The mission of Hebrew at the Center

is to revolutionize the effectiveness

of teaching and learning Hebrew

in all educational settings,

which will in turn result in

empowered teachers and

proficient students.

Central to achieving our mission of revolutionizing the effectiveness of teaching and learning Hebrew in all educational settings is the creation of a robust, dynamic, reflective field of Hebrew language professionals. We are pleased to report to you on the progress we are making toward our goals.

New Grants Received

We are delighted to announce that Hebrew at the Center (HATC) has recently been awarded grants from the Esther and Ben Rosenbloom Foundation of Baltimore and the Covenant Foundation in New York. We appreciate the additional resources that allow us to expand our work and we also appreciate the recognition of the value of our work. Both grants are directed at leveraging technology using a "hybrid" approach that we anticipate will enable us to be more efficient and effective in reaching larger numbers of educators. Employing a combination of videotaped lectures, face-to-face consultation, distance-mentoring, professional development workshops both online and onsite, and Community of Practice facilitation, HATC staff is creating a cadre of professional Hebrew language educators.

Regional Initiatives

While we continue to work with individual schools, our focus is increasingly on regions of the country where we can work with multiple schools. During the past year and a half, six schools have been part of a multi-year Atlanta Hebrew Language Initiative. The first year concentrated on introducing language assessment tools essential to our assessment-based approach. We brought school leaders and Hebrew language coordinators together to develop a professional learning community. More than forty Atlanta-based day school educators participated in the workshops held during the initial year of the project. Well into our second year of professional development, educators are expanding their expertise related to assessing students, setting learning goals, developing effective lesson plans, and honing their abilities to respond to different learner needs.

A second regional project is taking place in California. In collaboration with the BJE in Los Angeles, we convened a meeting of representatives from LA area day schools to clarify and share the challenges they face teaching Hebrew. On November 1, 2011, HATC and the BJE launched a project to address these challenges initially in five Jewish day schools, piloting the hybrid format described above. In contrast to the Atlanta Initiative, in LA we are targeting only Hebrew Coordinators and other emerging leaders in each school. Supported by the HATC team over the next three years, the aim is to develop a Community of Practice for Hebrew language educators and to work with each school to create sustainable professional development for their Hebrew teachers.

One educator summed up the benefits of this regional approach. "There is no comparison between people working together as a group versus everyone struggling on their own. Sharing ideas and networking builds excitement, and that builds teacher motivation and confidence. And the kids benefit from that. We have so much to learn from each other. The more we can work as a team, the better. The more we value each other and work as a team, the better it is for the whole community."

Continuing and New Individual School Initiatives

We are continuing our work with two of our pioneer schools, The Jewish Primary Day School in Washington D.C. and Gann Academy – The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston.

HATC regularly receives inquiries and requests for service and consulting from individual schools as well as other educational organizations. While demand currently outstrips our capacity, we are excited to have been able to expand our work to two additional schools this year: The Hannah Senesh School in Brooklyn, New York and the Prozdor, The High School of Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts.

Evaluation

HATC is committed to reflective practice. Both qualitative and quantitative data are being collected, allowing us to track our progress, benefit from what we learn, and consistently strengthen the effectiveness of our work. Currently, data are being collected from four sources:

• Using Hebrew language assessors certified by ACTFL*, as well as teachers trained in this assessment protocol, we are measuring students' oral proficiency over time. Our goal in collecting data on our students is to gauge the impact of our work with teachers on student outcomes.
• The second component of evaluation is the gathering of qualitative data in Atlanta by
  Dr. Barbara Neufeld, President and Founder of Education Matters, Inc. Dr. Neufeld is looking at the impact of HATC's professional development program on the individual teacher, the individual school, and the community.
• A third source of data is provided by the individuals with whom we work. They are asked to regularly provide feedback on all aspects of our program: the workshops, the online conferences, the coaching sessions, the effectiveness of our "smart tools", and the achievement of goals.
• A fourth opportunity to consider the impact of our work will come from an independent evaluation that will be conducted by the Covenant Foundation linked to our recent grant.

*American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Expanding the Conversation

HATC staff continues to engage with experts in the language learning field through professional meetings. At the most recent ACTFL conference in Denver, Dr. Vardit Ringvald and
Arnee Winshall presented a regional model of professional development based on HATC's work that brings multiple schools together and creates a Community of Practice. HATC staff has also presented in recent years at the Hebrew Charter School Center conference, the GISHA Conference (an annual conference hosted by Hebrew College that explores new ways to teach Hebrew to students with special needs), and the North American Day School Conference. This March, Vardit is presenting at the Foundation for Jewish Camp Leadership Assembly.

Arnee and Vardit have also contributed articles on Hebrew teaching and learning published in HaYidion (RAVSAK's journal of Jewish education), CONTACT (the journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life), and Jewish Educational Leadership (the journal of The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education).

Staff Changes

The Board of Directors recently voted to expand the role of Board Chair Arnee Winshall. Arnee is now Chair and CEO of Hebrew at the Center. She and Dr. Vardit Ringvald are providing HATC with strong visionary, strategic, and academic leadership. Janice Silverman Rebibo has been promoted to Senior Program Officer and Director of Technology. Bringing years of experience, Paula Levine, who has been involved in HATC since its inception, recently joined us as Office Manager. We also welcomed Samantha Stein, a graduate student from the joint MBA/MA program of the Hornstein Program and Heller School at Brandeis University.

We continue to move forward committed to our strategy to effect change via the professional development of practitioners currently involved with Hebrew teaching and learning. We are pursuing various ways to develop new HATC advisors and add to our team. Our objective is to expand and professionalize the field of Hebrew language education. We hope our work will contribute to raising the profile of Hebrew and creating a generation of literate Jews with strong Jewish identities and deep connections to Israel, Judaism, and the Jewish people.

For more information about Hebrew at the Center, contact Arnee Winshall, Board Chair and CEO at arneew@hebrewatthecenter.org.