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Beth Rivkind Headshot

Beth is Prizmah's Director, Enrollment Growth. Learn more about her here.

The Continuous Enrollment Advantage

As a previous admission professional, I vividly recall returning to school post-Passover break, with the reenrollment deadline behind us, dedicating hours to contacting current parents who had not yet reenrolled their children. Armed with my list of families, I made countless calls and sent emails in the hopes to reenroll all students. Typically, these were not parents who were considering other school options; they were the persistently busy people, struggling with yet another task of completing the reenrollment process amid life’s demanding to-do list.

The exercise of calling these parents, often interrupting their workdays, became a nuanced dance of encouragement and, eventually, desperation. “Your child has been such an integral part of the 7th-grade community; would you please complete reenrollment for 8th grade?” I would cheerfully request. However, as the weeks went by, my tone became more desperate. “Administration is fine-tuning class sections and elective choices; please reenroll to secure your spot for next year.” This was not an enrollment strategy that was yielding success.

Instead of focusing on other important tasks, I found myself constantly chasing families for reenrollment. Until we could accurately project enrollment numbers, the school was in a holding pattern, unable to proactively and strategically plan for the upcoming school year. Instead of welcoming new families or working on admission planning for the upcoming year, I was caught up in the frantic pursuit of families working to get them to complete reenrollment. It’s a scenario many school professionals face annually. Is there a better way?

In a world where schools and businesses share common ground, the answer seems obvious. Why not automate the process, simplify the customer experience, build a more efficient system for the school, and offer less stress to everyone involved?

We are all too familiar with agreements or subscriptions that effortlessly roll over each year. Business contracts, streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, leases, membership clubs, and insurance policies all follow this model. So why not apply it to enrollment? Many independent schools, including Jewish day schools (more than you might think) have implemented a system most commonly called continuous enrollment.

What are the Benefits of Continuous Enrollment

Continuous enrollment, widely used in colleges and increasingly in independent schools, is a process that shifts from opt-in to opt-out, where current students are automatically reenrolled for each school year, either until the student graduates or the family provides a written notice of opting out of the enrollment contract. The process removes the annual reenrollment, and assumes that families are returning unless they inform the school before a specific deadline and lends numerous benefits, including:

Higher Retention Rates

Continuous enrollment encourages families to stay committed to the school by automatically reenrolling students, leading to higher retention rates.

Streamlined Processes

Once in place, continuous enrollment reduces administrative tasks for the admissions and business offices, relieving the burden on staff and creating efficiencies and time for other projects.

Proactive Budgeting and Forecasting

Schools are able to forecast enrollment numbers for the following year earlier and more accurately, enabling practice budgeting and strategic decision making about faculty hiring, class sectioning, program expansions, and more.

Reduced Effort and Stress for Parents

Families benefit from the reduced effort and stress required for reenrollment. They only need to sign a contract once, eliminating the need for repetitive paperwork and guaranteeing a smoother and less time consuming process each year.

Flexible Payment Options

When schools know in advance how many students will be returning, they can offer more flexible payment deadlines or even incentives to accommodates the financial needs of families.

What Does a Continuous Enrollment Contract Look Like

A continuous enrollment contract simply outlines what parents are committing to by signing on the dotted line. It’s a mutual agreement that ensures clarity and transparency in the enrollment process.

Implementing this type of contract may seem daunting at first, as it requires careful planning and strategic execution. Don’t be afraid to start a new process; take it step by step, research and be sure to have your school team on board. The following are some of the most important components to consider:

Research Other Schools

Start by researching other schools that have successfully implemented continuous enrollment. Learn from their experiences, gather insights, and identify best practices that align with your school’s mission and values.

Check Legal Requirements

Be sure to determine if continuous enrollment is permitted in your state or province, and understand any legal considerations that could affect the process. Make sure to consult with your school’s attorney to ensure the contract language aligns with your state’s regulations and the specifics that your school put in place within the contract.

Secure Support and Form your Team

Within the school, you need allies to make the case for the switch to continuous enrollment. Gain support from the head of school and the business office by showing them the benefits of continuous enrollment and address any concerns. Then, put together a team from the admission, business, marketing/communication, and IT departments. Working collaboratively will help make the change smoother and more successful.

Examine Tuition Setting, Tuition Assistance and Admission Process Timelines

Review your school’s current tuition setting timeline to ensure that any changes in tuition are communicated in advance of opt-in deadlines. Be sure your admission and tuition assistance timelines are closely audited to understand the necessary adjustments required for continuous enrollment. Identify any shifts in processes or deadlines that need to be made and be sure to include them in all communications to families.

Define a New Continuous Enrollment Timeline

Define a new timeline for continuous enrollment that aligns with your school’s existing timelines and processes including tuition setting, tuition assistance, planning for development efforts, budgeting, and forecasting staffing needs.

Integrate with Current Platforms

Asses how continuous enrollment will integrate with your school’s current platforms, such as enrollment management systems, financial software, and communication tools. Ensure that systems are in place to support the new enrollment process seamlessly.

Communication is Key

Once all components are in place, strong and transparent communication is paramount. Develop a comprehensive communication strategy and plan to educate both internal stakeholders and external audiences, including current families, about the transition to continuous enrollment. Ensure clarity by outlining the benefits, timeline, and steps involved in the transition. Proactively communicate deadlines and new procedures through various channels, such as a question and answer guide and an informal informational video, to provide clear instructions on the changes ahead.

