NARBERTH, Penn. – The Kohelet Foundation has announced the inaugural year presentation of the Kohelet Prize. The unrestricted $36,000 prize will be awarded to educators or teams of educators, who currently work in Jewish day schools and whose work demonstrates a progressive approach to education in the following six categories: Interdisciplinary Integration; Real-World Learning; Learning Environment; Differentiated Instruction; Development of Critical and/or Creative Thinking; and Risk Taking and Failure.

“We know there are incredible, creative and highly effective teachers doing this work in the field right now. We want to inspire them to share what they know about developing the minds and hearts of their students,” said Holly Cohen, Kohelet Foundation’s executive director.

“The first five categories are critical to excellent education. By honing in on these, we hope to surface work that demonstrates the elements that matter most in the classroom,” said Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl, the Kohelet Foundation chief academic officer. In explaining the sixth category, Perl noted, “In schools, failures are too often seen as an endpoint, not as a crucial step toward success. To foster a growth mindset in students, we have to begin by fostering it in our teachers. We’re shifting the paradigm from ‘failure is bad’ to responsible risk-taking and failure breeds success. That’s a game changer for the field of Jewish education.”

For information on submitting an entry, visit www.koheletprize.org. Entries may be submitted Sept. 29 through Nov. 29.

The Kohelet Foundation’s work focuses primarily on Jewish day schools and the institutions that support and promote them, creating and implementing programs that are replicable and accessible and awarding a variety of unique and targeted grants.