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Friday May 30, 2008

Religious school dropout?: Initiative aims to curb post-bar mitzvah exodus

by stacey palevsky
staff writer

Nearly three out of four Jewish children quit religious school after they have their bar or bat mitzvah.

In an effort to flip that statistic upside down, the Bureau of Jewish Education this summer is launching a communitywide initiative to improve Bay Area synagogue schools.

It’s called NESS (Nurturing Excellence in Synagogue Schools), an acronym that intentionally means “miracle” in Hebrew. All 23 congregation-based religious schools on the Peninsula and in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties are invited to apply. Six will be selected by June 13 to participate in a three-year pilot program beginning in the fall.

Bay Area educators are excited by NESS because of its emphasis on the whole religious school — directors, teachers, parents, students, clergy and congregants. Earlier education initiatives focused on just one piece of the puzzle, efforts that were not sustained because of the inherent interconnectivity of a school.

It’s like a Little League baseball team. If coaches work with just the pitchers — when the fielders and the hitters need help, too — the team has no hope of making it to the playoffs.

NESS, likewise, approaches religious school improvement from all angles.

“When we say to children: Do you love Hebrew school? The answer is almost always no,” said Janis Sherman Popp, past president of the BJE. “I’m a bubbe. Did I like Hebrew school? No.

“What we hope to do with NESS is create a generation who instead of having to go to religious school, they want to go,” Popp added. “And they will remember religious school fondly, and encourage the next generation to go.”

NESS focuses on five major aspects of a synagogue school: its organization, leadership, curriculum, training for teachers, and parent/family education.

Before anything is changed, however, BJE staff and expert education consultants conduct a comprehensive assessment to determine what within a school simply will need a fresh coat of paint, and what needs to be dismantled and rebuilt.

Education directors and teachers will attend monthly trainings; over three years, they will participate in 180 hours of professional development classes.

Meanwhile, BJE staff and consultants work with a committee of educators, lay leaders, parents and clergy to develop a blueprint for change, so that the responsibility is not only shouldered by the school’s director.

Anita Block, director of NESS in Philadelphia, said these committees — called pods — consider things such as: What does good teaching look like? What do we want our children to know? How do we go about getting there?

“We’re not looking to reinvent the wheel,” said David Monblatt, director of NESS in the Bay Area. “If synagogues do things that work, then we want to support them to maintain and improve those programs. Ultimately, a school’s vision and mission is created by the pod.”

The approach was developed in Philadelphia; San Francisco was selected from five cities to be the next region to implement NESS.

Since its implementation in 2003, the alarming post-b’nai mitzvah dropout rate has dramatically dropped in the 12 Philadelphia synagogues that have so far implemented NESS.

Students there no longer describe their religious school experience as “boring,” “useless” and “repetitive” — quotes from a 2002 study that inspired Philadelphia congregations to make serious changes.

In one Philadelphia synagogue, for example, more teenagers not only are continuing to attend religious school after their b’nai mitzvah, but they’re also volunteering to teach younger students. Regularly, 25 teens show up on Sunday morning. And there’s a waiting list, Block noted.

In the Bay Area, 72 percent of children who receive a Jewish education do so in synagogue schools. Studies indicate that children with a positive experience at religious school are more likely to be active in a Jewish community in his or her adult life.

Which is why, said BJE director David Waksberg, it’s crucial to improve synagogue schools — to make the good ones great, and the struggling ones great, too.

“Despite a lot of great work by educators, religious schools are feeling beleaguered,” he said. “In many cases, these schools are not held in the highest esteem by students, nor their parents. We understand that educators are working hard under difficult circumstances — and this program is intended to

provide some sorely needed help.”

Educators and BJE staff are optimistic but realistic. They know that synagogue schools face challenges. For instance, schools can’t always find enough teachers with backgrounds in both Judaism and education. It’s also difficult to find teachers who want to “create an environment where they’re connected to the community and not just coming in to teach and then leaving,” said Rabbi Nat Ezray of Temple Beth Jacob in Redwood City.

Synagogue schools also struggle to engage parents beyond the carpool and to engage students who can be tired after a long day at school.

Historically, Waksberg said communities across the nation have “underinvested” in synagogue schools, so that even when they have the desire to change, they don’t always have the resources.

In contrast, NESS is well funded. The initiative will use $1.8 million over three years, which Monblatt said is the “largest funding for synagogue schools in the history of the Bay Area.”

Participating synagogues will contribute $18,000 each; the remainder will be funded by the BJE, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund and the New York-based Partnership for Effective Learning and Innovative Education.

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