Fall 2025 l Mandel Teacher Educator Institute + Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago
Director’s Message: Developing Educator Leaders: How the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute Hits the “Sweet Spot”
Dr. David Farbman, Project Director, The DEEP Consortium
As our Concierge Desk continues to consult with more day schools across North America, one trend our concierges, Sarah Rubinson Levy and Tal Gale, have observed is that school leaders could use support in learning how to foster a professional learning culture. How can they develop a broader vision of professional development that leads to lasting impact on teaching and learning?
Mandel Teacher Educator Institute (MTEI), our featured program in this issue, is an extraordinary example of how school leaders can, first, promote a deep understanding of excellent instructional practice and, then, proactively spread these practices throughout their own schools. As administrators and teachers from the Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago make clear, this process takes time, but the effect on students is undeniable when educators share a vision of how to elevate classroom learning through collaborative inquiry.
With the long-standing support of the Mandel Foundation in Cleveland, MTEI (now in its 30th year!) has had a profound influence on many teachers and administrators across the country. Few philanthropic organizations sustain such a commitment to one program, but articles in this issue show how MTEI’s long-term approach can shape a strong community of trained educators within a single school.
The Mandel Teacher Educator Institute Model
MTEI’s primary purpose is to develop educational leaders—“teachers of teachers”— who can enhance the quality of Jewish learning through planning and implementing effective and powerful professional development for teachers in their schools, their communities, and at the national level. MTEI participants come from a variety of Jewish institutions, including day schools, supplementary schools, and central agencies. The program is free to participants, thanks to the Mandel Foundation, but enrolled institutions must commit to enabling staff share and apply their learning within their school.
MTEI promotes a vision of content-rich, learner-centered teaching and learning and a view of professional development as the ongoing, collaborative study and improvement of teaching and learning. Two dimensions make up MTEI’s theory of action:
Nested Professional Development: Powerful learning for students depends on powerful teaching, which in turn depends on high-quality professional development for teachers. Likewise, instructional leaders need their own professional development in order to create the conditions and opportunities for their teachers to improve their practice.- High-Quality Professional Development: Jewish educators need ongoing, collaborative, inquiry-oriented, practice-centered learning opportunities to transform their professional identity and instructional practice. This kind of adult professional learning depends on a relational context in which participants can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, and build confidence.
Nine core principles guide MTEI’s work—from the curriculum to the collaborative learning approach. In turn, MTEI graduates apply these methodologies within their own educational institutions. An evaluation from Rosov Consulting has demonstrated the efficacy and residual impact of the program on practices in the field. MTEI also views ongoing, substantive professional development for educational leaders and teachers as the linchpin for the advancing Jewish educational quality.
Investing in Leadership Through MTEI: A Schechter Perspective
Nanci Caplan, Associate Head of School and Suzanne Mishkin, School Principal
At Solomon Schechter Day School of Chicago, a PK-8th grade Jewish day school in the north suburbs of Chicago serving 440 students, one of the most important choices we make as school leaders is how to invest in our faculty and staff’s professional growth. We know our students reach their fullest potential when our teachers are empowered with the resources and support to guide them. For more than a decade, one of our clearest commitments has been to ensure that members of our leadership team participate in MTEI. Our commitment is so strong not only because MTEI’s mission reflects our school’s own aspirations and beliefs, but also because we have experienced the transformative effect its approach has on leadership, teaching, school culture, and personally, on us as administrators.\
Why MTEI?
MTEI works to strengthen Jewish schools by cultivating leaders who can build professional communities of practice, shape thoughtful educational vision, and foster learning rooted in inquiry and collaboration–an approach that aligns directly with Schechter’s goals for supporting our teachers.
We send instructional leaders in our school to MTEI because we believe that reflecting on our practice and improving what we do—within MTEI’s conceptual and practical framework—makes us better leaders and educators. MTEI’s guiding principles—among them, collaborative inquiry, reflection, and the idea that teachers learn and learners teach—resonate deeply with our practice. Many of our school’s professional development activities, such as instructional rounds, observation without judgment, and photo inquiry, are a direct result of our MTEI learning. This shared experience not only enhances our own learning, it also equips us to build a more cohesive and dynamic faculty culture.
