Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative

The Challenge and the Opportunity

Early childhood education represents a unique opportunity to engage both young children and their parents in a rich and meaningful Jewish communal life. The Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative (JECEI) transforms Jewish early childhood education (ECE) schools by igniting a desire and commitment in families to continue Jewish learning and living beyond their Jewish ECE experience and inspiring increasing numbers of new families to enroll in Jewish ECE schools of the highest quality.

At this stage of their lives, parents of young children are open to considering questions of identity and connection for themselves and their children. The raising of young children offers Jewish communities an unrivaled opportunity to engage young families and deepen their Jewish journeys. 

The early years of a child’s life have a substantial impact on brain development, social-emotional intelligence and personal identity. The foundations for future learning, personal relationships and communal belonging are laid down in those early childhood experiences. Thus, parents are seeking the best educational environments available for their children, and the Jewish community needs to be able to offer them excellence.

A New Approach

In meeting this challenge, the Jewish ECE school will need to change and grow. It will need to offer children the highest quality education. It will also need to become a center of Jewish life based on learning for the whole family and a community of support and celebration steeped in Jewish values. 

To achieve this, we require a new approach to Jewish education that will embody the best practices in early childhood and adult education.

JECEI has been creating living models of this new approach offering a synergy of “big” and relevant Jewish ideas and values with the best in progressive and constructivist education, as embodied particularly in the world renowned schools of Reggio Emilia in Italy and the understandings from emotionally responsive practice.

JECEI has established a set of core Jewish ideas and values that guide our work in constructing Jewish ECE schools. Understood as “lenses,” they enable us to see our world more clearly and in a particularly focused way. Through study and discussion of these lenses, teachers and parents create a shared vision and sense of belonging.

JECEI places unparalleled emphasis on the importance of serious Jewish inquiry and dialogue on the part of the entire family in the community of the ECE school. A central goal is to significantly upgrade the Jewish experience and commitment of families who enroll in a Jewish ECE school. Independent of family background, immersion in Jewish ideas and values, community and life will transform the face of families with whom we are involved.

The philosophy of the ECE schools of Reggio Emilia harmonizes powerfully with big ideas and values of Judaism. For instance, the schools of Reggio Emilia are grounded in a deep respect for and amazement of the potential and competency of children. Teaching and learning in Reggio Emilia emerges from an intensely collaborative partnership among teachers, children, and parents leading to the highest educational quality.

This synergy of Jewish ideas and values, Reggio inspired constructivist education, and emotionally responsive practice can be viewed in the seven JECEI schools that are the fruit of three years of intensive labor. JECEI’s schools are demonstration sites where early childhood directors, teachers, parents, funders and other interested stakeholders in the Jewish community can learn from this new, dynamic approach to Jewish ECE. 

Community Partnerships

JECEI has embarked on a new stage in its development by entering into partnerships with Jewish communities to bring this approach to Jewish ECE schools across North America. We are seeking out a select group of communities with the vision and commitment to transform early childhood Jewish education and, in so doing, the lives of the next generation of children and their families. Our partnership with Jewish communities in Denver/Boulder and Milwaukee is already in process. JECEI’s work in Denver/Boulder is two-tiered and consists of intensive work with four of the schools as well as building community capacity by working with all nine Jewish ECE schools in the community, hopefully readying the “non-intensive” schools for undertaking the intensive process in the future. In Milwaukee, JECEI is engaged intensively with all the schools.

We propose a partnership between JECEI and key stakeholders in a community including local funders, federations and central agencies. Through this partnership, JECEI brings its tremendous expertise and knowledge to local communities.

How JECEI Works

JECEI works with at least three Jewish ECE schools in a community through a four year school-wide and community change process that employs several, mutually supportive strategies:

• JECEI staff works directly with the school professional and lay leadership to enhance parent involvement and learning.
• JECEI provides a consultant to the professional leadership teams from each school to cultivate their leadership skills to significantly improve teaching and learning.
• JECEI pairs each school with a consultant who works directly with the teachers to transform their educational practices.
• JECEI brings the director and 2nd tier leaders of the participating schools together with those from schools in other partner communities to create a unique national community of practice. 
• JECEI provides grants to each school to facilitate the work.
• JECEI represents a distinctive brand, which will be marketed nationally to Jewish parents of young children in the mainstream media.  Selected schools that embrace the JECEI approach can employ this brand alongside their own school’s unique identity in marketing to new families.
• JECEI conducts ongoing evaluation and research of its work and learns from continual, critical reflection on our practice.

JECEI’s efforts are guided and supported by an elite group of consultants and academics who have brought and will continue to bring their years of experience and knowledge – from Jewish education, general education and, in particular, the world renowned schools of Reggio Emilia – to our work in building family centered Jewish ECE schools of excellence. 

JECEI is a national organization focused on transforming Jewish early childhood education by partnering with schools and communities to engage in an intensive school change process. The JECEI school change process involves a four year commitment. 

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF JECEI COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

JECEI is a national organization focused on transforming Jewish early childhood education by partnering with schools and communities to engage in an intensive change process. The JECEI school change process involves a four year commitment.  The process includes:

• Professional and Lay Leaders participate in retreats led by JECEI national staff all four years; some conducted locally and others nationally
• A consultant works on site with professional and lay leadership, teachers, and parents;  the consultant comes for 2 – 3 day visits 5 times a year to the school all four years
• Materials that help outline the change process – phases of change and accreditation process

The school collects data as part of the ongoing evaluation and research that JECEI conducts to assess its impact and provide insights to continuously help refine the change process.