Improving Instructional Quality in Jewish Day Schools and Yeshivot ...

Conclusion: Learning to Lead Instructional ChangeTransforming Jewish Day School Culture to ImproveTeaching and Promote Learning for All“To exercise leadership in this climate of change will require deepconvictions, strong commitments, and clear ideas about directions forchanges . . . .”Robert J. Starratt“Some people will tell you to enter hinukh because this way yourolam haba will be assured. And I tell you, that you should enter theworld of hinukh because there is no greater simhah in this world thanto teach Torah to Jewish children.”Rav Pam to one of his studentsThis last section of the monograph highlights the imperative forJewish day school and yeshiva leaders to transform their schoolculture to strategically address ways to promote teacher professionalgrowth in order to improve teaching and promote student learning forall students regardless of their abilities. In order for instructionalleadership to form the core work of Jewish school leaders, they mustbe acquainted with Michael Fullan's (2008a) "key drivers for change"and the literature of "change knowledge."Why, you might ask, must we transform our schools? Whychange? Schools today are more complex than schools of yesteryear.We confront a plethora of challenges – we have more students thanever identified with emotional and learning issues and we facecommunal pressures that compel school leaders to remain responsiveto a growing, varied, and diverse constituency. We need to keep pacewith these internal and external vicissitudes that inevitably challengeour convictions and fortitude. Because problems are more oneroustoday, we need a theory of leadership to guide our work in schools.Transformational school leadership theory provides such a foundationfor our important work in Jewish schools.Transformational leadership, according to Northouse (2003), was“first coined by Downton” (1973 as cited by Northouse, 2003, p. 131)79