As the educational planning arm of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, the JEC facilitates the community’s strategic planning for education. The Planning and Evaluation department identifies needs, gaps, and successes in the community’s education arena. Through a focus on evaluation, the department ensures program accountability. In addition, JEC provides strategic planning and evaluation consultation to educational institutions in the community.

Planning

The JEC Strategic Plan serves as the central “blueprint for action” for the agency’s work and direction. The plan focuses on three strategic goals:

• Broaden and deepen participation in Jewish education and engagement with Jewish life.
• Develop and support excellence and sustainability in Jewish education.
  • Elevate the quality of Jewish education in Cleveland by building institutional desire, readiness, and capability to meet the challenges of 21st century teaching and learning.
  • Establish JEC as a convener and incubator dedicated to educational excellence, where community partners come to learn, collaborate, and experiment in order to develop solutions for contemporary issues facing Jewish education.
• Strengthen knowledge, understanding, and engagement with Israel.

Evaluation

As a learning community dedicated to reflective practice and collaborative learning, the JEC has created a culture that values ongoing evaluation as a regular part of the work of the agency.

The JEC’s approach to evaluation is based upon the following key concepts:

• Evaluation is a process. It must be ongoing to be effective.
• Evaluation should be an organic part of programs, embedded in programmatic work.
• It is necessary to build appreciation and trust for evaluation, which is often perceived as a threatening process. It should be a collaborative and developmental.
• Appropriate mechanisms must be created to ensure monitoring implementation of the evaluation recommendations.

The JEC model of evaluation includes both external and internal evaluation. In evaluating all new initiatives, the JEC uses the evaluation process to inform decision-making, helping to assess whether to scale back, modify, or expand these programs.