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

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members are not fully cognizant or supportive of the role of school leaders as,first and foremost, instructional leaders; they often view public relations,fund raising, and other necessary administrative duties as priorities for theirleaders. They often pay lip-service to instructional quality or examinestudent achievement levels for the school’s “top students” as the chiefcriterion for the school’s success. Also, student enrollment averages or levelsmay be the foremost measure boards look at for school leader effectiveness. Ihave seen schools that have risen in student enrollments in recent years buthave appalling instructional programs and practices. These increases inenrollment may be due to a community’s demographic changes or aperception by parents of the school’s effectiveness. Often hashkafah plays acritical role. A co-ed modern-orthodox high school, for instance, might havea superior instructional program, but if a parent eschews co-ed practices,then she may send her child to another school more in line with herhashkafic desires without sufficient scrutiny of the school’s educationalquality. Without belaboring this sensitive and potentially controversialsubject, the point here is that boards need to be educated about a school’sinstructional program, in its specifics, so that they fully support a schoolleader’s work in this area, not only in word, but also in deed (e.g., resourcesallocated to sufficiently support the school’s instructional program) (see, e.g.,Birkeland, 2008).20. Research indicates that administrators who utilize survey instruments toassess a wide range of attitudes are more in touch with realities about theirschools. See Appendix E for an instrument that supervisors can take in orderto guesstimate how teachers might respond to a variety of instructional issuesin the school. Then, supervisors should actually distribute the surveyinstrument in Appendix F to teachers for use as a comparison to results of thequestionnaire taken in Appendix E. Feel free to tweak items on thequestionnaires to suit your specific school/community situation.21. Some school leaders I have spoken with are suspicious of “latest researchculled from best practices.” Other leaders are simply out of touch withcurrent research because they rely on methods they might have learned andused years ago and have not kept up with the literature by reading relevanteducation journals. Leaders sometimes base their work on classical notions ofpedagogy. Effective school leaders, in my view, do need to keep a critical eyeon developments in the field of education. There are valid and importantresearch studies and practices that have been published that can inform one’swork in Jewish day schools. Imagine a physician or attorney who remainsoblivious to recent developments in their respective fields of study. Whyshould educational leaders not take proactive steps to read and learn about92
current innovations and best practices to determine which might fit in theirschool? I urge readers to examine the Annotated Works on InstructionalLeadership section of this monograph for readings that might inform theirown professional development in the area of instructional leadership.22. A strong argument is made that early Jewish education systems clearlysaw the value in constructivism. The gemara (Berakhot 63b), explains thatwe learn be-havruta because of the different styles of the two participants(note that they are, ideally, actively engaging in learning, as opposed tolistening to a lecture; see Brown & Malkus, 2007 for a recent study on thispoint). In my observation of many classrooms, parenthetically, I am notparticularly fond of the way havruta is conducted with students working inpairs without any continuous oversight and instructional guidance by theteacher (rebbe).23. I highly recommend reading the research conducted by Barak Rosenshine(1971), an often overlooked educational researcher, whose ground-breakingresearch formed the foundation for many of today’s best practices inteaching, curriculum, and instruction.24. Thanks to Rabbi Yehuda Deutsch for this point.25. Some readers will complain that although the ideas in this monograph areintriguing they are, for the most part, unrealistic because of the difficulty tofind the time to devote to promoting instructional quality. I maintain that if aschool head is committed to instructional improvement s/he will find thetime. Allocating an hour in the morning and, say, 45 minutes in theafternoon for uninterrupted time to work with teachers on curriculum orobserve and provide feedback to a teacher is not impossible. Some principalsI know block off time on their schedule and inform their secretary thatbarring an emergency “I am not to be disturbed.” There are several no-cost orvery low cost measures that can be taken as well to make such work a reality.Although my focus in this monograph has not been devoted to a fulldiscussion of implementation strategies, here are some ideas I have seenother day school leaders incorporate for meetings and/or time to devote tothis work: Lunch and Learns, relieve Rabbeim from morning minyanresponsibilities on a rotational basis to attend a curriculum discussion with asmall group of peers, build into contracts for all new hires set days teachersmust attend PD (extra Sundays perhaps), partner with another school to hirePD or curriculum consultants, partner with a local university wherein aprofessor may provide free services in order to meet her community servicerequirements for tenure, etc.93
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Improving InstructionalQuality in J
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Appendix C: Assessing Your Role as
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others, involved in a cognate enter
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Weissberg, Walberg, & Wang., 2004).