Building a Community of Common Practice
We believe that forming a community of colleagues with a common language adds tremendous value to our school because it fosters collaboration, deepens trust, and promotes working toward shared goals with greater clarity and impact. We don’t send just individuals to MTEI—we try to send faculty teams. Having colleagues together at MTEI allows them to process ideas together in real time, and return to Schechter with shared vision and momentum. We actively encourage our staff to apply, and we’re proud that we have had faculty members participate in five different MTEI cohorts.
Though the program is free for us, we make our own investments to ensure maximum impact. For example, we provide classroom coverage when they are away, so they can fully immerse themselves in the learning. We also encourage faculty to experiment with the practices they learn through MTEI. We know that minimizing obstacles and celebrating their growth helps ensure that this professional development does not just exist in theory, but becomes an essential part of our professional lives.
Bringing MTEI Learning Back to Schechter
MTEI’s influence at Schechter is tangible and shows up in our daily practices. Two examples stand out:
1. The Student Work Protocol
We were introduced to this structured collaborative inquiry method at MTEI and immediately recognized its potential. It has transformed how we reflect on curriculum and pedagogy in our general and Judaics studies classes. We regularly have our full tzevet (staff) examine a single piece of student work, within a structured analytical framework. Together, we dive into questions about our instructional goals, curriculum alignment, and expectations across grade levels. This process has led to concrete changes in our writing curriculum and in preparing students for the next stage of their learning. Teachers gain invaluable time to step back, and learn from colleagues across grade levels in a spirit of inquiry–a living example of MTEI’s teaching that teachers learn and learners teach.
2. Crafting Our Israel Education Statement
In spring 2023, our school committed to making Israel education one of our professional development strands for the 2023–24 school year. We began our collective learning as a tzevet in August, but after the events of October 7, we knew we needed to reevaluate our goals. We chose to continue the work of crafting an Israel Education Statement, recognizing that, in this moment, the work was more urgent than ever as we navigated the realities unfolding in Israel, the broader American landscape, and within our own community.
In the winter of 2024, our school convened a task force of faculty, parents, board members, and administrators to articulate a shared vision for Israel education. We leaned on what we had learned at MTEI. Guided by the principle that how we talk matters—that the tone, framing, and openness of our conversations shape what is possible—we created a space where diverse perspectives could be expressed with respect, care, and courage. In our sessions, we asked questions like: What do we hope our students feel, know, and be able to do when they talk about Israel? How can we teach about complexity without creating confusion? How do we model curiosity and empathy when we disagree? Our goal was to ensure as many voices (and opinions) as possible weighed in so that the statement came from our kehillah, not just a few voices. In fact, the statement went through several iterations before we finalized it, and the resulting Israel Education Statement now serves as a touchstone for our teaching and continues to enrich our students’ connection to Israel.
Concrete changes in our classrooms included having students explore multiple narratives through primary sources, poetry, and music from across Israeli society. Teachers also used structured dialogue protocols to help students practice listening deeply before responding.
Looking Ahead
We know that our work with MTEI practices unfolds over time, continually building on itself and taking on new meaning for each educator who embraces it. At Schechter, we are still growing in how we create time and space for collaborative inquiry, even as we have a system in place now that demonstrates our commitment to professional development. Specifically, we give faculty and staff a list of all faculty meetings at the beginning of the year, along with the arc of our professional development. There are some days we have a late start, some we have an early dismissal, and some we cancel school—all so that we can prioritize faculty professional development, knowing that if our staff grows together they will have the best impact on our students.
Still, we are working to more deeply integrate practices such as protocols and reflective conversations into the daily rhythm of school life. We see opportunities to leverage MTEI’s principles further in areas like strengthening cross-grade curricular alignment and broadening our use of collaborative learning structures in team meetings and goal setting with our tzevet.
