We as staff cannot be evaluated effectively by our lay leadership without being willing to be vulnerable.

There are no trends! This is the first year of the survey so we can only use it as a baseline upon which future years are compared. Only with future data can we see if we are truly listening to feedback and growing from it.

OK, without further adieu let’s take some highlights from the survey.

First up…who took the survey?

No surprises here…professionals at our full member schools are the most invested and knowledgeable about our activities.

OK. Big picture. How did we do?

Hmmm…

…let’s say that there is always a temptation only to be transparent when you love what you are sharing and an equally strong temptation to be defensive about anything that is less than perfect. So long as I have say, Schechter will always be willing not only to hear the difficult truths that spur genuine growth, but the courage to share where we have fallen short in order to be held accountable.

So, on the one hand, obviously being good students we want to have the highest grades and this graph does not show that. I will say that the scale itself may not be ideal with seven categories and “neutral” as the middle. If “neutral” is “average” or “satisfied” then I could be inclined to feel good (enough) about how we did. The overwhelming majority would, in that case, be satisfied and then some. Great! If, however, “neutral” is something worse, then I am going to be more concerned with why half the respondents felt less than about our Network.

We will definitely use this as inspiration. Maybe it’s who responded (don’t be defensive!). Maybe it’s the scale (don’t make excuses!). Maybe it actually means we did great (don’t put your finger on the scale!). Or maybe it means we have real work to do. I don’t know from this alone…but I can promise you we will work hard to leave no doubts moving forward.

What else do we need to know?

Hmmm…

Greater analytics would need to see if those who said “no” also rated us near the bottom. Meaning, did the schools who are using our programs/resources rate us higher than those who didn’t? That would mean we need to do more work to ensure that more of our schools are aware and/or want to make use of what we have to offer. If it was the other way around, we would need to assess the quality and accessibility of our resources/programs.

What else?

We would have liked more participation on this question to better unpack the above, but this does indicate range that pleases us. My analysis of those who checked “other” would move most of it into “PEJE” and “Coaching”. My quick read on this indicates that places we have dedicated resources are finding an audience. Again, more analytics would help us decide whether any of these responses were tied to satisfaction scores. We’ll have more to say about this when we lay out our agenda for next year.

Let’s dive deeper…

Would have loved more responses…but, yes, we agree!

Let’s keep diving…what are we doing well?

Again, would have loved more responses…but we appreciate the feedback!

Here was the biggest surprise (to me):

If this response is representative it has implications for our programs, our thoughts of “region” and “cohort” and the challenges for schools geographically apart.

Final comments?

The survey may be closed, but your opportunity to provide feedback never is. Please use the comments for this blog, send us an email, pick up the phone, or just let us know when we see you in person.

This has been a year of many firsts. Next year be a very different kind of year. But one first we can look forward to a year from now is having an opportunity to compare next year’s survey with this one and to check how we listened, how we responded, and how we grew to better meet your needs. I can neither predict nor promise what it will say.

But I can predict and promise that no one will work harder than we will to live up to our obligations and our promises…

The Transparency Files: Evaluation of Blog

“Spitting in the wind.”

“Tilting at windmills.”

If a blog post falls in a forest and no one is there to read it…

You think you see where I’m headed.

🙂

But I do not wish to take this opportunity to grouse about whether people choose to comment, accept invitations to participate, etc., etc. I have come to accept that which I cannot control. Yes, of course, I would love for this blog to be more dynamic and interactive. And yes, I will continue to try to solve that riddle, whether it is by identifying better topics to inspire dialogue or better incentives to motivate conversation.

I do want to take this opportunity during this season of transparent reflection and evaluation to see if I am at least hitting the target topics for the this blog while still working to hit the target audience.

Of course there are many ways to perform this kind of analysis…and, of course, I will choose the simplest and most visual…a word cloud!

[I like to use Tagxedo sometimes instead of Wordle because you can upload images and it will build your word cloud around it.]

I must say that I like it! I really think it hits the right notes as laid out here and here. And in a year, I will create another one and do a compare and contrast to see how the blog has changed or evolved from one year to the next.

Housekeeping

I hope you have had a chance to review the latest update from the field with regard to plans for an exciting future! There will be LOTS more to share and discuss around this in the weeks and months to come. Please do stay tuned.

We are working on creating the survey instrument I mentioned last week so that we can get input from our stakeholders about our first year.