Ultimately, transitioning to continuous enrollment proves to be worthwhile if you seek to streamline administrative processes, enhance retention rates, and improve overall parent satisfaction. To implement the process successfully, a school should prioritize thorough research, gain support from key stakeholders, establish clear communication channels, and make necessary adjustments based on feedback and lessons learned during the initial implementation phase.

With continuous enrollment, families and schools benefit from prioritizing what truly matters: their child’s education.

If your school is considering a move to continuous enrollment and would like to discuss, contract Prizmah’s Director, Enrollment Growth for more information.

Cheryl is Prizmah's Senior Director of Brand Strategy. You can learn more about her here.

My Jewish Day School Story

Storytelling has always come naturally to me. I see how lives and people and circumstances fit into beautiful, meaningful narratives, and I can package the many layers into digestible-but-nuanced assets with relative ease, save for a few human moments of lagging inspiration. So, telling the profound story of Jewish day schools—such a big part of my family’s life and my professional role—should come easily enough to me.  

And yet, there was a time when I was very much in need of convincing. Sending my kids to Jewish day school was a real sticking point for me as I entered the Orthodox Jewish world in my 20s. As a young adult, led only by my values and ideals and not so much by experience, I was certain that public schools were the only choice for my future family. I believe in strong public education, and I wanted my children to have deep connections and relationships to those outside the Jewish community. I almost didn’t make many of the life choices that shaped my beautiful family because I did not want my children to be only with other Jewish children for so much of their lives. It felt counter to everything I believed in.

As I weighed the decision of where to send my kids to school for several years, the internal conflict grew and changed. Community and connection pulled against the other values I hold so deeply. Raised in a secular household myself, I had not learned much of anything Jewish beyond the Passover story, which we rushed through to get to the waiting brisket, so it was hard to imagine exactly what I was missing. However, I knew I wanted my children to have more “Jewish” than I did. I wanted my children to have friends who could play with them on Shabbat to make it more fun, and I wanted them to know all of the stories that make up our heritage. I also wanted them to have an easy inroad to a spiritual life and a connection to God—things I had to work harder for not having the background myself. 

Having the true honor of being a day school parent for the last 15 years, and also a day school board president for three, as well as supporting hundreds of day schools through my professional work, I feel so blessed that I made the leap. I made the choice to give my kids the invaluable experience of learning and growing and thriving in Jewish day school, even though it felt so risky and unknown. Like the 72% of families who switched to Jewish day school during Covid just to be in-person and stayed because they loved the experience afforded their children, I am constantly surprised by how valuable my kids’ Jewish education experience really is. 

My children have flourished in ways that they never could have in another environment. They have gained skills, knowledge, and life experience that are not possible for Jewish children outside of Jewish schools.

They are able to engage in the complicated discussions about differences and history in an educated, fact-based way. My high school-aged kids have a nuanced understanding of Israeli history and politics, so crucial in this war, and also the language to talk about their Jewish values and how they influence their perspectives on humanitarian issues and devastation worldwide. They’ve also made deep connections with their Jewish and Israeli teachers and peers, and, at the same time, they’ve been gifted with the knowledge and the confidence to build relationships outside their Jewish world and, at times, to navigate the challenging conversations that these relationships can surface.

Most importantly, they have spent the majority of every day in a space where they can be unapologetically Jewish—unapologetically their authentic selves. It is impossible to measure the deep impact this freedom to be themselves has on their confidence and future success. But I am certain that it is invaluable to their ability to stand up for the things they believe in, and identify and speak up against hate wherever it exists. 

They’ve also seen firsthand how the Jewish community comes together in times of crisis, and they’ve felt the support so deeply themselves. First during Covid and now, through the clouds of fear and hatred that swirl around them because of their Jewish heritage, they feel the embrace of Jewish community as they seek comfort in hard and scary times. Their schools have been their community through all of the challenging moments in their lives, and they have never failed to be there for them. 

In my professional life, I spend most of my days reading and crafting stories about Jewish day schools. As I try to build a communications strategy that represents the full depth and beauty of a day school experience to a world that often underestimates its brilliance, I ask myself, What would have sold me so many years ago? What words could have convinced me that the value of a Jewish day school experience is so fundamental to the growth and life of a Jewish child that it is worth finding other ways to nurture competing ideals held so deeply?

As I try to tease out the messages and themes that will be most compelling, I think about all of the schools and all of the stories. There are so many individual stories, it’s hard to choose just one focus. There are stories told with words. Stories told with images. Stories told through unspoken support and the silent building of communities in times of need and moments of fear. The themes intended to simplify and condense the stories become layered, and nuance gets lost. It feels impossible to weave all of the stories into one and still capture the joy, the comfort, the confidence, and the pure magnitude of impact experienced through a Jewish day school education. 

Perhaps, a change of perspective is needed. It’s not really one “day school story” we are trying to tell. It’s 300+ schools’ stories. It’s 90,000 day school students’ stories. It’s hundreds of thousands of parents’ and grandparents’ stories. It’s millions of day school alumni stories. It’s the singular most important story of all—the story of a strong Jewish future.

