Within the Jewish community, there are some strong efforts to figure out how to make religious education more available because it is understood that education is vital to maintaining religious identity for upcoming generations and that it is becoming unaffordable and undesirable to those not absolutely committed to it. Religious indoctrination is, after all, the number one reason for putting a kid into day school rather than free public school (which the parent pays taxes for in any event). In Seattle, a philanthropist left an endowment of about $100 million and this provides generous subsidies for tuition. In Chicago, a real estate developer is raising funds for an endowment and trying to convince everyone to agree to set aside 5% of their estates to fund this endowment, figuring that if everyone did so there would be enough endowment to give free education to everyone.

Ivan at Global Thoughts thinks everyone is missing a major point. Three things are known to be true: (1) The Jewish day school educational product has been steadily decreasing in quality to the point where it has become less relevant to its recipients and the parents who pay for it. Today’s grownups do not reflect kindly on their experiences and the rising rate of attrition in the religious community shows that aside from a steadfastly committed minority, the primary goal of education in the religious sense is not being met over the long haul. (2) The cost of providing that education has been taken as a given but no one is actively trying to figure out if education is being provided for in a cost-effective manner and, if not, how to do it better. (3) The people administrating and teaching in these schools are increasingly alien in religious and political ideology to the general communities they serve and devoid of business sense and sensitivity to the marketplace. Schools have become more concerned with the length of dresses than with providing the best possible education for their students. My assumption is if a school provides a superior education, parents will worry less about the length of dresses on campus and absorb  extra financial costs because more than anything else parents want the best education for their kids.

The following plan calls for major reforms in the field of Jewish religious day school education. The model high school consists of grades 9-12 (the most expensive bunch to educate) with a total of 200 students, half each sex. Tuition will cost $6,000 per kid per year exclusive of transportation and lunch which are to be borne by the student according to his or her needs. Such a school will have an operating budget of $1.2 million per year. Each grade will have two classes of 25 students and there will be 8 teachers, each teaching 4 course periods per day. A three-person administrative team will provide support.

The biggest inefficiencies that currently exist are (1) too many teachers overall and few with any personal interest in their students; (2) too many repetitive courses and a lack of integration within the total curriculum; (3) too many courses being taught at the same time to the point that homework has become tedious and useless to both the student and the teacher; (4) a sink or swim system in which there are fast tracks and slow tracks but no support for those within a track who falter; (5) too many periods each day that are too short in which very little information is imparted; (6) a schedule that has never been suited well to student’s body clocks, and (7) an academic year that rambles on with many distractions and forces students to cram months of material before final exams (ultimately diluting courses to their bare minimum).

The model plan calls for a totally revamped approach to education including a later start and finish, 4 hour-long classes per day with free time interspersed between sessions, a shorter academic year with fewer vacations in the middle of it, a more interesting, integrated and interdisciplinary curriculum, a mixture of 10 and 15 week course periods with staggered examination schedules, and time set aside within the academic year for special seminars and mini-courses, writing and other projects. The general idea is to create a more focused environment to give attention to the course on offer, to have the teacher use the intensive immersion opportunity to convey a stronger message and to manage student feedback, and to enable the student the space to absorb it. Another goal is to enable the student to do his schoolwork at school and go home mostly finished with his work.

The plan institutionalizes and provides a framework for oft-neglected matters such as student mentors and small group review seminars, teacher office hours, tutoring, student extracurricular activities, school assemblies, refresher courses to maintain skills and knowledge that are often forgotten, physical skills and leadership development, etiquette and citizenship.

This paper also questions facilities and practices long taken for granted. Do high schools need libraries filled with books or is the Internet the true library? Should students be carrying around and using often out-of-date and expensive text books or instead downloading reading materials off a website hosted by their teacher that has been tailored for the course (ie: including primary source materials and articles from current periodicals)? Should students hand in homework the next day (meaning the teacher gets no feedback on the day’s lecture until the end of the following lecture) or should homework be submitted on-line the same evening so that the teacher can get that feedback before the next lecture? Should teachers be writing on chalk boards or presenting power points? Should students be taking notes to memorize or be encouraged to listen, participate and absorb concepts? Should juniors and seniors in high school be taking AP standardized courses which they will take again in college or should this extra time be used to deal with religious, secular and ethical issues that are clearly on the mind of the teenager as he or she makes life choices that can no longer be influenced once he or she has graduated? (It happens to be that the recent trend is to move away from AP courses and colleges are in fact encouraging this.)

Education would benefit by having students waste less time doing things that are useless or repetitive and keep both students and teachers on their toes by tailoring each day’s assignments to be necessary and unique. To some extent, we insult the intelligence of students because we ourselves have stopped thinking creatively and efficiently.

Education can and should be fascinating to the point that parents should be interested in what their kids are learning and that kids should want to be in school. A sense of pride has to carry forward past graduation because the true effect of day school education is its lasting relevance to the grownup. Leaving education in the hands of educators and administrators who know only the narrow teachings of religious seminaries will only guarantee another generation of huge expenditures yielding lousy products and bored students. It is our last bastion of a command economy in a world that has since moved forward to a different plateau. Parochial education reform will benefit all students of all religions, everywhere in the world. Smarter cosmopolitan leaders committed to their communities and heritage.

