The Kohelet Foundation Announces Kohelet Prize Winners
The Kohelet Foundation has announced the winners of its 2017 Kohelet Prize. Six $36,000 prizes were awarded to educators and teams of educators whose entries were selected as exemplifying excellence in six distinct categories critical to effective education.
Created to celebrate extraordinary accomplishment, stimulate breakthroughs and enrich the field of Jewish day school education, the Kohelet Prize inspired over 300 educators to share their innovations, successes and instructive failures on a national scale. The foundation accepted entries to the Kohelet Prize from early September through November, 2016. An independent panel of seven judges representing the fields of cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, classroom pedagogy and educational administration conducted an extensive review of each one. The judges awarded one prize and one honorable mention in the following categories: Physical Learning Environment, Interdisciplinary Integration, Differentiated Instruction, Real-World Learning, Critical and Creative Thinking and Risk Taking and Failure. Each winner or winning team receives a $36,000 cash prize.
Along with announcing the prize winners, today the Kohelet Foundation launched the Kohelet Prize Database in which all Kohelet Prize entries are available to explore. The foundation designed the database to be searchable by category, subject area, grade level and pedagogical approach. Holly Cohen, Executive Director of the Kohelet Foundation explained, “The database creates a new space in which educators can share their best work and learn with and from each other while contributing to the field.” The Kohelet Prize Database can be accessed via the Kohelet Prize website: www.koheletprize.org.
The Kohelet Foundation plans to award the six prizes again next year. The submission period for the 2018 prize begins in September 2017.