Early Childhood Education
- 70 professionals from 15 Jewish early childhood centers participated in learning this year through CAJE to enhance and improve their skills.
- CAJE is completing the first cohort of the Early Childhood Leadership Institute, in collaboration with the United Way Center for Excellence, co-sponsored by the Robert Russell Foundation and the Jack and Harriet Rosenfeld Foundation.
- The Early Childhood Directors’ Network embarked on an ongoing professional learning series led by Dr. Lori Ryan, a nationally known expert who has led work in Jewish early childhood initiatives across the United States.
- Working with the Directors’ Network and Early Childhood Committee, CAJE is developing initiatives to deepen parental engagement among families whose children attend Jewish early childhood programs.
Jewish Day Schools
- 368 individuals, representing 15 Miami-Dade County Jewish day schools (and several from Broward and Palm Beach counties) participated in ongoing professional learning through a range of opportunities offered by CAJE, described below.
- CAJE implemented two new initiatives in the area of day school recruitment and retention:
- Atidenu ("Our future"), a program of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) supported by the Avi Chai Foundation and Federation, is providing intensive learning and coaching to help six Miami day schools improve sustainability by boosting enrollment, retention and tuition.
- The Coalition for Miami Admissions Directors of Jewish Day Schools (CMAD) was founded this year, and is providing professional learning and networking on a monthly basis for admissions directors in schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Their work included a day-long learning session sponsored by the national Consortium of Jewish Day Schools, and sessions to explore marketing and the implications of the 2014 Greater Miami Jewish Federation Population study on day school recruitment.
- The Jewish New Teacher Project completed another successful session. This program, which helps schools in supporting new teachers, will continue with a new cohort of teachers in fall 2015.
- A new Blended Learning Initiative was launched this year, funded by a grant from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation with the generous support of the Avi Chai Foundation, the Targum Shlishi Foundation, and a generous challenge grant from Dr. Shmuel and Evelyn Katz and Moises and Lilian Tabacinic and other donors. Additional grants are being sought for implementation of the program. The first phase of this project, brought in by our partners from the Digital JLearning Network, was to visit local schools and assess their readiness to embark on expanding blended learning approaches. The second phase of this project, features a Blended Learning Academy for participating schools.
- CAJE has expanded its work in connecting our Jewish day schools to resources available through the public sector. Our staff continues to work with Title I, to improve student's academic achievements, and Title II, for teacher professional development, on behalf of our schools. Most recently, our schools received support through CAJE from Title II to participate in the North American Jewish Day School Conference in Philadelphia in March, and in the Torah U’Mesorah Conference in Philadelphia in May. Title II funds were also used to offer online education courses through the Yeshiva University School Partnership and to offer a professional learning session, held at CAJE, on the implications of brain research on teaching.
- This year marks the first year CAJE has built a partnership with Miami-Dade County schools to bring the program resources available through Title III to help day schools educate students for whom English is not their native language.
- Through the generous support of the Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz Family Foundation, the Eleanor Meyerhoff Katz Teacher Initiative Awards were presented this year to provide funds for teachers to implement new strategies in their classrooms that would not otherwise be possible. In this first year of the program, 32 applications were submitted. A total of more than $18,000 in grants was given to teachers in Miami-Dade County day schools.
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Congregational Education
- CAJE’s work in the area of Congregational Education has begun a transition. The current work (and projected future work) revolves around the following areas:
- A case management approach, through which each synagogue can set goals and work with CAJE consulting and coaching toward those goals
- Professional learning for teachers and congregational teams, such as the community program with Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) and a training session with PresenTense in the area of fostering innovation
- Brokering partnerships between Federation, CAJE, congregations and nationally recognized providers to bring some of the best programs available to Miami. Partners this year included iCenter and Shalom Learning. The Jewish Lens program will be added in the coming year.
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