Menachem Education Foundation, an non-profit organization founded in 2008 to break the cycle of poverty in underserved communities through professionalizing the structure of education, is honored and excited to announce that following a most successful year of the Data Driven Instruction (DDI) Pilot Program in four schools across the US, The Teacher Award sponsored by Daily Steals will be presented to the select teachers who have devoted countless hours this year to implementing this revolutionary program. The award is being made possible through the incredible generosity of Matt Wiener of Dailysteals.com.
The nationwide DDI Program piloted at the start of this school year in the first grades of Beis Rebbi and Cheder Menachem of Los Angeles, CA, and in the Boys and Girls Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, PA. Inspired by the work of Norman Atkins of the North Star Academy, and following the development of standards by the principals of our Principal Leadership Program in the summer of 2010, a final list of Standards for first grade Chumash was developed by Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum with the help of Dr. Hershel Fried. The program enforces standard and data driven instruction, based on real data from interim assessments given to the students every six weeks.
Wiener’s hopes the teacher awards will serve to acknowledge the efforts of these hard-working teachers and also further the idea of goal-centered education. “This program focuses on standards and working toward educational goals,” says Wiener. He uses his own education as an example of the need for standards and goals in education. “In school, I fell through the cracks,” says Wiener. “I didn’t learn how to learn. Teachers at that time had no way to gage where I was holding.” Wiener acknowledges that although he has come so far, he still feels he lacks skills that a good education should offer. “With this program, we can make sure kids don’t have that issue. They’ll have a better chance at succeeding in school and after it.”
The Teacher Award Presentations will be taking place on June 13th in Los Angeles during the auction program which begins at 8:15pm at The Gilmore Adobe, 6301 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA, and in Pittsburgh on Friday, June 17th, at the Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh. The events are open to the public.