We are nearing the deadline for voting in the World Zionist Congress. You can revisit why I am proud to be on the ballot for MERCAZ and how you can lend your voice to the future of Israel by clicking here.

We are also working on a Summer Professional Development update that includes everything we believe to be of value (whether it comes from Schechter or not) as you think about your own and your school’s professional development agenda for this summer.

The Transparency Files: Evaluation of Self

This week was Yom Ha’Shoah, the day on the Jewish Calendar where we pause to remember the events of the Holocaust and the memories of all who perished therein. Next week we will celebrate Yom Ha’Zikaron, the day on the Jewish Calendar where we commemorate Israel’s Memorial Day, and Yom Ha’Atzmaut, the day on the Jewish Calendar where we celebrate Israeli Independence Day.

It is a remarkable juxtaposition of days – a complete 180 degrees of emotion that takes place with a click of the second hand and, in Israel, the siren’s call. Unlike in the States where Memorial Day for many (although less and less the last fifteen years) is spent enjoying beaches, barbecues and sales; in Israel no one is untouched by war’s destruction and all pause to personally mourn.

We know – firsthand and through social media – all the amazing programs, commemorations, projects and celebrations that have and will take place in Schechter schools whose love and support for Israel are baked into their DNA. We will do our part to collect, catalog and share out to you and the field those images and words during this very special week in our schools.

In the meanwhile…

Like many of you, we too, are using this time of year to solicit feedback, reflect and plan for the future. In this first year of the “new Schechter” each season brings new challenges and first-time opportunities. Here, too, we are faced with our first opportunity to evaluate ourselves and to ask for feedback from our key stakeholders. On the latter point, please look for an invitation to provide us with your feedback and suggestions on how this year has gone and ways we can improve to better meet the needs of our schools and the field in this interesting and exciting new year to come.

So…how have I done this year?

🙂

Well, honestly, I am not entirely sure!

In my first two blog posts in this new role, I tried to lay out a vision and provide some content for what I hoped Schechter would begin to become. But, I would have to go back to my very first year as a head of school to find the last time I was in the position of everything being so completely new for me. I will have to look forward to next year to find comfort in the rhythm and routine of a yearly calendar and knowing what to expect and what to do when. This year? Not so much!

The best way I know how to make sense of what I have done and ways I can do better is to revisit some of the planning documents created as part of our rebirth and see how well (or not) I have helped bring the agenda to life.

Like any self-evaluation, it is not intended to be exhaustive, but illustrative. [There are also aspects of my job performance, fundraising for example, that require greater discretion.] And unlike my past evaluations, this one does not come with comparative external survey data. Not because I don’t wish to have that data, but because we have not yet developed the instrument to collect it! This self-evaluation is more “self” than normal as a result, but I hope still helpful.

Relationship Building

A huge component to this year’s work was simply reintroducing ourselves to our schools and field. Prior to this year, we lacked the bandwidth to physically visit and, sometimes, even virtually visit our schools to the degree necessary to truly serve. I am proud that over the last nine months, we have physically reached over thirty schools. I have done much of it myself (over twenty site visits) and it has been undoubtedly the best and most important work I have done this year. To see schools in action and to spend time with the incredibe professional and lay leaders who run them is a never-ending source of inspiration. I have learned so much about our schools and even more about how we can better serve them because of these visits.

In addition to the site visits, we have spoken many, many times with each of our schools during this year and have had ample opportunity to share resources and field questions and concerns. I would rank renewing our relationships among our biggest successes this year. I would also commit ourselves (and me) to finishing the work by aiming to have visited each school in person by the end of next year.

Board Development

We had two critical tasks with regard to the board this year. Making the transition to independence required growing a philanthropic lay board, and under the leadership of our first-time board chair Dara Yanowitz and our Development Director, Alisha Goodman, we have nearly hit our benchmarks in recruiting new members. Although we have some geographic diversity, a goal for the future is to ensure even better representation from all of our key demographics. The second task was to transition the prior “board” – largely made up of professionals – to a “Professional Advisory Board” in order to provide us with a sounding board for new ideas, a safe place for workshopping difficult discussions and decisions, and to receive critical feedback from the field. Under the guidance of our Associate Director, Ilisa Cappell, we have been enriched by the work of the Professional Advisory Board and look to involve them even more deeply in the year to come to always be sure the work we do serves the greater good.