Our investment in MTEI is, at its heart, a promise to nurture people and possibilities—the leaders, learners, and communities who will shape the future of Jewish education. When our teachers lead with reflection, collaboration, and curiosity, they not only transform the culture of our own school, they contribute to a wider network of day schools. Because MTEI draws participants from across the field, each school’s growth enriches the collective capacity of Jewish education. In this way, the ripple effects of our work at Schechter extend beyond our classrooms, strengthening the shared ecosystem of Jewish day schools.
At Schechter, we are proud to be part of MTEI’s story—and prouder still that MTEI is woven into ours.
How MTEI Has Shaped Our Teaching
Faye Bearman, Judaic Studies Curriculum Coordinator/Instructional Coach; Ilene Brot, General Studies Curriculum Coordinator/Instructional Coach; and Rachael Gray‑Raff, 5th and 6th grade Judaic Studies Teacher
Since many teachers and administrators at Solomon Schechter Day School of Chicago are graduates of MTEI, we have long aligned our practices with its principles. MTEI has taught us to view our classrooms as a dynamic interplay between teachers, the content we are conveying to our students, and, of course, the students themselves. Further, we’ve learned that structuring instruction around collaborative inquiry — the act of having students work together to unpack and interpret text — deepens understanding and builds community. MTEI also stresses that how we talk matters, that teachers learn as they teach and learners teach as they learn, and that diverse participants can feel comfortable while striving toward a common mission. These ideas resonate with our commitment to relational learning and encourage us to reflect on how we listen, facilitate text study and lead.
Consider a few of our own experiences:
Ilene: Early in the program, I returned from an MTEI Seminar eager to practice attuned listening and met with a colleague distressed over a recent reassignment. Instead of offering immediate advice, I slowed down, tried to use body language to show that I was present. I also mirrored my colleague’s words and named her feelings. My colleague later shared how heard and seen she felt and even invited me to review an email she was drafting. The experience underscored that attentive listening builds trust, fosters empathy and honors MTEI’s emphasis on how we speak and listen. My practice has since shaped my coaching conversations with teachers, and I try to always make space for listening before responding.
Faye and Ilene: We convened our general and Judaic studies teachers for a lunch meeting, providing coverage for their duties. Our school had been encouraging partner‑based text study across disciplines, but some general studies teachers felt these practices only suited Jewish texts and were resistant to adopt them. To address their concerns, we focused on community building and showed that collaborative study works for any subject. We explored a poem together, using guiding principles that colleagues can learn from one another and that joint inquiry yields insights that individuals might find difficult to reach on our own. We practiced supporting and challenging each other’s interpretations (a core MTEI interpretive practice) and then reflected on how this structure deepened their understanding of content and strengthened relationships with each other. One teacher, who initially found the process with colleagues awkward, acknowledged that when she brought the practice into her classroom, collaborative inquiry did help students engage more deeply with unfamiliar material. The exercise also gave her new ideas for her classroom, such as practicing supporting and challenging others’ interpretations. We left convinced that pushing each other broadens what counts as “text” and enriches teaching across the curriculum.
Rachael: In my Judaics class, I have woven MTEI principles into daily practice. Drawing on varied approaches to text study, I blend partner work, open‑ended inquiry and structured discussions so students approach passages as texts to explore together. I try to model careful listening, probing for deeper meaning, and valuing multiple perspectives, to make lessons more engaging and meaningful. My students have embraced the format and shown noticeable growth in their analytical skills and confidence as they tackle increasingly complex material, and I have observed how these practices continue to benefit student learning in other subjects as well.
Stories like ours remind us that when we invest in deep professional learning and attend to the ways we listen, study and lead, our practice improves, and our students thrive.
What “Building Capacity” Looks Like
Miriam Raider Roth, Director of Mandel Teacher Educator Institute
On a crisp spring morning, 50 MTEI Cohort participants and faculty boarded a bus, coffee in hand, and headed to Sager Solomon Schechter to participate in a research lesson that was part of a Lesson Study investigation. Head of School Lena Kushnir, together with Suzanne Mishkin, Nanci Caplan, and teacher Rachael Gray-Raff, warmly opened their doors to us. One of their 5th grade classes would participate in this experience with us, learning from a lesson that the current MTEI participants had planned, and that faculty member Jennifer Lewis would teach. The cohort would closely observe the teaching and learning, debrief what they noticed , generate investigative questions, and then study the student work that was generated in the lesson to look for evidence of learning.
