Tanakh Standards and Benchmarks Project

The Tanakh Standards and Benchmarks Project, What We Have Learned About Design, Implementation and Impact: 2004-2010 report by Barbara Neufeld , funded by the AVI CHAI Foundation shares key learnings from the Standards and Benchmarks Project.

Key Learnings

•We learned that adopting standards and benchmarks
can, indeed, result in a coherent vision for teaching Tanakh,
meaningful curriculum, and improved teaching but that the
simple word “adopting” masked the complexity of the
enterprise.The story of the Standards and Benchmarks
Project is the story of what is required to “adopt” standards
and benchmarks and use them to good effect.

 

• We learned that the improved teaching that results from
adopting standards and benchmarks and leads to better student
outcomes is characterized by the presence of a) standardsbased
units of instruction and associated lesson plans, b)
formative and summative assessments, and c) pedagogical
practices that focus on student learning outcomes. Each of these
components of improved teaching were in scant supply in
schools when they began to participate in the Project.They
are now present in the schools participating in the Project.

 

• We learned that creating the characteristics associated
with improvedTanakh teaching depends on the presence of
a professional, collaborative, instructionally-focused culture
among teachers and Jewish Studies Heads.And, we learned
that developing the culture in which these characteristics
could be established requires hard work that, ultimately,
depends on the knowledge and skill of the Jewish Studies Head.
When this culture becomes standard operating procedure
in a school, teachers continuously improve their curriculum
and pedagogy.When new teachers join the faculty, they can
be brought into the standards and benchmarks culture of
curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Such school cultures
were not the norm in most schools when they began their
work with the Project.As a result of participating in the
Project, these schools have developed professional, collaborative,
instructionally-focused cultures that were focused on
improving the teaching and learning ofTanakh.

 

• We learned that most Jewish Studies Heads did not begin the
Project with the requisite knowledge and skill about how
to use standards and benchmarks to improve teaching and
learning and that, therefore, the Project needed to design a
high quality,multi-faceted professional development program
andTanakh-specific professional development roles in
order to increase the opportunities for successful Project
implementation.As we describe in this longitudinal report,
the Project succeeded in this effort.