



ACADEMICS
שִׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק הָיָה מִשְּׁיָרֵי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה.
הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד,
עַל הַתּוֹרָה וְעַל הָעֲבוֹדָה וְעַל גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים.
משנה אבות א׳:ב׳
“Shimon the Righteous was from the remnants of the Great Assembly.
He would say, "On three things the world stands:
on the Torah, on work, and on acts of lovingkindness."
Pirkei Avot 1:2
CORE PILLARS OF A BEIT RABBAN EDUCATION

We work to grow students who are kind community members who are driven by the Jewish imperative to make a difference and who value and care for themselves, their immediate communities, and their world.

We work to grow students who are active learners, who take initiative and ownership of their learning, who always seek relevance in their learning, and are adventurous human beings who never stop learning and who look for and find wonder in all things.

We work to grow students who are empowered Jews, equipped with the skills and passion to lead rich Jewish lives and to help shape meaningful Jewish life for others.

GUIDING VALUES & PHILOSOPHIES
Immersive Judaism
Judaism is a way of life, not a subject that is confined to particular periods of the school day. To this end, we strive to integrate Judaic and secular learning throughout the day and to ensure that all educators engage in both Jewish and secular teaching, rituals, and programs. Our goal as a Jewish school is to cultivate students who have the knowledge and passion to make thoughtful Jewish life decisions. We believe that this requires students to develop fluency in Jewish text and practice, to find personal meaning in our texts, practices, and history, and to experience joyful and magnetic Jewish community.
Joy and Safety
A safe, joyful environment that engenders a sense of belonging maximizes students’ capacity to learn. We devote regular periods of time and programs to community building within each classroom and across grades.
Emotional Intelligence is Teachable
Emotional intelligence is crucial for long-term success, and emotional intelligence must be cultivated. We prioritize social-emotional curriculum, focusing on respectful discourse, conflict resolution, and empathy education. Positive Discipline, Racial Literacy, and Briyut (Healthy Living) lessons are required curriculum in each grade. In addition, community meetings are important times to work through communal issues, build community spirit, and address real-world issues. Engaging in all this builds emotional intelligence.
Curiosity Drives Learning
We are inspired by a student-centered educational philosophy. Teachers are empowered and encouraged to follow their students’ interests in designing projects that best achieve the mandated standards for each grade and subject. Encouraging and embracing curiosity and student questions are critical to growing a love of learning.
Rigor Deepens Love
Students are encouraged, inspired, and expected to work through complicated scenarios, ask insightful questions, and develop problem-solving skills and perseverance. Working hard and doing hard things inspires students to learn more and persevere. As we teach our children to work hard, we also teach them to do so in ways that are both physically and emotionally healthy.
Diversity Enhances Learning
We seek out and embrace a diverse faculty, student, and parent body, including interfaith families, families of color, LGBTQ+ families, and families of all types of Jewish affiliation and practice. Our differences are discussed openly, and students learn to respect differences and better understand themselves. In addition to specific curricula like the Pollyanna racial literacy curriculum, teachers utilize opportunities to highlight diverse perspectives and diverse experiences - especially ethnic, racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ diversity - within their teaching of different subject areas. Classroom libraries, toys, and art materials also reflect this commitment.
Zionism Obligates
Beit Rabban identifies as a Zionist school. For us, Zionism means having a deep relationship with Israel and always working towards making Israel a more robust, safe, and just society. This goes beyond love or connection; it is about obligation. It is an obligation that is ongoing and evolving depending on the circumstances at play in Israel, among Jews in the diaspora, and within a person’s own mind and heart. Our goal is to instill this Zionism in each of our students so that they carry this real relationship and sense of obligation throughout their lives and are, likewise, equipped to continue to care for Israel no matter what the future brings.
Diversity Enhances Learning
We seek out and embrace a diverse faculty, student, and parent body, including interfaith families, families of color, LGBTQ+ families, and families of all types of Jewish affiliation and practice. Our differences are discussed openly, and students learn to respect differences and better understand themselves. In addition to specific curricula like the Pollyanna racial literacy curriculum, teachers utilize opportunities to highlight diverse perspectives and diverse experiences - especially ethnic, racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ diversity - within their teaching of different subject areas. Classroom libraries, toys, and art materials also reflect this commitment.
Purposeful Use of Technology
Technology is used when it advances educational goals and is not a default mode of content education in any classroom. We want children to learn from teachers and from each other, and we want them to hold books in their hands and learn the mechanics of writing by hand (as research strongly supports). We employ almost no use of screens in the Gan, limited use of screens in Kevutzot, and more extensive but still intentional and limited use in the Chativah.
Purposeful Use of Homework
The main purpose of homework is to provide an opportunity for students to review and practice what they have learned in school; we do not believe in homework for homework’s sake. Homework is only assigned with a meaningful purpose, never as busy work that consumes too much family or play time. Homework also offers children an opportunity to develop skills for being responsible for their materials and their work, studying independently, and planning their time. We also do not give homework over Shabbat, Chol Hamoed Sukkot, Chanukah, or over December, February, or Pesach breaks.
All students in K-8 are encouraged to read every night as a routine. We do not consider this homework, and we generally discourage reading logs. Beginning in the spring of first grade, all students do nightly Hebrew reading to practice accuracy and fluency.
Early Childhood
GAN
Our Gan provides 2.9-5-year-old children with a joyful and loving learning experience. We nurture children’s curiosity, building on their ideas and questions in order to create natural learning opportunities for them. Students experience the rhythms of the Jewish calendar and become acquainted with sippurei Torah, the foundational stories of our Jewish tradition. Hebrew immersion is a critical feature of our program with one native-Hebrew speaking teacher speaking b’Ivrit to the children at all times. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to education, teachers guide students in taking risks, learning to experiment, practicing communication skills, and making meaningful connections.