Placement

This was a new experience for us all! We have been active partners with all our schools going through transition. We played a more active role in schools who conducted their searches in-house, as to be expected, but worked with all our schools and many candidates to the best of our ability. I am very pleased that all our new heads (whether new to Schechter or new to the headship) will receive appropriate coaching and mentoring in the year to come to ensure smooth transitions for all. That was a top priority for us. We learned a lot from this first experience and are confident we will be even better prepared to help schools and professionals on similar journeys next season.

Field Collaborations

Whether it is the work laid out in this announcement or more modest collaborations with our sister networks and other organizations, I think Schechter’s reemergence has served as a catalyst for new relationships. Our work with the Jewish Montessori Society has created new relationships which we hope will yield fruit in the year to come. Our contributions to the planning and facilitation of this year’s North American Jewish Day School Conference, especially the “Small School Track” championed by our own Ilisa Cappell and RAVSAK‘s Dr. Marc Kramer, we believe helped make the conference a success. We have gladly marketed programs and contests that serve the needs of our schools regardless of who created them and have had our programs and contests gladly marketed by others. We look forward to only more and more in the year to come.

Thought Leadership

I would have liked to have achieved more in this area. Although a few articles were published, I don’t think we did enough to clarify for the field who we are and what we believe to be true. This blog is one attempt. This podcast is another. But on the whole I think we got swallowed up by organizational growth, program and other business and we were unable to dedicate enough time to this. We also need to do a much better job curating the thought leadership being done so well by our school leaders and positioning those school leaders to take on even more thought leadership in the future.

What about “Program” you may ask?

At 1300 words and counting, this is probably not the best time to begin a review of all the new programs we launched this year! Especially because they are the things we have written the most about. I will say that we are in the process of reviewing the successes and failures of all our programs and initiatives and I will surely report back here what we discovered and to lay out our programmatic agenda for 2015-2016.

As always, I welcome your thoughts, feedback, questions and concerns. Feel free to comment publicly or email me privately ([email protected]) and let me know how you think I am doing. I really want to know.

The Transparency Files: PEJE Atidenu Presentation

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending PEJE Atidenu and the privilege of presenting on how to effectively market the 21st century learning aspects of Jewish day schools for maximum impact. It was a great opportunity to learn with experts in recruitment and retention from within and beyond the Jewish day school world and to catch up with colleagues new and old. (I should also mention that Schechter is well-represented amongst a strong and diverse cohort of schools seeking a more secure future.)

Valuing transparency and possessing a strong desire to share what knowledge we have with any who may benefit from it, I am happy to share here my presentation (the first half of which is borrowed from the work of Silvia Tolisano, 21st century educator par excellence and Schechter’s Eduplanet21 Project Director):

(There was also a very robust TodaysMeet that remains open to participants for another few days, the transcript of which I have printed, but cannot share publicly for lack of permission. If you were in attendance, I encourage you to download it!)

In other news…

The Jewish Education Olde Thyme Radio Hour is back next week with our second podcast!

ELI talks presents “The Jewish Education Olde Thyme Radio Hour”!

Join hosts Dr. Jon Mitzmacher and Rabbi Marc Baker in a lively conversation with Allison Fine, author of “Matterness: What Fearless Leaders Know About the Power and Promise of Social Media.” We’ll explore the idea of matterness, the implications for Jewish education, and for educational leadership – and take your questions along the way!

This conversation will take place via Google Hangouts on Air.

Information on how to join will be sent to guests in advance of the event.

Space is limited! Be sure to RSVP through Eventbrite to secure your spot in the conversation:

For more about our guest, visit: http://allisonfine.com.

Marc and I had a great prep meeting and we are guaranteeing less “um’s” and more “hmm’s” this go-around! We are thrilled to have Allison Fine as our first official guest and look forward to a great conversation.

For those of you enduring rough winter weather, please stay warm and safe! Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday weekend…

The Transparency Files: What does a network head do all day?

We have a saying here at Schechter: “If you really want to know what we value most, you only have to look in two places – the calendar and the budget.”

And it is true; there are no more valuable resources than our time and our money. How we decide to allocate them is, therefore, the truest test of our values. All the rest is commentary, as they say…

Or, to get at it another way, my younger daughter, Maytal (6), asked me the other day, “Do you just sit at your desk all day looking at your computer?”

