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Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education Receives Covenant Foundation Grant

Funding to Support Development and Retention of Jewish Day School Teachers

Waltham, MA – March 24, 2009 – The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, dedicated to improving Jewish education through the study of teaching and learning practices, is the recipient of a major grant from The Covenant Foundation, officials announced today.

The grant, $200,000 over four years, will make possible wider use of a highly regarded approach, developed by the Mandel Center, to support new teachers as they take their place at Jewish day schools across the country.

Created with the support of a Covenant Foundation grant in 2005, this model of “induction,” including resources and a toolkit, has been used successfully in select Boston-area Jewish day schools.  Mandel Center officials said the new grant allows them to expand the program nationwide, especially in small and medium-sized Jewish communities that often lack resources and are underserved.

“The ongoing support we’ve received from The Covenant Foundation has been fantastic, and has enabled us to bring comprehensive, school-based new teacher induction to seven schools in the Boston area,” said Vivian Troen, Director of the Induction Project at the Mandel Center. “Now, with the Foundation’s additional funding, we can take what we’ve learned and created locally – including a rich knowledge base, materials, resources and a toolkit – to other day schools in smaller communities across the country.”

Officials said not all Jewish day schools are organized to support and sustain new teachers at a point in their careers when their effectiveness as educators is defined. The Mandel Center’s new teacher induction model and toolkit aims to correct this, and will be applied on-site, as well as online to truly expand its reach and effect nationwide.

“This is exciting, groundbreaking work, encompassing unique concepts of distance coaching and learning, web-supported online professional learning communities, and a new model of collaboration for professional development,” Troen said. “The ultimate goal is to demonstrate that when Jewish day schools invest in building induction capacity, they can create lasting improvements in the practice of new teachers, and all teachers.”

The grant to the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education is one of 16, totaling $1.4 million, just announced by the New York-based Covenant Foundation as part of its mission to support, advance and recognize excellence and impact in Jewish educational settings.  

“The Covenant Foundation is committed to injecting new life and vitality into Jewish educational realms, promoting and encouraging new ways of thinking, and sustaining and growing Jewish community into the future,” said Eli N. Evans, chairman of the Foundation’s board of directors. “Our grant recipients represent some of the most forward-looking projects and ideas on the landscape today.  Their potential is far-reaching and significant.”

“Our new crop of grantees are generators of ideas and approaches of great promise for success, effect and transformative replication elsewhere,” said Harlene Winnick Appelman, executive director of the Foundation.  “The Mandel Center’s initiative is a shining example of that.”

The Covenant Foundation is a program of the Crown Family Foundation and the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA).