It's a New Era At Kadima!

Our marketing folks have come upon a new slogan that you'll be hearing in coming days:

"It's a New Era at Kadima."

This really is true. Over the past 18 months, our new leadership team has worked hard to refocus the school and improve it. We've fixed up the physical plant; improved school spirit, revitalized our Board of Trustees, and perhaps most importantly, implemented high levels of accountability in our program. If you want your kids to be challenged, to study, to think critically, and to embrace Jewish life and Jewish living, you should send them to Kadima.

One of the most important things we've done--and I challenge any school to match this--is ensure accountability in our educational program. Our General Studies Principal, Kristi Combs, has implemented a detailed and rigorous program to ensure that we are actually teaching what we say we are. We are using independently prepared instruments to measure our compliance with our goals. As I wrote previously, we are doing this during the school year so we can make any necessary course corrections before the year ends.

At the beginning of the year, Ms. Combs and her faculty laid out an annual map of instruction, such that teachers agreed that by December, their kids would have obtained mastery in certain areas. We then engaged an independent company to devise a test to gauge whether the students had, in fact, mastered the lessons they were supposed to have by the date of the test. These tests are given throughout the year. There are three possible results:

1. All students show mastery of the tested subjects.

2. Some students show mastery of the tested subjects.

3. Most or nearly all of the students fail to show mastery of the tested subjects.

We expect that the results will show No. 1. If they show No. 2, then we know that some students may need extra help, and we can get it to them before the end of the school year. We can provide these students with the differentiated instruction they need. If the results show No. 3, then we know that there was an issue with the instruction, and we can fix it. No longer do we have to say in June , "next year, we'll fix it." Now we can fix it before the school ends. Indeed, if results show No. 3, Ms. Combs will work with the faculty to address any problems.

This is really compelling stuff.

If there are prospective parents out there reading this, I urge you to ask prospective schools what kind of measurement and accountability systems they have to ensure that they are teaching what they say they are.

At Kadima, we can tell you.