Now that I am at about the 1/4-year mark of my first year as Executive Director of the Schechter Day School Network, I think it is a reasonable and useful question to ask: What exactly does the head of a network of schools do and are those things the best and most useful allocation of time for those schools or the field?

The first part of the question is pretty easy to answer, and I will attempt to transparently quantify and qualify how I’ve been spending my time. The second question is somewhat a matter of opinion, and although I will share mine, yours might be of even greater value.

That pixellated calendar above is actually a screenshot of my calendar for this week – the first full week of work those of us in the Jewish world have had in a while. I don’t know (yet) if this is a typical (non-travel) week for me, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume that it is. Let’s also base the the percentages on a 40-hour work week, knowing that no one actually works that amount of time. Better a straw man to poke at than a pile of straw.

So, let’s see how the numbers stack up for this week:

Let’s start with how I define my terms:

Staff Meetings: These are any meetings that take place with different constellations of Schechter professional staff. It could be a full staff meeting (weekly) or scheduled meetings with members of the professional staff to discuss and work on projects (EduPlanet21, edJEWcon, etc.).
School Consults: This includes conversations with either the head and/or board chair of a member school.
Thought Leadership: This includes activities that further the cause of participating in thought leadership for the field, such as writing articles, blogging or engaging in social media for the sake of providing resources or facilitating conversations.
New Business Development: This includes all activities that could lead to “new business” for the network – projects, initiatives, pilots, opportunities, etc. – that could result in new activities for the network and/or the schools.
Placement: Working with both schools and heads engaged in the search process.
Foundations: This includes reporting on current projects, grant writing for new projects and all the stewardship thereof.
Intra-Network Meetings: This includes all meetings and conversations that take place between the networks and agencies who service the field on current or potential collaborations. This year, of course, it includes work on the upcoming North American Jewish Day School Conference.
Correspondance: Keeping up with email and phone calls!
Board Development: All communication and planning for the development of our lay board.
Fundraising: Raising money for the network and its schools.
Professional Development: Making sure I continue to grow as a leader.
Supervision: Making sure I facilitate the growth of others.
Miscellaneous: Whatever didn’t make a category.

So. That’s what the week of October 20th, 2014 looks like for me.

Again, leaving aside what weeks of travel look like (it will be a busy November!) and whether this one week is truly representative of the rest…is this a good use of my time?

You would have to fold in the rest of the professional team, compare and contrast to our strategic plan, etc., to really give a scientific answer, but my read of it includes the following observations:

These feel like the correct categories of activity for the head of a network of schools.
Considering where Schechter is in its rebirth, I am torn between a variety of activities that all feel critically important – helping to build a board, helping to execute a development plan for long-term sustainability, responding directly to the needs of schools, developing and shepherding new projects and initiatives for the schools and the field, and learning a lot more about the schools and the field. I could and should spend all my time on all of those…
This is a great time to be Schechter! I am extremely proud of our team, our schools and our stakeholders…what we have managed to do in only four months of operating at full strength is extraordinary and hopefully a harbinger of what is to come.
Helping to plan a conference with “systems intelligence” at the heart comes at the right time for us! It creates lots of good energy when the different oars of your work manage to steer you in the same direction. That is definitely the case for Schechter.

Why share this publicly?

Transparency. Accountability. Reflective Practice.

You have a right to know how I spend my time. I want you to know. And I want to learn from you…

…so feel free to comment or contact me directly. Upcoming “Transparency Files” will examine our budget (and budgeting process), what it means when we visit a community and seasonal self-evaluations.

In the meanwhile, my schedule is calling me to next activity!

A Wordle to the Wise

Readers of this blog know a few things…

…I will make bad puns.

…I will take 200 words to say something better said in 20.

…I will use any opportunity to include a gratuitous picture of my children.

…I will worry aloud that only my mother and the people she shares with on Facebook read my blog.

…and

…I love Wordle.

If you are unfamiliar with it, in a nutshell, Wordle (through an algorithm only it knows) takes any piece of written text and represents it graphically in a way which highlights frequently-used words. It is a fantastic device for visually summarizing the essence of a written text. Another great feature is that, not only can you cut-and-paste in any written document, you can type in blogs, websites, etc., and it will go back and search them for content, add it all up, and spit out a Wordle representing the sum of all its written content.

