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=DeLeT Alumni Leadership Group=

The DeLeT Alumni Leadership Group is a professional learning community made up of teacher-leaders from Jewish day schools across the country. A DeLeT teacher leader takes an inquiry stance to raise significant questions about the core issues in teaching within Jewish day schools. This stance serves to support and lead initiatives to strengthen Jewish day school education and improve Jewish life.

The DeLeT Alumni Leadership Group is looking for partners and participants to help articulate our new vision for Jewish Day Schools of the 21st Century.

As day schools are struggling with the day-to-day challenges of economic survival, they also face more profound existential questions of purpose. How can Jewish day schools demonstrate their relevance and worth to parents and other financial supporters? What contributions do Jewish day school graduates make to the future of the Jewish people?

We believe the answer to these questions lies in a better understanding of the current role and potential impact of Jewish curricular and structural integration. The Delet leadership group aims to propose a model for a fully integrated school, where integration is not limited to classroom curriculum, but is applied throughout a school system. We believe that in moving beyond building curricular bridges between 'Jewish studies' and 'general studies,' educators can instill in students integration as a habit of mind. We envision graduates that understand integration as a cognitive and affective process rather than a product.

To develop this model, we are investigating the current goals, methods, impact, and support systems for integration in Jewish Day Schools, using a series of surveys, interviews and a curriculum bank. The network of Delet alumni, teaching at day schools across the country makes up the backbone of the wide-reaching and diverse research team. The data we are collecting from this research is ensuring that our new day school vision is grounded by the current reality in day school classrooms, while we are finding intellectual guidance from the academic literature on this topic.

We believe that an effective Jewish Day School's mission aims to produce graduates that are not just successful professionals, but also active citizens, engaged with the world as members of the Jewish people and the world at large. We believe that a fully integrated school can serve its students and the Jewish future in equipping our students with tools that will help them to understand and function in their world, to deal with the technology and complexities of the 21st century and to apply Jewish values and find meaning and relevance in living a Jewish life.

Goals:

 * 1) Empower teachers to act as change agents within their schools and educational communities.
 * 2) Create a more holistic educational experience for students in Jewish Day Schools.
 * 3) Develop new approaches and methods to innovate Jewish education for the 21st Century.

Looking at the Role of Jewish Integration
1) Rethinking Interaction vs. IntegrationMaking Connections & Creating Something New or Evaluating Judaism vs. Modernity 61.6% of teachers polled said evaluating Judaism's values against those of Modernity is less to their understanding of Jewish Curricular Integration While 51.2% and 47.8% said Making connections and Creating something new out of a synthesis of Jewish and General studies is closest to their understanding.

2) Personal Relevance/Personal Experience When asked what teachers integrate in their classroom, they overwhelmingly responded "Personal Experiences with Jewish Concepts" (75.8%) and "Judaism with Student's Life" (70.5%)

3) Integration as a Process for Living and Thinking Integration serves as a process for developing strong thinking skills and to engage with the world more effectively, rather than serving as a model or product for the wholeness of G-d, the world's knowledge or identity. The top reason givens for why Jewish Day Schools should integrate were: Integration cultivates critical thinking across the disciplines. (94% Very agreed) Integration encourages students to draw on the best of Jewish and modern ideas to construct their own view of the world. (83.6% (Very Agreed) Integration prepares students to participate as citizens of their country and as members of the Jewish community. (82.2% (82.2% Very Agreed) Integration prepares students to bring the values and insights of Judaism to their lives in modern society. (82.2% Very Agreed)

4) Teachers Need Support Regardless of support of colleagues and administrators, teachers need clear goals, defined curriculum, criteria for measuring success and infrastructure (release time, consultation, etc.) to successfully foster integration for their students.

Source: Jewish Day School Teacher Integration Survey-The DeLeT Alumni Leadership Group surveyed teachers from over 25 Jewish Day Schools crossing the country and all grade levels, religious affiliations and disciplines.