So how do we tell the story that Jewish day schools ensure a strong Jewish future to those who still need convincing? How do we shout it from the rooftops across North America, and also convey it to the parents showing up to school board meetings because Jewish families feel unsafe? How can we communicate in clear, uncertain terms that Jewish day schools nurture strong, confident alumni who comprise thriving Jewish communities and build deeply connected Jewish families for generations to come? How do we tell the parents and the community leaders that day schools are not just a luxury to be nurtured in times of bounty—that they are a lifeline to a strong Jewish community and a gift to our children?

We must do it through stories. And we can’t tell just one story; we have to tell all of the stories. We have to reach every corner of the community with this simple message: “Come. You will be so grateful that you did.” And then, as a community, we have to invest in making sure that remains true. 

We must begin now. This is my story, and my children’s stories, and their children’s stories. Join me. Tell your story.

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Miriam Stein

Miriam is the founder of Saddlerock Strategies, a boutique consulting service that works with schools and camps in enrollment strategy, program design and professional development.  She has worked in experiential and formal education and in strategic enrollment for more than 20 years. Miriam offers deep experience in understanding school dynamics and in strategic enrollment campaigns, having been responsible for recruiting for local schools and on national programs, while understanding that closing a deal with each individual family is what matters. She holds a BA in Jewish History from the University of Pennsylvania, and Masters Degrees in Education and in Jewish Studies from George Washington University. As a lifelong learner, Miriam is a graduate of Atidenu, Prizmah’s signature program in enrollment strategy training and in the Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI). She lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC with her family and dog, Ruby.

Why Late Season May Be Your Best Season For Enrollment

In the world of day school enrollment, the phrase “better late than never” takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to late-season applicants. Sure, many families embark on their school search early in the year. But talk to any admission professional or school leader and they will tell you that “admission is a year-round cycle.” The more we embrace what each season offers during the cycle, the more we can be prepared to shift our expectations and dive into the process with eyes wide open. 

Let’s explore how to handle late season admission work, and how it just might be the best season for recruiting new families.


Use Data to Manage Hysteria 

Tracking data around when families inquire, apply, and enroll can help you head into your recruitment season with knowledge and with confidence around what to expect. Instead of praying that your phone starts to ring, you can predict when it will ring and when it won’t. Having this kind of data will help you manage expectations around enrollment—especially of your head of school and board. 

Data manages hysteria. Here’s how.

Application Timing 

Look back at the past three years (five or seven years is better, if you have it), and track how many students inquire and apply after March 1. Compute that average, and use it as a guideline for your spring recruitment season this year. Does it match up? I would bet it does. And now you know, looking ahead, that consistently, you will have x percentage of families apply to your school after the typical application deadline.

Timing of First Choice/Second Choice 

Depending on your market, you may be competing with schools that are selective, which means that some of your applicants may come to you only after they are not accepted at their first-choice school. This may impact their timing. Track the timing on those applicants, and plan ahead for them.

High- need Student 

If your market is anything like mine, many late-season applicants are high-need academically or behaviorally. You know this is going to happen, so stop being surprised, and don’t let your educational support professionals be surprised, either. Plan ahead. Schedule time with the right people, such as counselors and support specialists, specifically in the late spring and summer, because you know you are going to need them to evaluate these applications. Create a plan if the right people to review these applications are out of office.

By predicting the ebbs and flows of applications, you can understand the factors that influence late-stage interest. The data are key in refining admission strategies for each season and managing big emotions.

The Spring Open House: A Hidden Gem

Most schools hold an open house in October or November, officially kicking off the recruitment season. And yet we know that so many families come to our schools well after those fall events. Why hope the fishing rod that you cast in November is going to hold the same bait for the next six months? A spring open house offers a new opportunity for families to look at your school. 

There are three types of families who are low-hanging fruit for the spring open house.

Families who have not yet made a decision for next year 

Maybe they did not get into their first-choice school, or maybe they’re marching to the beat of their own timeline. Either way, they are not on the November open house timeline, and they are yours to lose to another school in the spring.

Families for whom their school is just not working 

They’ve made it through fall, through all of first semester, and come spring, they are facing the music that their current school is just not the right fit. They’re shopping now, and they were not shopping in the fall, when you were in heavy recruitment mode.

Families who are looking 18 months ahead

Families looking at high school may attend a spring open house with their seventh graders, thinking that they’re looking 18 months out. And your Spring Open House may just convince them to start a year earlier. At the Open House, they fall in love with the school and recognize the benefits of starting a new school in eighth grade, work out the transition while in middle school and start ninth grade strong. 
All of these families are customers who were not on the market earlier in the year. When they are looking for a new school in the spring, your spring open house could be just what they need. 

Here are ways you can make the spring event stand out.

  1. The spring open house should be smaller, with fewer bells and whistles. Make it intimate, make it personal, because you’re going to have to move fast with these families. Craft the program to allow for conversations directly with them, rather than a formal presentation.
     
  2. If you’re working with a population with young children, consider hosting this event in the evening, or over Zoom (or both) to make it easier for them to attend. 
     
  3. Reconnect with families who missed the fall event, or who didn’t choose your school on the first go around. They may be ready to shop again. 
     
  4. Always have current students present. They are the product, and parents want to see who their kids can become. This point does not differentiate a spring open house from the fall, but is so important that its worth emphasizing. 