For the last three years, I have used Wordle to visually summarize the content of this blog and compare it to years past in order to reflect on whether I am living up to its goals.

Since I have to wait another year to see if this repurposed blog becomes the adjacent possible I hope that it will, I thought it might be a useful exercise in comparison to take a Wordle of our largely not-yet-reimagined website:

And the text from our new case statement:

The thinking being that the website pretty much reflects Schechter as it was and the case statement pretty much reflects Schechter as it is becoming.

Is it a perfect reflection of either?

Probably not (I don’t think there has been any de-emphasis in “Hebrew” for example), but it hits many of the high notes. It may help us realize what we’ve been emphasizing (or over-emphasizing) or what is missing that perhaps we thought was there. Either way it really gets you thinking…

If you see something interesting in Schechter’s Wordles…let us know in the comments!

Quick Pedagogy Epilogue:

Who is using Wordle in their schools, classrooms or organizations? You can check classroom blogs, school websites, the Torah, your mission statement, a behavioral code of conduct and so on.

How fun!

So…let’s Wordle Up! Find a text that is meaningful to you, create a Wordle, and find a way to share it. The wordle is waiting!

[More bad puns! I am who I am…but I did manage to write a post under 450 words.]

How We Spent Your Summer Vacation

Greetings from (my) home office!

Hopefully your summer has had lots of views like this one and that whatever your goals were for the summer – professional development, vacation, relaxation, rejuvenation, reconnection, spending time with family, etc. – you accomplished them and more.

As August heads towards September and our earliest schools have already begun to welcome teachers and parents back to school, we continue to follow events in our beloved Israel with acute concern and sadness. I have been monitoring the many blog posts, Facebook messages, tweets and constant contacts you have been sending to your local stakeholders and am proud of how our network of schools continues to stand proudly with Israel.

We have a team of professionals and lay leaders enthusiastic about the future of Schechter and as we head into another school year, we look forward to inspiring you to feel the same. They say that “kol hatkhalot kashot” – but not at the new Schechter! We are full speed ahead in furthering our programmatic agenda – to deliver resources to our members schools, to listen and learn from you about how we can do both more and better, and to contribute to the success of the field as a whole.

Here is how we spent your summer vacation:

Summer 2014 Update

Programming: Connecting the Schools

Coaching

Experienced former Schechter heads of school provided high-level coaching and expertise to school leadership, addressing critical issues in each school.

Successfully implemented in 12 schools throughout the country.
Schools reported that they received incredible value from the coaches.
FY 15: We will continue to implement this program, providing services to new schools.

Eduplanet21

A virtual platform for Schechter schools that connects schools to high quality professional development as well as to other schools.

Unveiled the platform to the schools in March, 2014.
103 educators have signed on to this platform.
Hired Silvia Tolisano to oversee creating content and building communities of practice.
FY 15: We will upload additional courses and recruit more educators to join the site. Eduplanet21 will also be utilized post-edJEWcon, providing a platform to deepen the connections made in person.

Programming: Developing Leadership & Professional Practice

edJEWcon

Partner with local institutions to create a regional conference focused on 21^st century learning, with content shaped by local needs and with local input

Expanded to new geographic regions, Los Angeles and Miami, bringing together over 30 schools and approximately 200 educators who represent the full spectrum of Jewish day schools.
Planning underway for edJEWcon Cleveland in fall 2014.
Hired Andrea Hernandez to oversee growth of programming, partnering with new communities and customizing the experience for local institutions.
FY 15: We will expand the program to three new communities.

iJED

A three-day conference held in March 2014

Convened over 500 educators and lay leaders.
Discussions focused on 21^st century learning, financial sustainability, and supporting diverse learners.
FY 15: The North American Day School Conference will take place in Philadelphia in March, 2015.

Machon Hadar Summer Institute

An immersive study experience for Jewish studies faculty in June 2014, designed to inspire their own continued study as well as to consider ways of bringing elements of this experience back to their own schools.

Brought together 15 middle and high school Jewish Studies faculty.
Evaluations showed extremely positive experiences.
FY 15: Plans are underway to secure funding for the next 2 cycles of this program.

Capacity Building

Development

First Development Director started April 1.

o A work plan, training, and introductions to the board chair and other board members were completed by June 30.

