Transformimg Jewish Lives
Quick Bytes: Complementary School Mergers (Part I)
Quick Bytes-- Government Support of Jewish Day Schools: Entitlements & Opportunities (Part II)
Quick Bytes-- Government Support of Jewish Day Schools: Entitlements & Opportunities (Part I)
Hebrew College cancels sale of campus
From The Boston Globe:
NEWTON - Eighteen months after the startling news that Hebrew College planned to sell its celebrated campus to retire $32.1 million in mortgage debt, its leaders say the school has regained its financial footing and will now stay put.
Rabbi Daniel L. Lehmann, the president of Hebrew College, said the school is in the final phase of renegotiating its loan in a complex deal that will reduce the institution's debt to $7.4 million.
Read the full article in The Boston Globe...
Affordable Orthodox day school slated to open in fall
From The Washington Jewish Week:
A new Jewish high school is set to open this fall, providing an Orthodox education to seventh and eighth grade girls. Named the National Torah Academy (NTA), the school will be located at Congregation Har Tzeon-Agudath Achim in Silver Spring and will eventually expand to a full high school with separate classes for both boys and girls.
With the major issue of affordable Jewish education on the rise, the creators of the NTA have come up with a tuition price of $10,000 a year, a 40 percent difference from other Orthodox high schools in the area.
Read the full article at The Washington Jewish Week...
TX school district makes a digital leap in technology
From The San Antonio Express-News:
McALLEN — Most students stay as far from school as possible during Spring Break. So when McAllen Memorial High School Principal Rosie Larson saw a group of them huddled against the school building, tented in blankets against the unseasonable cold, she did a double take.
With a sense of triumph, Larson realized they were seeking Wi-Fi for their new school-provided iPads. The tablets, distributed across grade levels to students and teachers, give access to technology that does not exist for most homes in a district with a 67-percent poverty rate.
Read the full article in The San Antonio Express-News...
Technology leading the way to lower-cost day school education
From The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles...
The nondenominational Pre-Collegiate Learning Center of New Jersey doesn't have a math teacher. The East Brunswick school instead relies on experienced math tutors who help students work through an online math curriculum relying on outside sources.
At Baltimore's Ohr Chadash, a Modern Orthodox primary school in its first year, students receive iPads beginning in the fourth grade to do more online and group work.
Read the full article in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles...
OpEd: The Jewish Case for School Vouchers
From The Wall Street Journal:
Among the world's Jewish diaspora communities, American Jews have done a singularly bad job of inculcating Jewish commitment in our children. In Mexico, Jews intermarry at a rate of 10%. In Australia, it's roughly 20%. In Canada, 35%, and in France, 40%. In the United States, by contrast, 50% of Jews intermarry.
There are several reasons for this, but the most important is also the most painful: Many American Jews know very little about Judaism. And it's hard to feel connected to something you don't understand.
Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal...
Why Tablets in the Classroom Could Save Schools $3 Billion a Year
From AllThingsD:
A group of publishers and tech companies gathered in Washington today to talk about getting digital textbooks into U.S. classrooms. The gathering, convened by the FCC and the Department of Education, included everyone from Apple to Intel to McGraw-Hill, and it was premised on the idea that digitizing classrooms is a good thing.
And, for argument's sake, let's say it is. But not because doing so will save schools much money. At least not anytime soon.
Read the full article at AllThingsD...