As the Director of Learning at the Covenant Foundation, I am delighted to introduce the inaugural issue of Reports from the Field, a new Foundation publication. Based on the findings from multi-year evaluations of Covenant Foundation grants, these articles offer compelling portraits of innovative Jewish teaching and learning framed within Jewish education research literature.

In this volume Judith Shapero illustrates “The Power of Intergenerational Initiatives” through the work of IDEAL 18, and explores how one Jewish day school (Brandeis Marin in San Rafael, CA) is “Grappling with Israel Through its Arts.” Joshua Krug uses insights from evaluating BaMidbar’s MESH-EE (Mental, Emotional, and Social Health through Experiential Education) Fellowship to offer new perspectives on “Assessing “Success” in Professional Development.” Meredith Katz and Rebecca Shargel investigate how the Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT) educates about historical racism as “Jewish Students Explore the Confederate Memorial through Role-Play.” Finally, I’ve written an article that explores “The Art of Flourishing” through the work and ideas of artist-educators whose creative approaches to Jewish life and learning are expanding our conception of what is possible in Jewish education. 

 As you read through this first volume of Reports, we hope you will be impressed by the exciting work being done by colleagues throughout the field, intrigued by the research frameworks that help explain how this work achieves the impact it does, and inspired to apply some of this research to your own work. We look forward to the new findings and insights that will thus be generated and highlighted in future Reports from the Field editions.

--Meredith Woocher, Director of Learning, The Covenant Foundation