The Never-Ending Teacher Personnel Crisis in our Jewish Day Schools and Yeshivot

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It’s hard to believe that our schools are convening in several weeks and we are still being bombarded with teacher recruitment ads and frantic inquiries for general and Judaic studies teachers in order to fill desperately needed teacher vacancies.

So what’s wrong with this picture? And, why after  many years of intensive planing and extensive deliberation, hand-wringing, creative and innovative recruitment efforts, and the realignment of competitive compensation and benefits packages are we are still experiencing a teacher personnel crisis of historic proportion.

As we know, the response to this challenge is multifaceted. But, the one factor which remains at the top of the list is our inability as a community to reposition the teaching profession as the most essential priority for our community’s future.

The teacher personnel crisis is a narrative which has remained almost the same for decades. We have spent millions of dollars on new and creative recruitment, training and retention initiatives, but to no avail; and, at the end of the day, the crisis continues unabated.

Yes, in select communities, teacher recruitment efforts, accessibility and availability have improved significantly. But in most communities with increased pupil enrollment we still cannot identify and engage high quality and qualified teachers.

This reality reminds me of the paraphrased definition of insanity –  we keep doing the same things that don’t work over and over again, and expect the outcome to be different or positive. 

Yes, we talk an impressive game about how critically important high quality and effective teachers are for the delivery of effective education; but, unfortunately we have still failed miserably in creating a communal culture which positions teaching as a highly respected, honored and desirable profession.

Over the past several decades, our Jewish day schools and yeshivot, in partnership with teacher training and induction programs, universities and colleges, federations, central agencies and philanthropic foundations, have made concerted efforts to improve, enhance and invest in the teaching profession.

These initiatives include the provision of sign-on bonuses, tuition remission for the children of teachers; specialized mentoring and coaching, insurance, pension and health benefits and the reimbursement of relocation expenses, and educational technology (to name a few).

There are those who posit that this phenomenon is no surprise and that it represents the mirror image of what is taking place in society and in our general community. Yet, there are others (self included) who feel that as a Jewish community, deeply, profoundly and passionately committed and dedicated to the chinuch of our children that we can do better; in fact, a much better.

I am not minimizing the herculean efforts of select institutions and schools in their zeal and push to develop and implement meaningful teacher recruitment efforts. But, as just indicated, they are few and far between and in select cases not totally effective or impactful.

Its a Culture Thing

As we know, in order to effectuate true sustainable change – whether it be communal, political, institutional or organizational  – concerted efforts must be made to change our institutional and communal culture. To be sure, the only meaningful and sustainable approach for change is via cultural change. Its not about building or creating programs and projects and throwing them against the wall to see what sticks. We are way too beyond that narrative and reality; and are now paying a very heavy price for years of experimentation with very little accountability, evaluation or metrics.

This is not to minimize all of the important and sophisticated research on teacher recruitment and retention. But friends, if the results and outcomes of this research is not widely promoted, disseminated and marketed, it is analogous to a tree falling in a forest that nobody sees or hears.

So what does all this mean in terms of our teacher personnel crisis, and how does cultural change happen in order to improve and enhance our teacher personnel condition?

First, it is absolutely essential that our communities and  their institution’s view the teaching profession as a top priory. In fact, they must be fixated and obsessed with the welfare, image and status of our teachers in schools and in communities.

Teacher recruitment and retention programs, and time-sensitive initiatives are essential ….but they can never compete with well designed market-tested promotion and communications campaigns modeled after corporate America and commercial environments.

Marketing for Cultural Change

As educators, investors, philanthropists, parents and supporters of chinuch, we should never underestimate the power of sophisticated marketing and promotion efforts. We all know and inherently appreciate the investment required to launch and support any meaningful campaign – whether it be local, communal or global.

To this end, it is highly recommended that our communities embark upon a comprehensive 24/6 marketing, hasbara and PR campaign which places the well-being, status and importance of the teacher front and center. This will not be a one-time only initiative, but rather part of our community’s ongoing effort to triage the current teacher personnel condition.

Next Steps – A Modest Proposal

As envisioned, we cannot undertake this monumental challenge alone.

Communities and their institutions throughout North America must be challenged to hire, recruit and engage the best and the brightest commercial marketing experts in order to design and launch a local and national Teachers for Tomorrow Campaign.

This marketing effort will highlight and underscore the critical role of our teachers as well as their roles and impact on our communities and their children.

As I write this blog, I am reminded of a North American initiative sponsored by the Commission for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) and chaired by Cleveland philanthropist, Morton Mandel. I at that time had the honor and privilege to serve as one of the Commission’s senior community consultants.

The Commission gave birth to a publication entitled A Time to Act. (2002). It contained a series of proposed policy statements and resolutions regarding the Teacher Personnel condition and presented a series of very significant suggestions and thoughtful  recommendations to improve and enhance the teacher personal condition. in our schools. Others may recall this initiative as the Lead Communities Project.

Although the Commission succeeded in moving the needle on the gauge forward in many communities regarding the importance of this communal agenda, it was not totally successful.

The lack of true success as originally envisioned was due in large measure to communities, institutions and their leadership who were myopically focused on programs, projects and initiatives as opposed to first creating and growing a culture of change through comprehensive marketing and communal deliberation.

Here again, we failed due to our inability to be patient and planful; and due to our eagerness to implement, as opposed to embarking upon a comprehensive marketing and a program of hasbara which would have set in motion a very positive long range course of action.

Lessons Learned

If there is one take-away from this blog and/or from the examples containing herein, it is about the imperative  for cultural change in order to improve the teaching profession.

It is only through cultural change will we be able to realize a teacher work force  that is respected, honored and celebrated.

If do it for other important professions, why cant we do the same for our current and prospective teachers?