The Plan in Detail:

Secular Curriculum
2 Courses per semester; 4 Years

Pure Mathematics
American History
Physical Training and Health
Biology & Chemistry
Applied Mathematics in Physics & Engineering
Why Things Are (integrating math, science and liberal arts)
World History
Great Ideas and Movements
Composition & Rhetoric
Literature
Spanish
Hebrew
(intensive reinforcement seminars to take place during the junior/senior high school years)

Jewish Studies Curriculum
2 courses per trimester; 4 years

Basic Jewish Concepts Explained
Bible Survey
Selected Biblical Texts with Commentaries
Prophets Survey
The Five Scrolls (Esther, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Songs, Lamentations)
Survey of Other Biblical Literature
Laws of Sabbath
Laws of Passover
Jewish History and Communities
Survey of Liturgy and Leading the Prayer Service
Streams of Thought (ie: Messianists, Kabbalists) and Philosophies (ie: Maimonides)
Talmud Survey
Mishna Survey
Talmudic Discourse with Paired Study Opportunities
Rituals: Life Cycle
Code of Jewish Law (Areas not otherwise covered in the curriculum)
Zionism and Israeli History
Responsa Literature
Holocaust
Contemporary Social and Religious Issues
Comparative Religious Systems
Art & Music
Ethics and Questions of Belief
Practical Hebrew

The Academic Year

Labor Day through end of Fall Holiday Cycle – refresher lectures, special coursework (ie: Laws of Jewish Holidays), orientation seminars.
October 15 – Christmas (10 weeks) – First Trimester
New Year’s – Passover (12 weeks in 2002) – Second Trimester; First Semester ends 15 Feb. Last 2 weeks of February are reserved for examinations and special projects (ie: writing, language labs, special subjects and seminars or competitions). Second semester begins March 1.
Passover – June 15 (10 weeks) – Third Trimester
Last 2 weeks of June are reserved for reading and examinations.

The School Day
4 Periods – Each course meets every day.
Prayers are one hour before the beginning of the first period.

Monday-Thursday
Period I 9:30-10:40
Period II 11:00-12:10
Period III 13:00 - 14:10
Period IV 14:45-15:55
Period V 16:00 - 17:00 (After-Hours – Office Hours, Tutorials, Clubs, Seminars)

Friday
Assembly 8:30 - 9:15 (featuring an outside guest speaker with carefully managed Q&A)
Period I 9:30-10:30
Period II 10:45-11:45
Period III 12:30-13:30
Period IV 13:45-14:45
(all times 30-60 minutes later depending on season; this time-frame for Dec-Feb)

Enrichment Program (Period V)
Each 9th grader shall have a 10th grade mentor who must meet with that person once per week for help with coursework or other issues. Each teacher will have office hours during Period V 2 days per week and between certain periods during the week. Students requiring additional tutoring can receive it during this period and tutors will be drawn from juniors and seniors who will be required to give a certain amount of time and be compensated for overtime should they participate. Faculty may use such periods occasionally to meet with students in smaller groups to have seminar-like discussions on topics covered in class. In addition, faculty and students will arrange special-interest programs during Period V (ie: lectures or workshops) or use the time to handle affairs of student clubs (ie: assembly organization committee, student-run internet site, student court). Programming responsibility will be divided among faculty, administration and students to ensure that this time period offers interesting diversions for students. Such a program has the potential of distinguishing such a school from the rest and providing faculty and students the opportunity to go beyond the box in exploring creative subject areas and innovative venues.

Annual Budget

Teachers (8) – each teach 4 courses. There are 8 classes of students each taking 4 courses at a time. (500k)
Imputed Rental of space (10,500 SF explained below) – 150k
Telephone 10
Electric 20
Insurance 25
Food (administrative) 10
Machinery replacement budget for office and staff 20
Office Supplies for 12 people  20
Janitorial 50
Postal 10
Principal, Secretary and Administrative Assistant 200k
Periodicals and Journals 10
Internet 10
Student Programming Budget 25
Supplementary Education Budget (special courses, seminars) 100
Tutoring Stipends 50
Books & Photocopy – passthru to students on an as-needed basis

Total $1.2 million

Extra Capitalization (100k):

Carpentry 30
Furniture 20 
Office Equipment 25
Networking 25

Space Budget 10,500 SF @ $15 per SF

Administrative Offices 1,000 Square Feet
Teacher Office Space (8 people) 1,500 SF
8 Classrooms for 25 people at 500 SF per room – 4,000 SF 
(Classrooms to have chairs, work shelves and exhibition facilities. Do kids need all these desks?)
Assembly Area for 250 – 2,000 SF
Lounge and Work Areas for Students – 2,000 SF

Certain costs such as rent, legal, accounting, and some equipment and technology items are expected to be either donated or provided at preferential pricing. Certain revenue streams will exist such as concessionaire fees to food providers who serve lunch or provide transportation.