Project Resources
"Community conversation" explores what it takes to support teacher learning
Publications:
Tamir, E. (2011). The Impact of the Economic Recession on Teachers and Teaching in Jewish Day Schools. Private School Monitor. 32:2, 1-11. [PDF]
Tamir, E. & Magidin de-Kramer, R. (2011). Teacher Retention and Career Commitments Among DeLeT Graduates: The Intersection of Teachers' Background, Preparation for Teaching, and School Context. Journal of Jewish Education. 77:1, 76-97. [PDF]
The DeLeT Alumni Survey: A Comprehensive Report on the Journey of Beginning Day School Teachers, describes the background, preparation, working conditions and career aspirations of day school teachers who graduated from DeLeT between 2002 and 2005. Subsequent reports will report on all DeLeT alumni including graduates from recent cohorts. This report could also serve as a first step toward a broader study of graduates of teacher preparation programs.
Table of Contents and Executive Summary Only
DeLeT Longitudinal Survey
The DeLeT Survey explores key issues regarding teacher education, retention and quality. We are creating a unique source of longitudinal quantitative data on the evolving careers and lives of Jewish day school teachers.
What does it take to recruit, prepare, support and retain excellent teachers for Jewish day schools? Watch this spotlight session from the 2011 Network for Research in Jewish Education Conference to discuss these issues, drawing on findings from the Delet Alumni Survey.
> See excerpts from this presentation on YouTube
Study Design and Goals
The ongoing DeLeT longitudinal survey project collects data to inform Jewish education researchers and practitioners, as well as policy makers, about issues concerning teacher preparation, careers, and teacher quality. The DeLeT longitudinal survey collects its data through the following three surveys:
- Incoming Survey - For each entering cohort
- Graduation Survey - For each graduating cohort
- Alumni Survey - For all alumni, biannually [view the alumni survey instrument]
We aim to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the career choices that DeLeT fellows make and the factors that shape their choices to stay in teaching, become teacher leaders or administrators or leave the classroom to pursue alternative careers. We also seek to understand more about their views of day school teaching, and how their teaching practice and professional identities develop and are shaped by their interactions with school leadership and professional communities in their schools.
Project update (January 2012)
The project is gearing up toward the distribution of the third alum survey to cohorts 1 through 8, scheduled to begin on February 2012.
Researchers are working on four new manuscripts:
- Comparing levels of professional community and school support among DeLet and Pardes teachers
- Factors promoting retention in Jewish education among DeLeT teachers
- The impact of the DeLeT preparation on graduates' sense of preparedness and longevity in teaching
- A partial least squares analysis of the factors contributing to a long term commitment to teaching in Jewish Day Schools