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all. “We are never asked for what
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administrator. He was well-organize
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Sartoris, DiPrima Bickel, & Garnier
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grade conferences, etc., effective
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school’s teaching practices, the
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een made in the areas of science an
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learning is more likely to occur th
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content, and the need to ensure tha
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pattern.] I didn’t really realize
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constraints, increase in administra
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The Transformational Change Project
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that are not strategic, but episodi
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my personal involvement in work wit
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schools to even greater levels of s
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was: “Well, you know, finding tim
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called direct teaching), although e
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surprised when no one can answer
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RecommendationsI. Teaching1. Teache
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standards,” a significant opportu
Page 48 and 49: decide on an area or theme they’d
Page 50 and 51: • Reflective journaling - Another
Page 52 and 53: 3. Deep instructional improvement v
Page 54 and 55: Instructional leadership is about e
Page 56 and 57: 76). Teachers who employ instructio
Page 58 and 59: short answers to two questions. The
Page 60 and 61: may become involved in cooperative
Page 62 and 63: utilized within a differentiated le
Page 64 and 65: Research-Based Teaching Practices i
Page 66 and 67: curriculum? Schools, in my view, to
Page 68 and 69: learning objectives have been ident
Page 70 and 71: Developing curriculum at the planni
Page 72 and 73: 4) Emphasize both the academic and
Page 74 and 75: An Overview of Best Practices in Su
Page 76 and 77: with practices best suited to promo
Page 78 and 79: dialogue and meaningful supervision
Page 80 and 81: • Ongoing - Too much of professio
Page 82 and 83: to do so. In fact, utilizing in-sch
Page 84 and 85: greatly to meaningful supervision a
Page 86 and 87: and amplified by James MacGregor Bu
Page 88 and 89: Leadership is predicated on the fou
Page 90 and 91: Citing Jim Collins (2002 cited by F
Page 92 and 93: Notes1. Before continuing, I sugges
Page 94 and 95: ubric of “professional developmen
Page 96 and 97: throughs, explains that according t
Page 100 and 101: AcknowledgementsI thank all the ind
Page 102 and 103: Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and
Page 104 and 105: Burke, P. J., & Krey, R. D. (2005).
Page 106 and 107: Downey, C. J., Steffy, B. E., Posto
Page 108 and 109: Fullan, M. (2005). Leadership and s
Page 110 and 111: Good, T., & Brophy, J. E. (2007). L
Page 112 and 113: Johnson, C. C., & Fargo, J. D. (201
Page 114 and 115: Marzano, R. J., & Brown, J. L. (200
Page 116 and 117: Popham, W. J. (2008a). Classroom as
Page 118 and 119: Shapira-Lishchinsky, O. (2009). Isr
Page 120 and 121: Tschannen-Moran, M., & McMaster, P.
Page 122 and 123: Annotated Works on Instructional Le
Page 124 and 125: This volume is an inspiring introdu
Page 126 and 127: you want to learn how to teach stud
Page 128 and 129: AppendicesAppendix A: Instructional
Page 130 and 131: Suggested responses:1. To be effect
Page 132 and 133: Appendix C: Assessing Your Role as
Page 134 and 135: SA A D SD 3. My spoken language as
Page 136 and 137: Domain 2: The Classroom Environment
Page 138 and 139: SA A D SD 13. I have a well-defined
Page 140 and 141: SA A D SD 13. I rarely desire to se
Page 142 and 143: 20. This is a well managed school.
Page 144 and 145: Appendix F: Teacher Attitude Questi
Page 146: 41. My colleagues and I usually dis
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