CASJE Announces Move of Administrative Home to The George Washington University

The community of researchers, practitioners, and funders who comprise CASJE, the Consortium for Applied Research in Jewish Education, has moved its administrative home to The George Washington University (GWU). Founded in 2011 with generous core support from The AVI CHAI and Jim Joseph Foundations, CASJE is a collaborative among institutions that will continue to exist as a national consortium. It was incubated at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and led by Dr. Lee Shulman, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford and President Emeritus of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Dr. Shulman remains a co-chair of CASJE alongside Dr. Michael Feuer, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at GWU and President of the National Academy of Education.

CASJE works to improve the quality of knowledge that can guide the practice of, and investment in, Jewish education. In addition, CASJE seeks to develop the pipeline of early-career researchers – which it does through seminars and inclusion of an emerging scholar on its leadership team – and to identify strategies in education research and practice that can inform Jewish education. In this regard, CASJE will continue to seek active collaborations with existing Jewish institutions of higher education and Jewish seminaries.

GWU’s existing Master’s program in experiential education and Jewish cultural arts, a unique initiative funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, is one example of the potential for dynamic links between education research and Jewish learning.

CASJE’s current work includes a groundbreaking study of leadership in Jewish day schools, funded by The AVI CHAI Foundation and being conducted by the American Institutes for Research, and an exploration of how Jewish summer camps incorporate Hebrew language, a project of the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University and funded by the Wexner Foundation. Emerging areas of work focus on early childhood education, supported in its initial stages in part by The Crown Family; Hebrew language education; Jewish camp; Jewish peoplehood education; experiential education; and the economics of Jewish education. The Consortium develops its research agenda through a signature process that includes in-person “Problem Formulation Convenings” and online “blogcasts” with researchers, practitioners, and funders together formulating research questions.