The DEEP Concierge Desk… At Your Service!
What is the DEEP Concierge Desk?
The Concierge Desk is a free service from the DEEP Consortium, available to any Jewish day school or yeshiva in North America. The Concierge Desk takes schools through a process intended to help identify a school’s strengths and areas of growth and, then, to guide school practitioners toward professional development practices and opportunities (including specific providers, if relevant) that can help to address the identified areas of growth.
What is High-Quality Professional Development (HQPD)?
When providing guidance, the Concierge is seeking to promote your school’s investment in the kind of professional development that research and experience indicate will have a lasting impact. This high-quality professional development includes a number of key characteristics. Learn more about HQPD here.
Why should my school take advantage of this service?
As school leaders know, identifying and effectively implementing the right professional development opportunities can sometimes be overwhelming or confusing. The DEEP concierge provides you with an objective thought partner to reflect on the state of your school’s educational program, identify opportunities to strengthen teaching and learning, and guide you on implementing the chosen HQPD solution.
What does the DEEP Concierge Desk process look like?
The Concierge Desk four-step process ensures confidential and thorough data gathering to deliver the HQPD solutions that best fit your school’s needs.
- Step One: The school leader provides background information about the school, its strengths and weaknesses, and prior professional development experiences. Within a few days, the DEEP concierge will contact school leadership.
- Step Two: The DEEP concierge and school leadership unpack and analyze the school’s practices and history in a 60-minute (approximately) confidential conversation. This information gathering can also entail an optional faculty needs assessment survey.
- Step Three: The concierge develops a series of analyses and recommendations for the school’s professional development solutions. This step may also involve follow-up conversations with school leadership or other relevant stakeholders.
- Step Four: The concierge and school leadership review and flesh out the recommendations the concierge has provided.
What is the DEEP needs assessment survey?
As part of the intake process (Step Two), your school can opt to have some or all of the faculty respond to an anonymous, online survey that tracks faculty perceptions and behaviors on a wide range of practices related to instruction, school culture and professional learning. The concierge will review the aggregated survey data to identify both the needs and understand how the faculty believes these needs should be best addressed through professional development opportunities.
Why should my school opt to participate in the staff needs assessment survey?
As your school looks to implement effective professional development, having the input and, in turn, buy-in of faculty will be essential. Even as school leaders typically have a good sense of what areas of growth exist among the faculty, getting the collective feedback from teachers and other school staff on a wide range of their own and their peers’ practices will help ensure the accuracy and depth of understanding of where your school can aim to grow.
What can my school expect to get out of the concierge process?
At the end of the process, your concierge will deliver to you a written report that will include the following components:
- Key Findings from Needs Assessment: Reflecting back what stakeholders report, both leadership interviews and, if relevant, data from the staff needs assessment survey.
- Analysis of Key Needs: Synthesis of takeaways, relevant research and/or best practices.
- Recommendations: Ways to strengthen your school’s professional development system in the following: (a) improving or introducing infrastructure elements; (b) focus area(s) for content; and (c) in most cases, specific providers/external experts to consider engaging for professional development
At base, the report will provide a written record of what you have identified as areas of need for your school and how those needs might be best addressed. While this report will not constitute a fully articulated strategic plan for professional development in your school, it will provide you with options for meaningful next steps that are aligned with your school’s context and needs.
How long does the concierge process take?
Once you complete the initial intake questionnaire, the process typically takes about four (4) weeks, including the in-depth conversation, development of analysis and recommendations and follow-up conversation to review the concierge’s assessment. If you choose to have faculty respond to the online survey, this can extend the timeline by 2-3 weeks, accounting for survey response and data analysis time.
Who from my school should be involved in the concierge process?
Because the process of reporting on and analyzing the strengths and areas of growth is highly complex and nuanced, it is best to have various perspectives weigh in during the process. Involving the head of school and/or principal and/or director of instruction and other senior staff in the in-depth conversation with the concierge (i.e., Step Two) will help to ensure accuracy of reporting and generate the kind of analysis that will inform the concierge’s guidance.
Who is the DEEP concierge?
The DEEP concierge comes with experience as a school leader who has brought robust professional development to their own faculty. They also have expertise in how to leverage the interventions of external providers of professional development to optimal effect. More importantly, the concierge is someone who listens to your concerns, who understands your challenges and achievements, and partners with you to employ effective professional development that can best address your needs and strengths.
What is the Catalyst Grant?
The DEEP Consortium is able to offer a limited number of grants of up to $7,500 to qualifying schools that consult with the Concierge Desk. These grants are intended to pay for a portion of the professional development that is implemented as a result of the recommendations from the DEEP concierge, including payments to external providers, stipends to teachers for participation, and other associated costs.