Springtime is the Best Time on the School Calendar 

So many of our schools have end-of-year events that showcase impressive arts programs, the deep impact of experiential learning, and students who have matured after a full year with us. Invite prospective families to these events. Back in the fall, you could not have shown them your Lag Ba’omer festival, the leadership of the color war captain, how beautifully the fourth graders are approaching their Pesach seder, or how confidently first graders present at their publishing party. A kindergarten or first grade class shows very differently in May than it does in November. Late season recruitment gives you the chance to showcase in flying colors what a year can do for children. 

Now, more than ever, families are looking for a Jewish home for their school-aged children, and we can be ready for them in any season. Let’s use what the late season offers us. Instead of spending the fall worrying, let’s welcome the opportunity that each season brings for different types of families to look at our schools.

Paula Gottesman is on the Prizmah Board of Directors. Learn more about her here.

Spotlight on Paula Gottesman: Pragmatic and Visionary

Paula Gottesman, Prizmah board member, along with her late husband Jerry z”l, have been leading day school philanthropists for decades. She shared, “There are many ways to use your resources, but none more rewarding than nurturing a project you believe in. My husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to promote our concerns in concentrating our efforts on Jewish education, but I never expected to feel joy from seeing their success.”

Through community partnerships and the work of their foundation, Paula and Jerry have collaborated with four day schools to establish a community endowment initiative in Greater MetroWest. Their inspirational work has since become a catalyst for unprecedented cooperation and innovation when it comes to day school affordability for middle class families, and a model for other Jewish communities across North America.

Paula is simultaneously pragmatic about the immediate needs of schools and visionary about their potential. “We know that strong, successful schools can endure,” she said, even if future challenges are not yet known. “By nature, Jewish day schools are always paying attention to the next generation; they are centers of Jewish community. We need to invest today in the best teachers, heads of schools, and facilities so that these schools can thrive for years to come.”

Paula continues her support of MetroWest while also making an impact field-wide. “Donors most often give parochially to schools or other institutions in their immediate community where they feel a personal relationship.” Nearly twenty-five years ago, though, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg broadened Paula and Jerry’s vision of day school philanthropy when he asked them about joining PEJE (Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education) with other North American funders to support day school education. It was their relationship with Rabbi Greenberg that really encouraged this new partnership.

This informs the advice she offers to both solicitors and funders: “Start from a connection that matters—an interest in a particular school or cause or a personal relationship. Identify what matters to you and to those you are supporting—whether it is scholarships or security or another area of need.” She continued, “It’s such a reward to see the schools in our community thrive, and an unexpected pleasure to witness the impact of our contributions.”

Yosef is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of GrowTorah. Yosef holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Washington University in St. Louis and a certificate in Experiential Jewish Education from M2. In addition to volunteering as the Board Chair of I Was Supposed To Have a Baby, he is the Chair of the Teaneck Environmental Commission. He lives in Teaneck, NJ with his wife, Sara, and their daughters Zeva, Mina, and Yara. On winter Sundays, he can be found teaching skiing at Plattekill Mountain, in the Catskills.

Reliance and Hope: Lessons From Trees for Tu Bishvat 5784

Rosh Chodesh Shvat, according to Beit Shammai, marks the New Year for trees. However, according to Beit Hillel, we observe the date on the 15th of this month (טו בשבט), which arrives today. This machloket (disagreement) highlights for us the fact that this whole season is important for trees. This holiday takes place in the middle of winter because in Israel the fruit trees start to open up their blossoms right around this time of year, marking the new cycle for this year’s fruits. Wherever you are, there is something you can learn and teach from the trees around you.

Lessons From Trees

Trees can thrive under incredibly harsh conditions. The larch tree can withstand temperatures as cold as -65º C. A look outside in your neighborhood reveals that this spring’s buds are already waiting on our trees, but they will not open up until the right moment later this spring.
 
Trees show us what it means to be patient. Resilience and patience are two traits that are hard to teach, but learning them from the trees can be resonant with many of our learners.

Nature With Your Students 

If you’re wondering how you might approach nature with your students, we recommend using what you have nearby. We created this Scavenger Hunt as a way to learn more about your natural surroundings. If you want learn more about the plants around you, the photo app on your phone has features to help you identify the plants you photograph. We also love the iNaturalist app to participate in regional naturalist programs.
 
Get out and play: You can use this trail finder or forest finder for local places to recreate in nature. Be sure to check with local regulations if bringing school groups.

Develop An Educational Garden At Your School 

School gardens are rich with educational opportunities. They provide space for students to get outdoors, have fun and learn about nature. They offer sites for experiential education par excellence. Educators can design them to draw out Jewish lessons related to our sources and traditions. Students of all ages can learn and benefit from them. And they can plant— flowers, vegetables, trees—watch them grow and discover the mysteries and fascination of the cycles of life.
 
In 2021, with the help of an Ignition Grant from the Covenant Foundation, GrowTorah started our Anafim program, training teachers in schools across the USA to implement our program. Three years later, we are delighted to share that we’ll be expanding the program with in-person training, more curricular resources, and an ever-growing cohort of educators and school partners, thanks to a Signature Grant from Covenant.
 
In our home base of New Jersey, while we are surrounded by cold and snow and our trees are still in their dormant phase, this holiday reminds us to be optimistic for the future. In this region, Shvat’s arrival marks the start of sap flowing in the trees, maple sugaring season is right around the corner, with spring right after. At GrowTorah, we constantly seek Torah inspiration from nature, and in turn, we are inspired by the Torah to protect and preserve our beautiful world.
 
