ElevatEd’s Experimentation Grants: Empowering Local Innovation to Advance the Field
Jewish early childhood education (ECJE) is a critical but challenged field, educating children from birth through age five. Across North America, programs face persistent issues: recruiting and retaining skilled educators, supporting teacher well-being, meeting the needs of increasingly diverse learners, and engaging families meaningfully in their children’s Jewish journeys.
While many solutions have been proposed, ElevatEd’s Experimentation Grants invest $25,000 directly into twelve local communities, empowering them to design, test, and share innovative solutions tailored to their unique contexts.
This initiative creates a national laboratory for innovation, where local experiments generate insights that can be adapted and scaled across the field. As ElevatEd’s first five communities complete their experiments and the second cohort’s seven prepare to launch, we can learn from their projects about the priorities, challenges, and opportunities shaping ECJE.
The ElevatEd Experimentation Grant Model
Each community was encouraged to host a focus group of educators, directors, funders, lay leaders, and sometimes researchers and parents to identify priority ideas. After submitting detailed proposals outlining goals, budgets, and evaluation plans, communities receive funding to run their experiments over the academic year. They track progress, gather data, and share lessons learned with ElevatEd and the broader field.
This collaborative, data-informed approach ensures that innovations are not only locally relevant but also measurable and transferable.
Major Themes Emerging Across the Twelve Communities
The diversity of experiments that communities developed to make change at the local level is striking, but the underlying needs are remarkably consistent. Drawing from the full body of proposals and reports, several key themes emerge that reflect critical areas of need and opportunity.
1. Educator Well-Being and Mental Health
Across communities, educators report high levels of stress and burnout, which directly impact both teacher retention and classroom quality. In Boston, for example, a survey revealed that 70% of early childhood educators struggle with mental health challenges. To address this, Boston piloted a cost-sharing Employee Assistance Program (EAP) along with microgrants for wellness workshops, aiming to boost morale and support retention. As one educator reflected, “Having access to the EAP made me feel like my well-being truly matters to my school and community.”
A key goal of the Long Island experiment was to provide coaching and support to teachers managing challenging student behaviors. This community recognized that when teachers are underprepared to guide children through behavioral issues, it has a significant emotional impact on the educator.
Ultimately, supporting educator well-being is foundational to sustaining a skilled, motivated workforce and creating nurturing learning environments for children.
2. Substitute Coverage and Substitute Networks
Frequent teacher absences and a limited pool of reliable substitutes disrupt classroom continuity and increase pressure on existing staff. Without a robust substitute network, schools find it challenging to maintain quality and consistency.
Both Houston and Denver/Boulder identified this as a critical challenge and responded with targeted initiatives aimed at strengthening their substitute pipelines and offering pathways to permanent employment.
Houston focused on recruiting and training substitutes from within the Jewish community. As one Houston leader shared, “This program offers a comprehensive solution to address the shortage of Jewish teachers in Jewish early childhood education schools while simultaneously providing a pathway for substitutes to transition into full-time teaching roles.”
Denver/Boulder partnered with an intergenerational organization to expand the substitute pool, training older adults to work in early childhood classrooms. This approach both fills immediate staffing gaps and attracts applicants with diverse experience and dedication, again offering a path into permanent positions.
Building strong substitute networks in this way ensures classroom stability, supports teacher retention by reducing burnout from coverage gaps, and allows educators to participate in professional development or needed time away, confident that their classrooms—and students—are in capable hands.
3. Neurodiversity and Inclusion
Classrooms are increasingly diverse, with children presenting a wide range of behavioral, developmental, and neurodiverse needs. To meet these challenges, educators need ongoing training and coaching to create inclusive environments where every child can thrive.
Four communities chose to focus their experimentation efforts on this area, identifying a lack of teacher preparation in inclusive practices as a direct contributor to educator attrition. Long Island implemented behavioral coaching and mindfulness training to help teachers manage challenging behaviors and feel more supported in their work. As their proposal stated, “We want to ensure that all children and families feel welcomed and supported in Jewish early childhood settings... Ongoing coaching and professional development are key.”
Looking ahead, Miami is preparing to launch Al Pi Darko, a tiered behavioral and neurodiversity support model that includes toolkits, targeted trainings, and coaching for educators and directors. Seattle is working to partner with a local university to bring evidence-based social-emotional learning frameworks into Jewish early childhood classrooms. Pittsburgh is launching Traveling Together: A Journey Toward Neurodiversity-Affirming Practices, is a multifaceted initiative designed to support neurodiverse children in early childhood Jewish settings.
Equipping educators with the skills and support to meet diverse needs not only improves outcomes for children and families—it also enhances teacher satisfaction and contributes to the stability and strength of the broader Jewish early childhood community.
4. Family Engagement and Retention
Strong family engagement is essential for children’s success and for the long-term vitality of Jewish communal life. Families who feel connected and supported are more likely to remain engaged in Jewish education and community over time.
Atlanta is developing a program to help educators guide families through transitions from early childhood to day schools, camps, and other Jewish experiences. As the community explained in their proposal: “The experiences would expand teacher capacity, forge durable cross-institutional relationships, and equip directors/teachers to offer families accurate, personalized guidance on their next Jewish-learning destination. In short, we are closing the very gap families feel most acutely: trusted preschool educators want to advise on ‘what’s next,’ but lack the knowledge and network to do so.”
Additionally, all five communities implementing interventions focused on neurodiversity and behavioral support have parent engagement as a key outcome of their efforts. Miami shared, “Ensuring that children with emerging developmental, behavioral, or neurodiverse needs are identified and supported early helps their families feel empowered to remain within Jewish educational institutions for the long term.”
Early childhood Jewish education can serve as a powerful engine for communal vitality—especially when families are supported and accompanied throughout their Jewish educational journey.
Conclusion: A Field in Motion
The twelve ElevatEd communities’ experiments reveal a field that is grappling with real challenges yet motivated to act—even with limited funding—to imagine and implement meaningful interventions. These projects illuminate core priorities including educator well-being and mental health; substitute networks and substitute coverage: neurodiversity and inclusion; and family engagement and retention. Each community brings unique needs and strengths to the table. By fostering a culture of experimentation and shared learning, ElevatEd enables schools to pilot locally relevant solutions and contribute successful models for national adaptation. In East Bay, for example, experimentation was the focus of their grant: the community offered microgrants to schools to test innovative projects in recruitment, retention, mentorship, and family engagement—sparking collaboration and idea-sharing among directors.
Investing in local innovation accelerates progress field-wide and ensures that emerging strategies reflect the diverse realities of our communities.
As Cohort 2 launches its experiments, the field has a timely opportunity to learn in real time—celebrating successes, reflecting on challenges, and collectively building a stronger, more inclusive, and innovative ECJE landscape.
ElevatEd’s model continues to demonstrate that when local professionals are empowered to experiment, adapt, and share, the entire field moves forward together.
Interested in learning more or adapting these innovations for your community? ElevatEd is committed to sharing tools, data, and lessons learned. Together, we can build a vibrant future for Jewish early childhood education. Contact hello@elevatedtogether.org to learn more.
