In November, Israel Education graduate certificate students traveled to Washington, D.C. from across the U.S. and Israel for three days of in-person learning. During the on-campus seminar, Dr. Benjamin M. Jacobs, with Dr. Barry Chazan, brought the students to visit the Sela Public Charter School. Sela PCS is the city’s only Hebrew-language immersion public school.
Recognized as a Tier 1 school by the DC Public Charter School Board and as a 2022 Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, Sela PCS features a diverse student body and staff that reflect the full multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural vibrancy of the nation’s capital. The school offers an academically rigorous curriculum, including daily Modern Hebrew instruction that fosters high levels of language proficiency.
The GSEHD students toured the school guided by selected 5th graders, observed classrooms, and later engaged in a reflective discussion with the principal, teachers, and a founding board member, in order to get a sense of how Hebrew and Israel show up in a non-sectarian public school setting.