Committed to helping our children excel in academic studies and social skills.
Our teachers partner
together to deliver a
creative, collaborative and
enriching learning experience
from the beginning of each
child’s education journey
through fifth grade.
General Info:
bydsinfo@byds.org
Our average response time is within one business day. Please note that we do not respond during Shabbat Friday evening through Saturday evening.
Prefer to email someone directly? Find the best person to answer your question below.
Our Team consists of the Student Achievement Team Coordinator, our School Counselor, our Learning Specialist, our Director of Jewish Life if needed, our Early Childhood Director as necessary, and our Elementary School Principal. Our specialists work closely to ensure students’ individualized needs are met.
Weekly meetings are held to discuss students who have been referred to our team, to determine those students who may be at risk academically, or those who have social and emotional needs. Students who demonstrate a need for more challenging work in academic areas are also discussed. We review student progress, study student reports presented by educational diagnosticians, and determine the appropriate actions that will be put into place. Additionally, we hold conferences with parents of these students to discuss our response plan to ensure that both home and school are on the same page for the best course of action to assist the child.
Our emphasis on student wellness stems from our belief that education should nurture and empower the whole person. With everything from educational seminars to dedicated divisional counselors to academic resource centers to serving healthy food, we make sure that all students are equipped with the coping skills and practical resources they need to thrive.
We don’t teach to the test: We use the data received from the test to help guide students to be better prepared as writers and readers. We do this authentically so as to not constrain their learning and application to one context or situation, especially not to an assessment. Elements of the ERB and other evaluations glean light on specific growth areas and it’s our job to help mold and challenge.
The mission of the BYDS Counseling Program is to support the school community by developing and integrating a comprehensive guidance program that will assist students in academic, career, and personal/social programs. This will allow children to develop a positive sense of self and become effective students, responsible citizens, and lifelong learners.
Most students face a number of stressors and challenges on any given day. Rather than ignore them (or pretend like they don’t matter), BYDS supports students in big and small ways as they navigate life’s twists and turns.
Our emphasis on student wellness stems from our belief that education should nurture and empower the whole person. With everything from educational seminars to dedicated divisional counselors to academic resource centers to serving healthy food, we make sure that all students are equipped with the coping skills and practical resources they need to thrive.
Our life skills activities include morning energizers, focused lunch, Mensch of the Month, and leadership opportunities. Our morning energizers incorporate a short and fun “brain break” to help start our day with a positive, ready-to-learn mindset. During our focused lunch, we play peaceful music in the background for the first five minutes as students quietly focus on eating and nourishing their minds. We have already seen great improvement in lunchroom behavior as well as better use of manners. Mensch of the Month will be incorporated with a new twist. Using the five life skills, one student per grade will be nominated by the grade level teachers for demonstrating the five traits throughout that month. Receiving this award is a huge honor, and these students will be recognized on Friday afternoon during Kabbalat Shabbat services.
The Comprehensive Testing Program (CTP) through the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) is a rigorous assessment for high-achieving students in areas such as reading, listening, vocabulary, writing, and mathematics. Verbal and quantitative reasoning subtests are part of the CTP beginning in Grade 3. The CTP helps compare content-specific, curriculum-based performance to the more conceptual knowledge base found in reasoning tests. It also compares student performance and growth with similar groups of achievers via national, independent, suburban public, international, association, district, class, and grade norms using scaled scores, stanines, and percentiles. Since the formation of our Student Support Team in 2015. Our students’ test scores have been on a consistent rise. Average BYDS scale scores on the 5th grade Comprehensive Testing Program (CTP) through ERB continue to surpass both suburban and independent school averages in all subcategories. Specifically, 5th-grade scores are 4.6 percent higher than independent norms in mathematics and 2.7 percent higher in reading comprehension.
We use the data received from the test to help guide students to be better prepared as writers and readers. We do this authentically so as to not constrain their learning and application to one context or situation, especially not to an assessment. Elements of the ERB and other evaluations glean light on specific growth areas and it’s our job to help mold and challenge our students thinking. Reading and writing are two of the most challenging lessons to teach – it involves processing and application – the way we have improved this is by analyzing the growth areas (i.e., what are their mistakes telling us), engaging them in the process, and creating more opportunities to apply their skills and IT WORKS!
Alexandra Newman, M. Ed, CSC, LPC BYDS School Counselor
The mission of the BYDS Counseling Program is to support the school community by developing and integrating a comprehensive guidance program that will assist students in academic, career, and personal/social programs. This will allow children to develop a positive sense of self and become effective students, responsible citizens, and lifelong learners.
Our school counselor, Alexandra Newman, is entering her 7th year as our school counselor. Before becoming our school counselor, she taught 2nd grade at BYDS for 3 years. Mrs. Newman holds a collection of degrees. Aside from her bachelor’s degree and her master’s degree in elementary education, she holds a second master’s degree in school counseling and is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC).
Mrs. Newman enjoys making meaningful connections with each student and instilling Jewish values in their daily lives. Knowing she is making an impact on all of these students is rewarding and fulfilling. What excites her about this role is being able to address all students’ needs. Mrs. Newman enjoys being able to build positive relationships with students and provide them with necessary skills to achieve academic success, personal/social development, and character building. In addition, she enjoys continuing to build relationships with parents.
Like several of our teachers, Mrs. Newman is an alumna of Beth Yeshurun Day School herself, representing a long tradition of lifetime BYDS involvement.
BYDS is a No Place for Hate School. No Place for Hate helps to create and sustain inclusive school environments where all students feel valued and have the opportunity to succeed by promoting respect for individual difference while challenging bigotry and prejudice. The No Place for Hate® initiative provides educators and students with the resources to ensure that anti-bias and diversity education are an integral part of the school curriculum. Our No Place for Hate program at BYDS has evolved to a student driven leadership program. Students from 4th & 5th grade are selected to be on a NPFH student coalition. Students can choose to participate in this group and meet monthly with Mrs. Newman. These students help organize school-wide activities that are required to help make us a No Place for Hate school. Some of these activities include: mix it up lunch, our school-wide Kindness Tree, volunteering at JFS Celebration Company, and much more.
