Developing Yeshiva Day School Graduate Profiles: A Critical Imperative

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When guiding or coaching graduate students, faculty or senior administrators about a school’s mission and vision statements or the value and intricacies of  school-based strategic planning, I usually begin my sessions by stating “if you wake up in the morning, get into your car, and are not really certain where you are going, chances are you won’t get there.”

In Lewis Carroll’s popular classic Alice in Wonderland, Alice asks Cheshire the Cat which way she should go? The cat in turn replies by asking her where would you like to go? When Alice admits that she “doesn’t really care where she is going”, the cat’s response was, “then it doesn’t really matter which way you go.”

Although this example is relatively logical and simple to understanding, many schools may not always have a clear sense as to where they are heading, or their desired outcome or direction – literally and figuratively.

For some, knowing which direction to pursue may require a friendly reminder; for others, it may take the retracing of prior steps or events; and yet for others, it requires a long and arduous recollection process which can at times be challenging and difficult.

So how do these examples relate to the substance of this topic or blog?

Today, there are a growing number of yeshiva day schools that make concerted efforts to ensure that their students and their families (current and prospective) have a clear sense regarding the school’s educational goals and objectives, direction, hashkafa, philosophy and desired outcomes for their students.

This suggests that for these schools to thrive and grow in today’s competitive academic environment, they must learn to develop and offer their stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, community) with a series of clear, focused, realistic and specific curricular goals, objectives and outcomes. In other words, they must be able to respond to the challenging question –  by the time a student graduates twelfth grade from that particular yeshiva or day school, what are the minimum skill sets, competencies, and subject areas that students are expected to master, exhibit, demonstrate or know?

These are called exactly what they suggest – Graduate Profiles.

In a yeshiva day school, I add three additional attributes or characteristics to the list of competencies. They include: Jewish attitudes, Jewish involvement and Jewish behaviors.

It is interesting to note that there are a growing number of educational leaders (heads of school, principals, educational coordinators and directors) who suggest that these three additional attributes or characteristics may in fact be more essential for a student’s future growth, development and character than those anchored exclusively in academic requirements or outcomes.

From a Jewish communal, yeshiva and day school perspective, they are 100% on target. Having said that, these schools are nevertheless still responsible and obligated to provide their students with the full array of academic competencies in order to help them grow, thrive and develop into well rounded members of our community and society.

The challenge here is how, with what resources and finally, the age old challenge of who is responsible to whom for what in our yeshivot and Jewish day schools.

Designing and Creating Graduate Profiles:

As indicated, Graduate Profiles help define, guide and redefine success in our schools through a careful and deliberate alignment with the skills, habits, attributes and knowledge students require to succeed in college, in their careers and throughout life.

These “profiles”  prioritize mastery and personalization, and help clarify what schools want their students to master. As such, they can be referred to through different names and forms – including a portrait of a graduate, a vision for a graduate; learning goals profiles of a learners, etc.

There are at least five steps to developing effective and meaningful Graduate Profiles.

First and foremost, they require that the yeshiva or day school fully understands and appreciates the purpose, value and concept of graduate profiling; second, schools must align their profiles with the philosophy, hashkafa  mission and vision of the school; third, in their development and formulation, they must involve and engage all school and communal stakeholders; four, they must be beta tested and validated  in order to ensure that the profiles are realistic, and five, that they are totally  aligned with the school’s curriculum and desired outcomes for its students.

It is important to note that true graduate profiles prevent schools from flying by the seat of their pants as they ensure authenticity, transparency and above all accountability for what is being taught and how. They also ensure that our schools are in line with stakeholder requirements and expectations. No small task!

I recall five years ago, I asked several principals and senior heads of school whether they have or use Graduate Profiles. Very few responded in the affirmative and virtually all made reference to a document in the back of a parent handbook that was developed years ago or to page in the school’s promotional/ marketing material or website. Hard to believe? Not at all.

Unfortunately, unless a parent, teacher or board member inquiries or requests to see the profiles or a member of the faculty requests to use it to align or realign a piece of curriculum, these profiles become static and remain dormant for years.

Moreover, unless day school and yeshiva leadership are actually required to revisit and review their Graduate Profiles, they by and large view the process as an arduous one which requires tremendous, focus, time, energy and engagement – not unlike reviewing accreditation commitments and requirements. Schools by and large reference or refer to them, only if they must.

Tangentially, I recently heard about a yeshiva day school that actually used Graduate Profiles in order to assess the performance of their head of school.

I am not at all suggesting that schools go through such a lengthy and stressful  review process, in order to evaluate or assess leadership performance. But I do firmly believe that a frequent review of these profiles help keep our leadership and the school in great stead.

The challenge of why schools create graduate profiles, is based on the aforementioned, and should be somewhat obvious. The challenge still remains, how are they designed and developed.

Most Graduate Profiles are mirror images of the school’s curriculum and are aligned with the educational mission, vision, philosophy and hashkafa of the school.

This reality therefore suggests and may even demand that the determination of a school’s curriculum take place prior to developing the profiles. There is also a strong school of thought (excuse the pun) suggesting that graduate profiles are first developed and only then can we credibly build a curriculum that is aligned with the profiles.

This “chicken and egg” conversation is a serious one. It is not semantic. In fact, most will opine that it is a combination of the two.

An an example….. if a new school is in the process of being founded or created, it is very natural for the school’s leadership and founders to first determine the uniqueness of the school via the identification of graduate outcomes or profiles – namely they decide a priori why the school’s curriculum is unique to their institution and community based upon desire outcomes.

Having said that, it is essential that yeshivot and day schools define, redefine and refine their curriculum objectives on an ongoing basis. This happens by first having an open, frank, transparent and honest strategic planning conversation with the  school founders and stakeholders regarding the goals of the school, and why/how they are either unique to the new school.

In cases where the school, already exists, it is incumbent upon the school’s professional and lay leadership to ensure a review of the school’s graduate profiles at least once a year.

The reasons for this frequency should be relatively obvious. It keeps the school’s curriculum development and implementation on track, it helps inform teachers and the administration what they should be teaching (not how) and they empower or enable the school’s stakeholders to reboot or reset the school’s goals and  make the necessary changes and adjustments, based upon, demographic changes, senior leadership transitions, and emerging  student population requirements and unmet needs.

End Note:

Where do we go from here?

At the end of the day, our Jewish day schools and yeshivot will not be evaluated, assessed or judged solely based upon their glossy brochures, catchy taglines or impressive promo videos; but rather by their ability, capacity, bandwidth and leadership which maintains true transparency and a clear articulation of desired outcomes for their students.

The beauty here is that in 2025, our communities and their parents have the good fortune and choice to pick and chose the yeshiva and day school with the best fit for their children.

One has only to review a school’s Graduate Profile in order  to determine whether these profiles are realistic and true to form or are they only aspirational in order to help parents make that critically important decision.

Bottom line  –  to parents, please do your homework; to school professional leadership, be true to what you are offering your students and please be certain that your expectations and outcomes are totally aligned with your institution’s curriculum.

B’hatzlacha to all.