Elementary (K-4th Grade)
KEVUTZOT
Our Kevutzot program provides kindergarten through fourth-grade students with a rigorous and joyful learning environment, one in which each child is deeply known. Integrating Judaic and secular studies throughout the day, teachers nurture the academic, emotional, and spiritual growth of their students.

CHATIVAH
In our Chativah program, fifth through eighth-grade students are continuously asked to make personal meaning of their learning and to take leadership roles within the school in concrete ways. Beit Rabban students are prepared for high school with high-level academic and student skills, an understanding of themselves as learners and as community members, and with the tools to be lifelong Jewish learners and community members.
Middle School (5th-8th Grade)

EDUCATIONAL
METHODOLOGY
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Whole Child Education guides all our curriculum and teaching. We approach each child’s education holistically — academic, emotional, and spiritual — and we prioritize the full scope of their developmental needs.
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Reggio Emilia is an educational philosophy that puts children at the center of their learning through a constructivist approach and guides our education in preschool.
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Pedagogy of Partnership (PoP), an approach to chevruta/partner learning that cultivates sharp critical thinking and deep social-emotional capacities, is used in our elementary and middle school classes (both Jewish and General Studies) to help students develop the language, beliefs, and skills they need for strong chevruta/partner work.
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The Proficiency Model of Language Acquisition guides our Modern Hebrew instruction in all grades. Students develop functional abilities in the four core areas of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Curricula and instruction are aligned with the Hebrew Proficiency Guidelines, which are based on the guidelines published by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
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Structured Reading/Science of Reading emphasizes the explicit and systematic teaching of all aspects of literacy instruction: language skills, decoding, reading comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, and the explicit teaching of the rules of language. Teachers also model a love of the written word and our strong oral tradition, nurturing literacy-rich classroom environments with ample opportunities for students to experience the joy and pleasure of reading and writing across genres.
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Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is an evidence-based methodology to teach writing with an emphasis on executive functioning in all Kevutzot and Chativah classes.
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Positive Discipline is a character education and classroom management methodology that trains educators to be firm and kind in teaching their students to make intentional choices with respect to their behavior, their relationships, and their community. We use Positive Discipline methodology and curriculum in all grades.
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Responsive Classroom is a student-centered, social and emotional learning approach to teaching and discipline. It consists of a set of research and evidence-based practices designed to create safe, joyful, and engaging classrooms and school communities for both students and teachers. We use Responsive Classroom tools in all grades to complement Positive Discipline.
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EBLI: Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction is a structured linguistic approach to teaching literacy that begins with a sound-to-print approach to decoding. Using evidence from the science of reading (what we know about how people learn to read), EBLI includes explicit daily instruction in reading (decoding and comprehension), encoding (spelling/writing and handwriting), and vocabulary instruction. EBLI lessons are currently taught in grades K-4.
CURRICULUM
We are always looking for the most effective, new curricula to advance our educational goals. Our teachers use the curricula listed below in conversation with the curricula we develop in-house.
HEALTHY LIVING & SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
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Positive Discipline (All Grades)
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Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship & Safety (All Grades)
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Rights, Respect, Responsibility Health Curriculum (All Grades)
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MindUp Mental Health Curriculum (Chativah)
HEBREW
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Even Kriah (K-1st Grade)
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Chaverim B’Ivrit (Kevutzot)
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Bishvil HaIvrit (Chativah)
JUDAIC STUDIES
LANGUAGE ARTS
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The Heggerty Curriculum (Gan & Garinim/K)
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Fundations Wilson Language Basics (Kevutzot)
MATH
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Math in Focus 2020 Singapore Math (Kevutzot)
SCIENCE
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Foss: Full Option Science System (Kevutzot and Chativah)
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Amplify Science: A Phenomena-Based Science Curriculum (Chativah)
SOCIAL STUDIES
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Facing History & Ourselves (Chativah)
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Pollyanna Racial Literacy (All Grades)
AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS
Beit Rabban will continue our partnership with two amazing organizations to provide afterschool care for the 2025-26 School Year. Amazing Athletes will provide afterschool programming for Gan through Kevutzot (Preschool - 4th Grade) Mondays through Thursdays. FunFit Kids will provide off-site afterschool programming on Fridays for Pre-K through 3rd Grade.
2025-26 SCHOOL YEAR
Amazing Athletes
Ages: Preschool through 4th Grade
Days: Mondays through Thursdays
Location: On-Site at Beit Rabban
Amazing Athletes provides a wide range of enrichment programs for children after school. Programs take place at Beit Rabban. Amazing Athletes Sports & Education Programs is the leading educational sports program in the country, positively impacting over 250,000 children annually through sports and enrichment activities. Children in Amazing Athletes routinely benefit physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally, and learn to combine fitness with fun.
FunFit Kids
Ages: Pre-K (Gan Sagol) through 3rd Grade
Days: Fridays
Location: Off-Site
Chativah Afterschool
Ages: Middle School (5th through 8th Grade)
Days: Mondays through Thursdays
Location: On-Site at Beit Rabban
FunFit Kids is a multi-sport program that allows children to explore interests, let out energy, build skills, and create new friendships. FunFit is structured to be age-appropriate, encourage participation, and focus on progressive learning. With an emphasis on the child’s individual needs and interests, this program also engages them in a variety of movement experiences through play, drills, and games.
Beit Rabban provides a variety of afterschool programming for middle schoolers that are taught by internal BRDS staff as well as some third-party vendors. Registration for the fall semester has closed, but you can see the spreadsheet below to view the kinds of programs offered.







