What if every Jewish early childhood center could reliably predict which new hires would become lasting, thriving members of their community? In a field where stability and quality have lasting effects on children and families, hiring for retention extends far beyond meeting childcare needs.

ElevatEd, in partnership with Fierce Outcomes, set out to bring data-driven insight to the heart of early childhood Jewish education by developing a predictive hiring model. Our research uncovered clear indicators of the factors that matter most in building strong, stable teams to support our youngest learners and their families.

We are proud to introduce this new predictive hiring model to the field, one that can forecast, with 75% accuracy, whether a candidate will remain with a school a year after being hired. Drawing on comprehensive, real-world data from Jewish early childhood centers across the U.S., the model identifies key drivers of educator retention and provides directors and leaders with actionable insights to build and sustain thriving teams.

See the full report here

Through this project, we analyzed hiring and retention data from 480 educators in 100+ centers across 12 communities. These new hires represent the changing face of early childhood professionals and the evolving pathways to employment in this field with 50% coming from word-of-mouth, and 50% from job boards. This rigorous study moves us beyond anecdotes to evidence-based insights about how to build stable, thriving teams.

What we discovered challenges some common assumptions while validating the power of practices many of you already know work. The data reveal that retention depends on connection, prior experience, and the quality of support educators receive from their very first day.

The benchmark for retention? 74%. This means that one in four educators leave during or after their first year on the job.

Five key findings emerge that can immediately inform how we recruit, hire, and support educators to increase this number:

• Connection matters: Educators hired through referrals had retention rates up to 11 percentage points higher than average
• Corollary: Being Jewish doesn’t matter: When comparing the retention outcomes of referred Jewish hires to referred non-Jewish hires, the difference was not statistically significant.
• Experience paired with intentional education is powerful: Educators with early childhood experience, especially those with Master's or Associate's degrees, achieved retention rates of nearly 80%, a 6% increase over the average
• "Fit" is measurable and meaningful: Based on five clear field-wide factors, Directors' assessment of candidate alignment with these attributes boosted retention outcomes
• Onboarding is non-negotiable: Educators who received no formal onboarding saw their retention rate drop by 18 percentage points to 56%

For Jewish communal leaders, these findings reinforce that investments in hiring support, professional development, and workplace culture directly advance the vitality of our early childhood centers. Stable, well-staffed schools are the foundation for strong early Jewish identity, engaged families, and long-term community growth.

This research is the beginning of a roadmap. By combining data with on-the-ground leadership, ElevatEd is working to ensure Jewish early childhood education is not just a place where children begin, but a field where educators stay.