May the flowering of the fruit trees bring about the peace we so desperately need and be a harbinger of good things to come for all of Am Yisrael, and all people on this earth.

Rabbi Yehudah Potok is the director of the Jewish Education Program at Facing History and Ourselves, where he leads organizational efforts in Jewish educational settings. He also serves as the Project Lead for Facing History’s Contemporary Antisemitism initiative. Prior to joining Facing History, Yehudah has over two decades of leadership in formal and experiential Jewish education. Yehudah has written and lectured extensively on various topics regarding organizational change, school culture, educational technology, contemporary antisemitism, and Holocaust education.

In The Shadow of Our History, In the Pain of Our Present, In The Hope of Our Future

This year, as we observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the significance of the day takes on a new depth in the wake of October 7th. Resonating strongly for us, is the pain of our present moment with the recent Hamas attack being the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and with antisemitism on a precipitous rise around the world. The very ideals we swore to protect, the lessons we learned from our history, are tested once again. The shadows of the past stretch into our present, compelling us all the more to confront prejudice, hatred, and violence head-on.

Within the history of the Holocaust, we find echoes of countless voices silenced but not forgotten. We remember those who suffered, the lost individuals’ whose potential has gone unfulfilled, the families torn apart, and the communities forever changed. We are the torchbearers of their stories, entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the world never forgets. And yet, we are acutely aware of the challenges we face today. The battle against antisemitism, in all of its forms, is not a relic of the past; it is an ongoing struggle that demands our attention and commitment. As Elie Wiesel said, “Even in the darkness, it is possible to create light.” We must find the strength to stand united against discrimination and violent hate. We draw inspiration from the resilience of our ancestors, from the stories of survival and unwavering human spirit. 

Despite the weight of our history and the challenges of our present moment, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is also a time to look toward the hope of our future. We carry the torch of remembrance, have a responsibility to educate, and have an obligation to advocate. We can be the architects of a world that learns from its past and rejects hatred. We understand that our actions today shape the world our future generations will inherit.

Rabbi Sacks wrote, “Antisemitism is never ultimately about Jews. It is about a profound human failure to accept the fact that we are diverse and must create space for diversity if we are to preserve our humanity.” Our commitment to the principles instilled in us through our Jewish tradition and values is unwavering. It is a commitment to the sacredness of life, to our shared humanity, to the Jewish people and our homeland, and that we should have the ability as Jews to live safely wherever we are in the world. In the hope of our future, we envision a world where the lessons of the Holocaust guide us toward a more compassionate and just society.

We have a shared commitment. The Jewish people have not simply survived, we have persevered. It is not because of our tragedies but because of the beauty and spirit of our tradition. We take pride in our heritage and our ability to effect positive change. As we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, let us reflect on the shadows of our history, confront the pain of our present, and strive to illuminate the path toward a brighter, more inclusive future.

New Report from Prizmah Shows Inquiry Increases from Public and Independent School Families and Enrollment Increases from Temporary Israeli Students into Jewish Day Schools During the Israel-Hamas War

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2024

 

Report also details families’ stated reasoning for wanting to transfer into Jewish day school during this time

 

January 10 2024 – A new report released by Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, representing 110 schools across North America, shows increased inquiries from public and private school students interested in mid-year transfers into Jewish day schools and yeshivas. The primary reasons are wanting their children to be in a Jewish environment, fear of antisemitism, and disappointment with how their current schools are handling the Israel-Hamas war. The report shows how Jewish day schools welcomed over 1000 temporary Israeli students fleeing from war, attending to their academic and mental health and wellness needs. It also suggests potential for enrollment increases in the next school year starting summer of 2024.

“The war in Israel is impacting enrollment in Jewish day schools and families,” said Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah. “Parents of public and private school students are turning towards Jewish day schools out of a desire for their children to benefit from all that makes Jewish day schools great - an excellent education, a warm, nurturing Jewish environment, and protection from antisemitism they might experience elsewhere. The best defense against antisemitism and hostility to Israel is to nurture strong, confident, knowledgeable Jewish youth, and Jewish day schools answer that need.”

Covering the period from the start of the war in October 2023 to December 8, 2023, the report presents a snapshot of the responses from 110 schools in the United States and Canada.

Three important trends are apparent in the study:

  • Thirty-nine percent of schools reported inquiries and or enrollment from public school students interested in transferring mid-year. Top reasons schools reported that public school transfer families provided for transferring are:
    • Wanting their child(ren) to be in a Jewish environment (73%)
    • Fear of antisemitism in school or community (68%)
    • Response from their current school around the war in Israel (32%)
  • Twenty percent of schools reported receiving inquiries and or enrollment from independent school students interested in transferring midyear. Top reasons schools reported that independent school transfer families provided for transferring are:
    • Wanting their child(ren) to be in a Jewish environment (80%)
    • Response from their current school around the war in Israel (50%)
    • Fear of antisemitism in school or community (40%)
  • Ninety-five percent of schools reported receiving inquiries and/or enrollment from temporary Israeli students interested in attending a Jewish day school on a short-term basis, and over 1,000 temporary Israeli students were hosted in the schools that responded to the survey. Most schools reported that their temporary Israeli students needed English Language Learning (ELL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) support, as well mental health support as is often needed for students fleeing their country due to war.

