A DYNAMIC TOOL FOR REACHING EXCELLENCE IN JEWISH EDUCATION

• Do the synagogue schools in your community provide the best educationthey can for your children?

• How can each school uncover its strengths and challenges?

• How can you begin to assess the effectiveness of each school?

THE JSASIP CAN GET YOU THESE ANSWERS. The JSASIP is an effective comprehensivetool used in Jewish communities acrossNorth America to assess their schools’effectivenessand assist in developing an improvement plan.

Makes the invisible visible • Describes best practices in synagogue

schools and measures effectiveness • Provides a shared vocabulary

about synagogue school practices for community stakeholders •

Creates a common language • Gives stakeholders data for decision

making • Generates concrete recommendations for improvement

Jewish School Assessment • • • •• • • School Improvement Process

• A STANDARDIZED INSTRUMENT especially designed for assessing complementary Jewish schools.

• TEN INTERCONNECTED BUILDING BLOCKS that are the major areas of practice that impacton student engagement.

• A PROCESS FOR SYSTEMATICDATA COLLECTION frominterviews with synagogueand school leadership,parent and teacher focusgroups, school observations,an online family survey andreview of documents.

• THEWRITTEN REPORTilluminates strengths as wellas recommendations forschool improvement,tracks the school’s progress,and enables focused planningfor school improvement.

• THE JSASIPWILL GIVE YOU A CLEAR, STANDARDIZED VIEW of yourcommunity’s educational strengths and needs.

• THE SYNAGOGUE COMMUNITYWILL BE STRENGTHENED as stakeholders areable to explore educational priorities, reach consensus, target specific areasfor improvement and work together towards achieving common goals.

• THE COLLECTIVE RESULTS OF THE JSASIP, in its identification of strengths and areas forimprovement, can help your Federation and/or your Central Agency determine its own prioritiesin supporting Jewish education.

What will your Jewish communitygain by participation?

What is the JSASIP?

LEADERSHIP

PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT

CURRICULUMINSTRUCTION

CO-CURRICULARPROGRAMS

SCHOOLCULTURE

FAMILIES &PARENTS

HUMANRESOURCES

PRACTICES &PROCEDURES

FACILITIES

The 10 interconnected building blocks of JSASIP© 2008 Foundations, Inc. and the Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education.

� PARTICIPANTSIdentify a minimum of three synagogues that have expressed thedesire to administer the JSASIP to facilitate educational change.

� Once the participants receive the completed JSASIP report, they willfind it a powerful resource for tracking progress from year to year.

� ASSESSORSDesignate two or three teams of professional assessors to participate in training.Each team, one experienced Jewish educator and one experienced general educator, will conduct theassessment at the start of the process and a re-assessment during the third year of the program.

� Once JSASIP assessors are trained they become a perpetual resource for the community in thisassessment process.

� FUNDERSDetermine potential funding sources to match PELIE's resources. Training costs are provided by PELIEand the assessment costs are provided by a combination of local funders, which could include theCentral Agency, the Jewish Federation, individual funders and/or the participating synagogues.

� These new collaborations lead to richer conversations about Jewish education in your community.

What does your communityneed to get started with JSASIP?

The JSASIP was developed by Foundations, Inc., an education non-profit organization,

in collaboration with the Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education (ACAJE) for the

Nurturing Excellence in Synagogue Schools (NESS) Initiative.

PELIE, the Partnership for Effective Learning and Innovative Education, collaborated

with Foundations, Inc. and ACAJE in an effort to bring the JSASIP, as an educational tool

for synagogue school improvement, to Jewish

communities throughout the United States.

Since 2003, the JSASIP has been effectively

used in 30 schools in Philadelphia,

San Francisco, Detroit, Pittsburgh,

Milwaukee and Baltimore.

To get more information and to explorewhat the JSASIP can mean for you,contact

Rochelle B. RabeeyaEducational Program Manager

TELEPHONE: (212) 584-7325

EMAIL: rrabeeya@pelie.org

Photos courtesy ofCongregation Beth Jacob,Congregation Kol Emeth, andPeninsula Temple Sholomin the San Francisco Bay Area,and Adath Israelin suburban Philadelphia.

The JSASIP is an invaluable tool that enables congregations to capture their schools’strengthsand challenges in order to build upon success and overcome weaknesses in the program.

– Jeffrey Lasday, Director, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit Alliance for Jewish Education

The JSASIP process was crucial in reflecting on the successes and growth potentials of ourreligious schools allowing us to set a vision for improvement and helping us to develop thetools to accomplish our vision.

– Rabbi Aaron Starr, Education Director, Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Southfield, Michigan

The process has helped us to define ourselves. In a lot of ways it has helped us to confirmwho we are and what we already knew. And we said, yes, that is exactly us! We knew that.And now, how do we get to the next step?

– Bill Futornick, Ritual Director, Congregation Beth Jacob, Redwood City, CA

The level of detail about each of the areas creates instant credibility. The religious schooldirectors and the religious school committees of the congregations aregivena clear roadmapfor improvement. As a former public school superintendent for many years, I wish I wouldhave had such an instrument to guide our school improvement process.

– George Szymanski, Ph.D., Leadership Development FacilitatorCongregational School Improvement Initiative, Pittsburgh, PA

Compiling and reviewing data from the JSASIPhelped synagogue leaders better understandthe building blocks for effective synagogue schools. These developments represent amajorculture shift in an environment where there are no standards for assessment.

– Leora W. Isaacs, Ph.D. and staff, JESNA’s Berman Center for Research and Evaluationin “NESS Nurturing Excellence in Synagogue Schools Cohort 1: Final Report”

The scores on the subscales of the building blocks helped us to prioritize immediate needsanddeterminewhatwe could allow towait. Theprocessprovidesbenchmarks towork toward.

-Phyllis Kosherick, Co-Chair,Education Committee of Beth Am Israel, Penn Valley, PA

Jewish School Assessment • • • •• • • School Improvement Process