Jewish Early Childhood Education Study

Overseen by CASJE, the study was led by a research team at Child Trends together with researchers from Brandeis University. The project examined whether Jewish early care and education (ECE) enhances Jewish engagement among families raising Jewish children, particularly among those who are initially less engaged. The research team examined the relationship between Jewish ECE and Jewish engagement among families with young children in a systematic and rigorous fashion, using multiple data collection approaches.

The project focused specifically on three areas of investigation:

1. Defining and measuring Jewish engagement among families with young, Jewish children;
2. Identifying and describing promising Jewish engagement practices for families with young, Jewish children, both within Jewish ECE settings and outside of them; and
3. Examining child care choices and levels of Jewish engagement among families with young, Jewish children over time.

The project was designed to answer three primary research questions:

1: The development of a multidimensional definition of Jewish engagement for families raising young children.

This new definition includes facets of Jewish engagement that have been overlooked. It provides practitioners, researchers and policy makers with new concepts and metrics to support the engagement of families with young children.

2: The development of a comprehensive set of new measures of Jewish engagement for families with young children.

These measures correspond to the new definition and provide practitioners, researchers and policy makers with useful metrics for Jewish engagement that are more attuned to the needs and perspectives of contemporary families.

3: The distinction between membership, institutional involvement/attachment and Jewish engagement.

Concepts of membership and engagement have often been conflated in Jewish educational settings. Elucidating distinctions between these concepts enables practitioners, researchers, and policy makers to better articulate goals for engagement of Jewish families.

4: The insight that many Jewish early childhood programs are charged with increasing membership and institutional attachment, but not necessarily Jewish engagement.

Early childhood programs are often evaluated on their capacity to increase family participation in the larger organization (e.g., encouraging families to become synagogue members or to attend early childhood activities). Jewish early childhood programs are rarely evaluated on their success in cultivating other facets of engagement among families such as developing Jewish friendships or Jewish home practice, even as these practices are more likely to endure beyond the family’s time connected to the early childhood center.

5: The use of advanced analytical techniques to estimate the effects of Jewish early childhood programs.

Using data collected from parents with young children enrolled in both Jewish and other early childhood programs, the study developed a four-part typology of engagement, which sheds new light on how different types of families with children enrolled in Jewish early childhood programs may change over time.

6: Identifying types of Jewish families more likely to change over time as an effect of Jewish early childhood programs.

The study found that some families were more likely, relative to others, to see change in their Jewish engagement levels that may be attributed to their participation in early childhood programs. This finding may enable the development of specially-tailored interventions to enhance engagement among different kinds of families.

7: How practice and policy can be adapted in a wide-range of Jewish early childhood settings.

The study’s recommendations include:mobilizing resources for increased Jewish early childhood salaries; encouraging more Jewish early childhood centers to adhere to established standards (e.g. QRIS) to ensure high quality programs and demonstrate quality to parents making choices about their children’s early childhood education; providing more programs for children with special needs; investing in professional development for early childhood educators with a focus on Jewish content, childhood development, and working with parents and families; creating full-day programs that also offer care on Jewish holidays.

Download Reports

Executive Summary: Exploring the Associations between Jewish Early Care and Education and Jewish Engagement: Research to Inform Practice

  Download Document

Final Report: Exploring Associations Between Jewish Early Care, Education and Engagement

  Download Final Report

   Infographic on What Jewish Engagement Means for Families with Young Children

Webinar on Leadership in the Covid-19 Wilderness: Exploring the Associations between Jewish Early Care and Education and Jewish Engagement: Research to Inform Practice with JUF

Watch Webinar Recording

Download Presentation Slides

   

 

Research Briefs and Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet: Defining and Measuring Jewish Engagement

Research Brief 1: Defining and Measuring Jewish Engagement among Families with Young Children

Research Brief 2: Promising Practices for Engaging Jewish Families through Jewish Early Care and Education Programs: Lessons Learned
 

Technical Appendices

Appendix A: Study Purpose, Methodology and Data Collection Instruments

Appendix B1: Defining and Measuring Jewish Engagement Among Families with Young Children: A Literature Review

Appendix B2: Measuring Jewish Engagement Among Families with Young Children: A Content Analysis of Survey Items

Appendix B3: Report on Key Informant Interviews conducted as part of CASJE’s Study of the Associations between Jewish ECE and Jewish Engagement

Appendix C: Community Scans of the CASJE ECE Project Target Communities

Appendix D1: A Focus on Jewish Families: Results from the CASJE ECE Online Parent Survey

Appendix D2: Developing the CASJE ECE Project’s Parent Survey: The Cognitive Interview Process

 

History and Overview of the Study

The program's launch was preceded by a Problem Formulation Convening on Jewish Early Childhood Educational Leadership in May 2015, also supported by a grant from the The Crown Family as well as a Blogcast conversation about Jewish ECE in August 2015.

This research program built on the limited Jewish ECE studies that already existed, whose findings show that when children enjoy Jewish learning and rituals at school, they bring them home, introducing them to the entire family. Studies also show that parents in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who choose Jewish preschools in part do so because they seek a network of other Jewish parents with whom they can build community. And parents who form Jewish peer groups through their child’s ECE center are more likely to be actively engaged in Jewish life in the future.

“We want to equip communities with the knowledge and skills to welcome in families of all Jewish backgrounds as effectively as possible,” said Lesley Matsa, a program officer for The Crown Family, which funded the research program.

Dr. Tamara Halle, Senior Scholar at Child Trends, a nationally-recognized nonprofit research organization specializing in the study of children, youth, and their families, and Professor Mark I. Rosen of Brandeis University, who has been studying Jewish families with young children since 2003, co-led the study, working closely with experienced researchers at Child Trends and in the Boston area.

The three-year research program focused especially on better understanding opportunities around interfaith families and families that are not currently involved in a synagogue or other Jewish institution. We hope that, over time, a series of studies that are integrated and replicated can inform the development, training, practice improvement efforts, and impact of Jewish educational leaders and leadership in Jewish early childhood educational settings.

The research team completed a literature review on defining and measuring “engagement” of Jewish families with young children, and a content analysis of over 1,200 survey items used for measuring engagement. They also conducted over 50 key informant interviews with stakeholder groups to inform how they understand Jewish engagement.

Dr. Michael J. Feuer, Dean Graduate School of Education and Human Development George Washington University served as Principle Investigator on this study.