As the report highlights, “The findings emphasize the resilience and adaptability of these educational institutions in responding to the increased interest of transfer students and their families. It also underscores the schools’ commitment to providing a supportive environment, despite the anticipated return of temporary Israeli students to Israel.”

For the full report, please click here.

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Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools strengthens the North American day school field. We are the network for Jewish day schools and yeshivas, enhancing their ability to excel and thrive, by deepening talent, catalyzing resources, and accelerating educational innovation.

Dr. Arielle Levites is the Executive Director of the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE). CASJE is an evolving community of researchers, practitioners, and philanthropic leaders dedicated to improving the quality of knowledge that can be used to guide the work of Jewish education. CASJE supports research shaped by the wisdom of practice, practice guided by research, and philanthropy informed by a sound base of evidence.

Dr. Levites’ research focuses on contemporary American Jewish education. She has conducted a number of applied studies on behalf of American Jewish educational enterprises, with a focus on young adults and teens. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Network for Research in Jewish Education. Her manuscript, Raising Jewish Spirits: American Jews, Religious Emotion, and American Spirituality (under advance contract) is based on an ethnographic study of contemporary American Jewish spiritual practitioners.

Dr. Levites has served as the Golda Och Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jewish Theological Seminary, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, a visiting assistant professor at Hebrew College in the Shoolman Graduate School, and an affiliated scholar at Brandeis University’s Mandel Center. She holds a BA from Brown University in Religious Studies, a MSEd in Religious Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from NYU in Education and Jewish Studies. She is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, as a Davidson Scholar.

Putting Research to Good Use

In 2021, CASJE (the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education) released the Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators Study, which sought to understand the recruitment, retention and development of Jewish educators in the United States. Among the many findings in this multi-strand study, we learned that a distinguishing feature of people who launch careers in Jewish education is that they are mission-driven. Jewish educators come to their work to make a difference in the world.

But how do we know if our work is making the positive change we want to see? Research evidence can be a critical input for understanding who we work with, how our educational programs are functioning, and what outcomes they produce.

Research Evidence vs. Data

You may notice that I made a little move there just now, shifting from the term “data,” which is the focus of this issue, to the term “research evidence,” which is the focus of CASJE’s work. I think of data as collected information. Data can be processed or organized to make sense of phenomena but, in my mind, data are essentially inert. Data doesn’t do or say anything on its own. Data needs to be interpreted.

Research is a systematic way of collecting and analyzing data with the aim of answering questions, and research evidence is what is produced from that process. Data is all around us, but without a question in mind and disciplined way of sifting data to generate answers and insights, it’s not necessarily useful.

It’s Hard to Be “Data-driven”

We live in a time where being “data-driven” is commonly seen as a positive attribute in the professional world. Everyone says they want to be “evidence-based.” At CASJE, we have come to appreciate that being a data-driven and evidence-based Jewish educational leader is not an easy or straightforward undertaking.

For one thing, Jewish educational leaders often don’t have access to research evidence that was produced with Jewish educational questions and concerns in mind. Even with the efforts of CASJE, the Prizmah Knowledge Center, The Journal of Jewish Education, the Mandel Center and others, there just isn’t all that much research production in Jewish education, such that it can be hard to find relevant research studies to consult. Often research that might be useful is behind a paywall.

Even when Jewish educational leaders can access research, it’s often not communicated in ways that are easy to understand. On one hand, an article may be pitched to an academic reader with a lot of jargon and technical terms that aren’t explained with a professional audience in mind. On the other hand, the findings may be reported though the filter of a news story or social media that makes it hard to ascertain what the researchers actually said or on what evidence they based their claims.

Finally, research evidence only sometimes will perfectly and unambiguously answer our questions. More often it frames new ways of thinking and possibilities for action without telling us exactly what to do. Research evidence needs to be further interpreted with careful consideration for the particular contexts in which educational leaders work. Further, educational leaders need to account for how any interventions these interpretations suggest can be meaningfully implemented in their own programs.

Focusing on Use

When CASJE was founded, we initially focused on developing high-quality research evidence. Now our mission has widened such that we also focus on high-quality use of research evidence. To that end, and with direction from a host of much valued practitioner-leaders in Jewish education who have shared their needs and perspectives with us, we have begun to develop new tools to support educators in their efforts to use data and research evidence to improve the work they do. These tools include a research digest, a research use fellowship for practitioners (launching January 23), a discussion guide for talking about research with colleagues, and free consultations for mission-aligned organizations with questions about research and research use.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that research use isn’t just something people do, it’s something people can study as well. The last ten years have seen increasing attention to research into the use of research, that is research that examines how decision-makers use research to shape practice and policy. At CASJE, we have been following this line of inquiry to help us frame our own efforts to strengthen the capacity of Jewish educational leaders to use research to fuel improvements in Jewish education.

Many of the pilot initiatives introduced above are also serving as learning labs for CASJE to begin to develop a formal body of knowledge about how Jewish communal leaders think about and use research. Our questions include, How do Jewish educational leaders define research? How do they access research? What mindsets and skills do they bring to their assessment of research? What are the ways research shapes their thinking and activities? How can relationships between researchers and practitioners help foster more high-quality research that is useful and used?

As we pilot these new initiatives and begin to learn more about the use of research evidence in Jewish education, we look forward to hearing from you, both about how you are using our tools and how you are using research more generally in your work.