Created a fundraising plan for FY 15 as well as internal systems to track progress.
Established new relationships with five foundations, and deepened relationship with three more.

o Invited to submit proposals for three foundations, one of which has been submitted and the other two to be completed by end of August.

Governance

Established 501c3 status

Board of Trustees

Installed new board Chair (Dara Yanowitz).
Recruited four new board members for FY 14 and a fifth joined as of July 1 for FY 15.
Finished governance documents and in process of finishing by-laws

Advisory Board

Held first meeting in May.

Leadership and Staffing

In FY 14, hired five positions: Associate Director (who served in FY 14 as Interim Executive Director); Senior Advisor, Planning and Programming; Network Liaison; Development Consultant; Development Director (noted above).
Executive Director stepped into role full-time as of July 1.
Held successful first staff retreat at Camp Ramah Nyack.

OK, yes, some of that started before summer, but most of it didn’t and all of it reflects our newfound capacity, programming, enthusiasm and dreams for our schools and the field!

And to put a bow on summer, let me take this opportunity to formally welcome the Jewish Montessori Network of schools into our Schechter family and to express how much we look forward to what this new collaboration will bring to our schools. (And based on the press this announcement continues to generate, we are not the only ones!) Brukhim Ha’Ba-im!

Finally, please know that it is both a personal and a team goal that we visit in person as many of our schools as possible in the year ahead, with an overall goal of having a Schechter professional at each SDSN school within the next two years. We can use your help in accomplishing this goal by letting us know about important dates, galas, events, programs, etc., coming up in your school and community. If a personal visit makes sense, we’d love to build our travel agenda around such moments of joy and significance. We encourage you to be in the habit of sending us copies of announcements and invitations so we can share the good news and kvell along with you in these important moments in the lives of our schools.

For those of you whose summer is continuing, we wish you relaxation and rejuvenation. For those of you whose summer is beginning to end, we wish you joy and fulfillment as you welcome back teachers, staff, parents and teachers. It is going to be an amazing year…we are proud to share it with you.

The Transparency Files: MJGDS 2014-2015 Faculty

It is hard to believe that the school year (for students!) ended today at noon! It is hard to believe that my time as a head of school (with students!) ended along with it…

Next week, I will likely write my last blog post as Head of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and Galinksy Academy before taking a week or two off to reimagine and relaunch this blog as the Executive Director of the Schechter Day School Network. But for today there is, indeed, one last critical piece of business to attend to – to announce who will be leading this remarkable school into the 2014-2015 school year!

I went back to read last year’s posts on this same topic and realized that there were a LOT of big changes heading into this year (BYOiPad, Community of Kindness, a reshuffling of the 21st Century Learning Team, as well as other faculty moves); so many that I needed two blog posts just to explain them all!

The good news is that we have already spent plenty of time discussing the major change at the top, but outside that we will go into next year with remarkable stability and strength. However, before officially announcing the staff, I do want to highlight what few changes there will be.

Mrs. Shelly Zavon, our 4th-5th Grade Mathematics and Social Studies Teacher and longtime 5th Grade General Studies Teacher, will be leaving us to join her husband in their family business. Mrs. Zavon is a consummate professional who was a big part of our successful move to Singapore Math, departmentalization of Grades 4 & 5, and the launch of BYOiPad. She had the confidence of her parents, the respect of her colleagues and the love of her students. She will be missed.

We are very fortunate, however, to be able to promote from within our very own Ms. Michelle Lewis who spent this year as our 5th Grade General Studies Assistant Teacher. A recent graduate from Northern Illinois University, Ms. Lewis impressed all the faculty she worked with this year with her work ethic and her talent. She is familiar with our curriculum and our program. We are excited to see her grow into a lead role!

We are saying good-bye as well to Talie Zaifert, our outstanding Admissions & Marketing Director. Her warm smile was the first step in many a MJGDS family’s journey through Jewish day school. After many years of excellence, including developing a national reputation for use of social media, Mrs. Zaifert is ready for new challenges and we wish her all the best in her new ventures.

We are lucky to be welcoming Mrs. Claudia Margolis into the position! Mrs. Margolis has a professional marketing background and with three children in our schools next year, she will be in a terrific position to pick up the baton and keep running. We look forward to her joining the team this July.

