MENACHEM EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC

The Menachem Education Foundation is achieving its goal of professional education in Charedi schools by developing and disseminating learning standards for Judaic studies, facilitating the implementation of standards based learning and data driven instruction across schools, training school leadership across the spectrum - including school boards, principals, instructional leaders, and new and experienced teachers, engaging in school consultation and partnership to facilitate school improvement efforts, and through community education and awareness campaigns.

The Menachem Education Foundation engages as employees and consultants educational experts and leaders, both from within the Charedi educational world, as well as forerunners in the general world of education. With this unique partnership, we have developed educational materials, professional development curricula and educational programming that brings the best of contemporary pedagogy to educators who have long been insulated from these developments, in a way that maintains the cultural values and sensitivities that define Orthodox Jewish education. The Menachem Education Foundation has developed the first comprehensive and rigorous set of standards for studying Judaic texts, comprehensive teacher training workshops that in one year and at low cost give a teacher all of the critical tools they need to succeed in the classroom (based on the six standards of the New Teacher Center), and has succeeded in changing the leadership paradigm of Charedi principals through work with the New York Leadership Academy. With this capacity, MEF is continuing to devise strategies and programs that will further its reach and impact in Charedi schools.

Progress indicators for the Menachem Education Foundation's work include: a greater receptiveness in the community and among educators to professional educational practices, increased enrollment in the Teacher Induction Program and increased number of schools that make the Menachem Education Foundation training courses a requirement for their new teachers, more schools implementing the Zekelman Standards for Judaic Studies and data driven instruction practices, more students meeting the standards outlined by the Zekelman Standards (as indicated by standardized assessments), greater systemic functionality in the community's schools (which are engaged with us to facilitate this improvement), and greater demand for quality education coming from parents and educators alike as the organization's impact becomes more pervasive.

The Menachem Education Foundation has succeeded in raising awareness for the need for professionalized education in Chareidi schools, and is working to create a groundswell of parents and educators who are clamoring for this to take place. Five flagship schools have a culture of standards based learning and data driven instruction and the Zekelman Standards for Judaic Studies themselves have been downloaded and used in approximately 200 locations around the world. The new web-based platform, with its ease of navigation and support materials, will help bring the Zekelman Standards to a greater number of schools. Nearly 100 Teacher Induction Program alumni are successfully bringing professional educational practices to countless children in North America and beyond.