Suggested resources those interested in learning more about research use:

Odelia is Prizmah's Director of the Knowledge Center. Learn more about her here.

A Data Driven Field of Jewish Day Schools

How does my school tuition, cost per student, and fundraising compare to others? 
Is what happens at my school a fieldwide trend or unique to my school? 
How do I know what salary I should be asking for the position I’m negotiating? 
Are there tuition affordability models that I should be considering for my school?
How are others handling the Israeli students that have enrolled since October 7?

These questions, and many more, are ones that Prizmah has researched and can help you answer. 

At Prizmah, we believe in the strength of data-informed decision making and have developed a robust framework of research and data collection to serve the field of Jewish day schools and yeshivas.  Borrowing the Qualtrics model, Prizmah strategically focuses on Operational (O) and Experience (X) data. Examples of O data are school financial, operational, enrollment, and development metrics. These are usually derived from objective, measurable processes. X data, on the other hand, is how people think and feel. It’s about the human experience. The most effective leaders look to both O and X data to inform their strategic-decision making. At Prizmah, we can help you access and learn from both. 

Here are three avenues of support that Prizmah provides for data-driven leaders. 

Data-Driven Decision Making for School Leaders 

Day school leaders steeped in their school’s finances may find themselves or their boards asking for comparative school data. How much do other schools budget for financial aid? What percent of  revenue should come from net tuition and other revenue sources? How much are similar schools spending on teacher professional development?

The answers to these questions lay in O data. Benchmarking operational data helps schools understand how peer schools are performing and their areas of strength and growth. School leaders look at salary ranges while considering their staff’s salaries and raises. Advancement data enables development professionals to set fundraising goals. Admission professionals compare their yield rate, acceptance rate and attrition rate to peer schools. The data can show schools where they have room for growth, which helps determine priorities and how they can be focusing their time most effectively. Heads of school, executive directors, COOs, and CFOs use the data to understand where their tuition stands in the marketplace, how much other schools spend on salaries as a percent of their budget, and what percent of revenue comes from tuition and other sources.

This year, 120 Jewish day schools entered data into DASL (Data Analysis for School Leadership), accessing free custom benchmarking data to help with some of those hard strategic financial decisions. 

To give you a head start - look to the reports that our Knowledge Center publishes on an annual basis: 

Community Benchmarking

Through partnerships with federations, schools in three communities now  have  access to critical community wide benchmarks on key financial and operational metrics that can help them understand areas of strength and growth, and where they sit relative to their peer schools. 

Landscape Research for the Field 

In conversations with school leaders, we know that there are broader issues and trends at play that impact schools. Prizmah conducts landscape research for  Jewish day school professionals, lay leaders, funders, and day school adjacent organizations with fieldwide data that can shape informed perspectives on our field. 

Landscape research helps us understand those issues. offering a holistic understanding of the school environment and empowering informed decision-making. Through landscape research we can identify and name challenges, leading to problem-solving and equipping school leaders with critical information that can help schools adapt and serves as a valuable tool for long-term planning. 

Driven by emergent issues in the field, Prizmah conducts pulse surveys throughout the year to surface specific trends and in-depth qualitative data. Recent pulse surveys have focused on the impact of the war in Israel on day school enrollment and development. These pulse surveys help school leaders understand what decisions other schools are making and how their experience is the same or differs from other schools. They also help the broader community understand aspects of day schools that they don’t usually have a window to.  According to this research, 95% of schools that responded received inquiries and/or enrollment from temporary Israeli students, and some schools are seeing an increase in inquiries from public and independent school transfer students. An earlier pulse survey identified additional support schools needed to assist these students, influencing funders’ decisions to extend financial assistance to the schools. 

Our in-depth qualitative research captures the experiences of specific day school stakeholders. By shining a light on specific areas of focus like the experiences of board members ( Unlocking Leadership: Obstacles and Opportunities for Improved Day School Volunteer Leadership) we have learned what the obstacles and opportunities are.  Seizing the Moment: Transferring to Jewish Day School During the Covid-19 Pandemic homed in on the experiences of parents who transferred their kids to day school during the pandemic, offering a distinctive perspective on how parents make decisions about what school their children attend.  

Modeling Data-Driven Decision Making 

At Prizmah, we model what it means to be a data-driven organization by using data to craft organizational strategy, define programmatic goals and evaluate and measure impact. After webinars, cohort programs, and gatherings, we solicit participant feedback through surveys and use that data to inform and improve future offerings. We utilize school data, collected from DASL, pulse surveys and other research to make strategic decisions. 

We envision a world where day school leaders seamlessly integrate X and O data and research into their practice to enhance their effectiveness as leaders, sustaining vibrant Jewish education for our community. As we look to the horizon, we are dreaming of more ways to support schools with data and research with parent and staff satisfaction surveys that will link the experience side of schools with the operation side of schools. 

The integration of robust data analysis and strategic research offers a powerful toolkit for school leaders. Armed with these insights, leaders can navigate the intricate landscape of education with precision, making informed decisions that lead to better outcomes for their school community. As school professionals harness the potential of data-driven strategies, they pave the way for continuous improvement.

I welcome your thoughts and ideas about a data driven field of Jewish day schools at  [email protected].

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Ari Sussman is a consultant for CJP whose work focuses on CJP’s day school strategy and relationships.