In addition, we will be bidding farewell to our beloved “Mrs. B.”, Carla Bernard, who after a long and distinguished teaching career – mostly as a lead teacher for Grade Two – will be moving on to new experiences. Generations of students have counted Mrs. B. amongst their favorites on their journey through our school. Hers is a career worthy of celebration. Her daily smiling presence will be missed…hopefully she will join the sub list and grace us with that smile for many more years to come!

We are also saying farewell to Ms. Emma Boette who after a successful year as an Assistant Teacher in Grade 3 will be moving into a lead position of her own at a local charter school. We wish her all the luck in the world as she assumes her new, well-deserved, responsibilities.

Finally, we are very pleased to announce the hiring of Mrs. Marci Rogozen as our new Middle School Jewish Studies Tanakh Teacher! Mrs. Rogozen has her Master’s from the American Jewish University and her Bachelor’s from the University of Washington and has had a distinguished career in the teaching of Jewish Studies – most recently at Golda Och Academy (a large Schechter K-12 in New Jersey) and at Gross Schechter Day School (a K-8 in Cleveland). Although our clergy will still have meaningful teaching roles in our school, this addition ensures continuity and consistency on our Middle School Jewish Studies Faculty.

With all the announcements and explanations out of the way, it is my pleasure to introduce the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School 2014-2015 Faculty & Staff:

Lower School General Studies Faculty

Kindergarten: Mrs. Arlene Yegelwel & (A Second Teacher to be hired soon!)
First Grade: Ms. Pamela Lewis & Mrs. Shannon McVearry
Second Grade: Ms. Amy Stein & (A Second Teacher to be hired soon!)
Third Grade: Mr. Seth Carpenter & (A Second Teacher to be hired soon!)
Fourth Grade/Fifth Grade Language Arts: Mrs. Andrea Hernandez & Mrs. Dee Ann Wulbern
Fourth Grade/Fifth Grade Mathematics & Social Studies: Ms. Michelle Lewis & Mrs. Joni Shmunes

Lower School Jewish Studies Faculty

Kitah Gan: Morah Edith (Ita) Horovitz
Kitah Alef: Morah Robin (Rachel) Morris & Morah Hannah Bendit
Kitah Bet: Morah Rivka Cohen
Kitah Gimmel: Morah Liat Walker
Kitah Dalet: Morah Rivka Cohen
Kitah Hay: Morah Liat Walker
Kitah Bet-Gimmel Resource Teacher: Morah Rivkah Ohayon
Kitah Dalet-Hay Resource Teacher: Morah Mazal Spalter
JS Assistant Teacher: Morah Shosh Orgad
JS Assistant Teacher: Morah Ilana Manasse

Middle School Faculty

Science: Mrs. Karianne Jaffa
Social Studies: Mrs. Judy Reppert
Language Arts: Mrs. Stephanie Teitelbaum
Middle School Mathematics: Mrs. Lauren Resnick & Mrs. Amy McClure
Hebrew: Morah Rivka Ohayon
Rabbinics: Morah Edith (Ita) Horovitz
Bible: Morah Marci Rogozen
Clergy: Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner, Rabbi Howard Tilman, & Hazzan Holzer

Resource Teachers

K-5 Science: Mrs. Karianne Jaffa
Music: Mr. Evan Susman
Art: Mrs. Shana Gutterman
PE: Coach Jared Goldman
Jewish Music & Tefillah: Hazzan Jesse Holzer

21st Century Learning Team

Library & Media Specialist: Mrs. Karin Hallett
Visual Literacy Specialist: Mrs. Shana Gutterman
Community of Kindness Coordinator: Mrs. Stephanie Teitelbaum
Technology Coordinator: Mrs. Kim Glasgal

MJGDS Administrative Team

Administrative Assistant: Mrs. Jessie Roman
Executive Assistant: Mrs. Robyn Waring
Admissions & Marketing Director: Mrs. Claudia Margolis
Middle School Vice-Principal: Mrs. Edith Horovitz
Head of School: Rabbi Jim Rogozen

I will be doing my best to clean up the remaining assistant positions over the next couple of weeks. We have already interviewed some great candidates and, once confirmed, I hope to have it complete before I officially turn the reigns over on July 1.

I am looking forward to my final days with teachers next week and sharing some closing thoughts after four of the most important, special, and extraordinary years of my life.

