In 2019, CASJE began a multi-year, comprehensive research project addressing the recruitment, retention, and development of educators working in Jewish settings in North America. The project was funded with generous grants from the William Davidson Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation.
The research, conducted by Rosov Consulting, consisted of three main components that examine the career trajectories and experiences of Jewish educators from multiple vantage points: On the Journey (OTJ) focuses on the career trajectories and lived experiences of educators employed in the field; Preparing for Entry studied the career plans of people in the settings from which Jewish educators have tended to come (such as summer camps, longer-term programs in Israel, and college fellowships) to determine the factors that contribute to recruitment into the field; and Mapping the Market (MTM), focused on identifying available pre-service training and in-service professional development offerings for Jewish educators, as well as challenges faced by employers and training providers who are coping with personnel shortages and/or saturation.
Concurrently, CASJE conducted a census of Jewish educators, led by the The Greenberg Team, to estimate the number of Jewish educators and engagement professionals (“educators”) in the U.S. and to inform interventions for Jewish educators and Jewish educational organizations.
CASJE National Jewish Educator Census
CASJE conducted a large, national effort to collect data to inform interventions for Jewish educators and Jewish educational organizations. As part of this larger study, CASJE partnered with The Greenberg Team to conduct the CASJE National Jewish Educator Census. The Census aims to estimate the number of Jewish educators and engagement professionals (“educators”) in the U.S.
The original study plan included a one-time Census starting in March 2020 to cross-sectionally estimate the number of education and engagement professionals in U.S. Jewish educational settings.
Due to the pandemic, in early March 2020, many Jewish educational institutions closed their buildings and pivoted their educational programs to remote or virtual learning. The organizational leaders were under immense stress. They were busy guiding their educators and students and would not have time for a survey. Due to these conditions, the research team shifted the Census study from March to June. The team also decided to ensure an applied study by capturing changes happening during this yet unknown period with a two time-point study:
- Timepoint 1: June-September 2020
- Timepoint 2: June-July 2021
Key Findings:
- Survey and extant datasets identified 52,309 total educator roles and about 39,587 individual educators
- Estimation procedures identified approximately 98,662 educator roles and approximately 74,530 individual educators
CASJE is will collect data this summer to compare the census pre and post-COVID.
On the Journey
a. Journey of Jewish Educators - different patterns of career trajectories for Jewish educators
b. Compensation - data on compensation for the field across sectors
c. Professional Learning - data on access to professional development for Jewish educators
d. Workplace conditions - data on educators assessments of their workplaces
Preparing for Entry
The recruitment of Jewish educators, comparing those working in the field to those who never entered or entered or left. The Preparing for Entry strand of our inquiry addresses a set of questions that will shed light on what it takes to launch a career in Jewish education and, in turn, what interventions might encourage promising candidates to seek and take up employment as Jewish educators.
Mapping the Marketplace
The “Mapping the Market” (MTM) strand of CASJE’s study of Recruitment, Retention and Development of Jewish Educators (RRDoJE) was conceived with the goal of shedding light on the Jewish education marketplace. MTM planned to document what job opportunities exist in Jewish education, what skills and aptitudes employers across various sectors seek in the Jewish educators they hire, and the ways in which individuals who function as Jewish educators are prepared for and nurtured to work effectively in the field.
Education is an intensely personal endeavor. Becoming a teacher is, as Danielewicz (2001) puts it, “an identity forming process whereby individuals define themselves and are viewed by others as teachers.” At the same time, education is also a form of work. When conducted as paid labor it is a commodity. As such, like other commodities, “its value is driven less by intrinsic worth than by market demand” (Davenport, 2017). CASJE’s exploration of the career trajectories of Jewish educators in North America echoes these two concepts. Two research strands, Preparing for Entry and On the Journey, examine what personally draws individuals to become Jewish educators and the journeys they take once they make this choice. A third strand, Mapping the Market, explores the work of the Jewish educator in the context of a labor marketplace. The focus is not on individual educators and their internal landscape but on the external landscape, the employment marketplace in which they work. In this strand, we examine both those who employ educators and what they look for in their employees (the demand side of the marketplace) and the institutions that prepare educators and support them in their work (the supply side).
Interim and Past Reports
1. Facing the Future: Mapping the Marketplace of Jewish Education during COVID-19
Read the series of insights that ran in eJewish Philanthropy:
- Sifting Through the Mixed Blessings Created by the Pandemic
- How Essential is Jewish Education? COVID-19 Brings Some Clarity
- Look out! An Emerging Shift in the Jewish Education Labor Market
3. On the Journey: Concepts That Support a Study of the Professional Trajectories of Jewish Educators