Yield vs. Effort: Improving Data Collection

Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Greater Boston’s Federation, has long played the part of a central convener, grant maker, and thought leader for its 14 Jewish day schools. One of its thought leadership roles is the collection and analysis of school data. Over time, CJP has built a number of methods to collect and analyze the unique set of data that comes out of our schools. In the past two years, we have reevaluated the goals and process of CJP’s day school data collection efforts in order to increase their value and lessen their burden on the schools.

We’ve centered all of our efforts around two use cases for data collection:

Network insight: What data might we collect to push our collective day school agenda forward and create a sustainable ecosystem of schools?

School-specific insight: What data might we collect that would allow for smarter action by school leaders?
Based on our previous methods of data collection, we observed three challenges.

Data Entry is Time Consuming 

Given the tremendous pressure school leaders and administrators are under, taking on another tedious responsibility is challenging. Exacerbating the baseline responsibility of data entry is the fact that schools may belong to other associations, such as the Association of Independent Schools of New England (AISNE), that also require them to enter data. Asking our professionals to take a leap of faith and enter data that might pay off for them and our network as a whole is no small ask.

Analysis is Impossible Without Common Definitions 

Another challenge data collectors face is making sure they are defining the information they are asking for clearly such that it is understood in the same way by administrators. As just one example, in an effort to allow schools to benchmark themselves, CJP long asked for information on the size of school admission pipelines. The hypothesis was that if the conversion rate of pipeline size to applications received varied by school, it might allow a school to question what it could learn from another school with a higher pipeline to application conversion rate. 

The challenge is that the concept of an admission pipeline can differ dramatically between schools. One school might define it as having collected an email address, while another could define it as having had a substantive connection with a prospective family by email or over the phone. Aside from hard measures like gross tuition, net tuition, and enrollment size, the vast majority of data points we previously collected bumped up against this definitional challenge.

Framing Data for Action is Hard 

This is perhaps the most critical challenge, and there is no easy solution for it. Even with the data in hand and accurate definitions, the challenge of a central data collector is framing the information in such a way that it comes across as accurate, credible, and clear enough to make the school or the network question its current tactics. On top of those challenges, school heads and administrators possess different levels of comfort with data and have differing capacities to act on it.

Solutions 

While we certainly haven’t designed a perfect solution for all of these challenges, here are a few things we’ve started to do in an effort to tackle these challenges. 

Lean on DASL for Thoughtful Definitions 

Through Prizmah’s partnership with the National Association of Independent Schools, our schools gained access to their Data Analysis for School Leadership solution (DASL). One of the advantages of this system is the precision of the data-entry fields and definitions they provide to data enterers. With the help of school experts in all the areas of data collection, they have refined the information they request and defined it carefully.

DASL’s definition of student attrition is a good example of this precision:

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DASL definitions

While one could simply define attrition as the students who were in the school last year who didn’t come back, DASL has enhanced the precision of attrition by detailing abnormalities like exchange students and students who were dismissed that could throw this definition off. They apply this same deep understanding of school dynamics to all of the areas of data they collect, so that we do not need to recreate our own definitions.

Limit Data Collection 

In the first year of our data reboot, we asked for a wide variety of data and created 20 different views across multiple areas of school operations. In certain areas, like development, we were able to create some useful benchmarks for schools, but the amount of time required for data entry relative to its output value did not warrant our efforts. As a result, we trimmed our data collected by 50% from year one to year two.

Entering the Data Ourselves Where Possible 

In order to further reduce the burden on school administrators while increasing accuracy, we decided to enter all of the financial data ourselves. In previous years, when we had asked for self-reported data on revenue and costs, we had trouble ensuring consistency among the schools. For instance, when we asked for information on philanthropy, some schools entered all giving whereas others entered only unrestricted giving. These sound like easy definitions to notate, but for busy professionals rushing through data entry, these nuances can be hard to specify clearly. This past year, instead of asking for self-reported data, we asked for audited or even pre-audited financials. Because the outputs of school financials are typically similar, it was relatively easy for the team at CJP to simply ask for the financials and do much of the data entry ourselves, thereby ensuring greater accuracy.

Standardize Our Analysis Readouts 

The final, and perhaps most consequential portion of the work, is to figure out how to report on inputted data. There is no easy answer on how to make the readout understandable and actionable. One of our findings was that it is typically not interesting enough for schools to examine their own performance vs. overall average. We found that schools wanted to see their own performance against their peers. We reported these results in an anonymized way, making some efforts to protect each school’s identity. Below is one example of multiyear reporting across a range of schools grouped by category (non-Orthodox K-8, Orthodox K-8, and high school) that allows for peer comparison on absolute measures and rates of growth.

Cost to Educate

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Cost to educate graph

While the first year of charting these results was arduous, we did show signs of meeting some of our goals. Among other successes, two schools used their data to make arguments to funders, two reexamined their base teacher compensation, and one became more aware of how facilities could fuel non-tuition revenue lines. For this coming year, with the help of Odelia Epstein at Prizmah, we are hoping to standardize our results in an automated dashboard that can pull our data out of DASL and Excel. This way, in future years, all we need to do is update our existing data set, which will then update the charts available to our school.

We remain convinced that day school data can provide critical insight into the health of our network and ways for schools to improve. That said, we are cognizant of how challenging data entry can be for us as an organization as well as our schools. By regularly evaluating yield versus effort, we maximize the value of our data and serve our schools most effectively.