The Transparency Files: Standardized Testing

This is our fourth year of publishing the “Grade Equivalent Scores” for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or ITBS – the standardized test we take annually at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School. (We did not have comparison data the first year we published results.) I also blogged that first year about our overall philosophy regarding the proper context for standardized testing.

There remains some confusion about the proper understanding of what a “grade equivalent score” is and, more importantly, is not. I am happy to refer you to a thorough explanation, but if you want the quick summary:

Grade-equivalent scores attempt to show at what grade level and month your child is functioning. However, grade-equivalent scores are not able to show this. Let me use an example to illustrate this. In reading comprehension, your son scored a 7.3 grade equivalent. The seven represents the grade level while the 3 represents the month. 7.3 would represent the seventh grade, third month, which is December. The reason it is the third month is because September is zero, October is one, etc. It is not true though that your son is functioning at the seventh grade level since he was never tested on seventh grade material. He was only tested on fifth grade material. That’s why the grade-equivalent scores should not be used to decide at what grade level a students is functioning.

We do not believe that standardized test scores represent the only, nor surely the best, evidence for academic success. Our goal continues to be providing each student with a “floor, but no ceiling” representing each student’s maximum success. Our best outcome is still producing students who become lifelong learners.

But I also don’t want to undersell the objective evidence that shows that the work we are doing here does in fact lead to tangible success!

Our graduates the last four years have successfully placed into the high school programs of their choice. Each one had a different ceiling – they are all different – but working with them, their families and their teachers, we successfully transitioned them all to the schools and programs they qualified for.

And now for four years running, despite all the qualifications and caveats, our ITBS scores continue to demonstrate excellence. Excellence within the grades and between them. And let’s be clear, this academic excellence comes with an inclusive admissions process.

That’s the headline…let’s look more closely at the story.

First up is “Language”.

Remember…in order to track a class you have to compare 2012 to 2013 to 2014. For example, in 2012, the Language Grade Equivalent of Average for Grade Two was 3.4. In 2013, those kids in Grade Three scored 4.9. In 2014 those same kids in Grade Four scored 6.8. That class “grew” 1.5 from 2012 to 2013 and “grew” another 1.9 to this. (Also, the scale stops at 13…it is the highest score available.)

The positive, of course, is that each grade is functioning at an extremely high level! There are dips up and down, but when both the averages and the diversity level is high, it is hard to find much to point to. One data point to explore is that almost every class grew over a full grade level, but there is some “flatness” between Kindergarten and Grade One. They still have high averages, but this is worth looking at further. It could be that Kindergarden’s high starting point is a mismatch with Grade One curriculum, for example. This is one of the benefits of not teaching to the test…it can sometimes uncover gaps in curriculum.

Let’s move onto “Reading”.

Here again the news is largely positive! Most grades have growth of at least one grade level, despite high starting points. Grades One and Three were slightly less. Next year when we fully embrace the Daily Five, we will have to pay attention to these scores to see how it impacts Grades One-Three. There was also a dip from Grade 7 to Grade 8 – these scores are awfully high to begin with, but we will have to track to see if this is an anomaly or becomes a trend.

Let’s look at “Math”. $MJGDS ITBS 2014 - Math$

Again, the overwhelming news is positive. This marks the third year we are using Singapore Math in Grades K-5, the second year of departmentalization in Grades Four & Five, and we added a new Middle School Math Teacher. The only trends worth noting is the relatively flat growth in the youngest grades. The grade averages, even in those grades, are appropriately high and the class averages still show growth. It is the rate of growth we will need to explore. [NOTE: It takes a lot of courage for teachers to work under this level of transparency.] We have noted in the past that the curriculum tends to start out slow and build, and now after a couple of years of similar results it is time to revisit how we supplement the curriculum in the lower grades to ensure maximal growth. It is also worth noting the extreme jumps in the Middle School this year. This could be due to the impact of students coming out the Lower School with better skills from having been more fully in Singapore Math or it could be the impact of professional growth on our Middle School Faculty…or both!

To sum up, despite our focus on individual growth, our average growth continues to significantly outpace national percentiles and grade equivalency scores. Does “reflection lead to achievement” at MJGDS? Does being a 21st century learning pioneer translate into high academic success?

Four years in a row may not be conclusive, but it may be heading towards it!

Please know that all receiving teachers will have prior years’ data and be charged with making the next year even better. They have been up to the task these last four years and we look forward to more learning, more growth and more excellence in the year to come.