Before the lesson, Suzanne and Lena shared a bit about Schechter with the Cohort, and as I sat and listened, I was deeply moved by the ways they had integrated MTEI principles and practices into their professional culture. As Suzanne and Nanci explain in their article, they regularly convene teachers in learning communities to look closely at student work from across the Judaics and general studies curricula. The process of building these relational and professional learning communities was not easy – and these school leaders needed to make a strong case to their faculty. I recall Suzanne sharing that they started the first group with a small number of “first adopters,” teachers who were already inclined to engage in this collaborative way of working and then share with the staff the positive professional gains they experienced through meeting together. In this way, she modeled for the cohort that starting small, with the teachers who were most drawn to a collaborative endeavor, could help to build momentum and enthusiasm for the work. Suzanne taught us that it took time and patience to build these communities.
Sager Solomon Schechter is also modeling for other day schools and for MTEI what can happen when a school consistently invests in sending a number of leaders to participate in several different cohorts over time. Having invested in eight leaders so far (two of whom have brought their MTEI experiences to other schools), Schechter is helping us at MTEI understand how a school creates a process for making fundamental shifts in their professional learning culture as well as in their classroom practices. This process includes making the commitment to send their instructional leaders to MTEI, creating a culture of innovation where new practices can be tried out and where professional development is an important part of teachers and leaders’ time. Observing their evolution of practice has, in fact, raised excellent pedagogical questions for us. For example, how can we differentiate our cohort instruction so that we meet the needs of those who are new to MTEI principles and practices as well as those who are ready to deepen and extend their learning? As more schools send teams to MTEI over several cohorts, our experience with Schechter is helping us learn how we must grow in order to continue meeting the needs of all our participants.
The story of MTEI and Sager Solomon Schechter vividly illustrates one of MTEI’s core purposes. MTEI was created as a capacity-building program, setting out with the idea that if we create high-quality professional development for instructional leaders, they will then develop capacity to create inquiry-oriented, Jewish text-centered, extended and in-depth learning opportunities for their teachers. This in turn would improve the quality of student learning in their schools. We continue to learn deeply from schools like Sager Solomon Schechter who commit to the purpose of improving Jewish education for the teachers and learners in their community.
Why Focus on Education Leaders: How MTEI Aims for Impact
Seymour Kopelowitz, Mandel Foundation Program Director
The Mandel Foundation is committed to the enhancement of Jewish life and believes that success in this effort demands outstanding Jewish education. Whether such education takes place in schools or in alternative settings, inspiring students to learn requires front-line educators of the highest quality – the kinds of people who can foster powerful learning that catalyzes and strengthens the desire to engage more fully in Jewish life.
Recognizing that in Jewish education, as in other human endeavors, outstanding leadership is essential, MTEI, established in 1995, responds to this challenge by improving the quality of teaching and learning in Jewish schools.
Few professional development programs are sustained for three decades. We ascribe this success to the continued research and development that the program has engaged in from its inception. Beginning with the research from which this program emerged, and continuing to this day, MTEI regularly studies its practice, both through a program of internal studies as well as external evaluations commissioned by the Mandel Foundation.
The commitment of the Foundation to the program and, in turn, of the program’s commitment to continuous improvement has led to graduating over 450 teacher leaders in day schools, congregational schools and early childhood settings. These graduates bring vision and skilled practice to their institutions and communities and a shared language for talking about ambitious and meaningful teaching and high quality professional learning. Their work elevates the field of Jewish education and helps secure our Jewish future.
Resources
- The MTEI principles
- The Story of the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute: From Problem to Idea to Practice by Gail Dorph
- The MTEI Blog: MTEI Graduates Write About What They’ve Learned
We Want to Hear From You
We hope you find The DEEP Dive useful and meaningful. We welcome your feedback about how we might build upon this foray into professional learning for future issues! Email me at [email protected].
