In spring 2012, through funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Ruderman Family Foundation, six Boston area day schools were chosen to embark on a “whole school change” demonstration project. The intent of the three year project, named B’Yadenu (Hebrew for “in our hands”), was to shift “whole” schools – meaning all staff, administrators, leaders, and other stakeholders – to cohesively and collaboratively work to better serve all learners. The B’Yadenu Project was led by Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), in partnership with Gateways: Access to Jewish Education and Yeshiva University’s Institute for University-School Partnership.
The overarching goal of the B’Yadenu Project was to create and deliver an effective, sustainable, and adaptable model for Jewish day school education that is accessible to an increased number and range of students with diverse learning needs.
Given that school change is hard in general, and that the complexities of meeting the needs of diverse learners makes genuine change even more difficult, we have put together this Toolkit — a compendium of tools and learnings — based on our experiences implementing the B’Yadenu Project in Boston.
The purpose of this “toolkit” is to share with schools and other communities some of the lessons we have learned over the past few years as we have launched and implemented B’Yadenu. Our goal is to provide a framework and useful resources for engaging in this work.
View the Toolkit:
Categories: Professional Development Resources