Inside Jewish Day Schools Conference
April 30–May 1, 2018
Chairs: Jonathan B. Krasner and Jon A. Levisohn
We began with an exploration of the "grammar" of Jewish day schools: the structures, formats, assessment tools, subjects and other elements of school life that are so deeply embedded that it's difficult to look at them with fresh and critical eyes. The conference continued with other topics that are sometimes invisible in school life, and that need to be held up and examined: race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and class and economic justice, as well as the effect on students' emotional health of a competitive, high-stakes academic environment.
In the second part of the conference, we turned to the work of scholars and practitioners who are taking "deep dives" into specific areas of inquiry, such as the teaching and learning of specific subjects, e.g., Hebrew, rabbinic literature and Israel; teaching and learning more broadly; teacher preparation; assessment; and school culture.
Yavilah McCoy on centering issues of race in Jewish day schools