Special to the JTA Aaje Study: Communal High Schools Surpass Those of Congregations

— The American Association for Jewish Education (AAJE) reported that a study it conducted revealed Jewish communal high schools surpass those under congregational auspices in student enrollment and retention, diversity of curriculum, frequency of days of instruction and qualifications of teachers and principals.

Arthur Brody, president of the AAJE, said a careful analysis of the study’s findings “indicates strongly that greater cost-effectiveness and size were the major reasons communal high schools were able to outstrip congregational high schools in so many vital and essential areas.”

Brody said communal high schools benefitted from subsidies from local Jewish federations that averaged $335.50 per student among the schools surveyed, a practice which encouraged 71.4% of them to award scholarships (as against 33.9% of the congregational high schools.) In addition, he said communal high schools enjoyed a more economical teacher-student ratio (1 teacher to every 11.3 students) than did congregational high schools (1 teacher to every 8.8 students)– this, despite the fact that the average teaching staffs of communal high schools were larger than those of congregational high schools (11.5 to 8.3 teachers per school).

As regards size, Brody noted that the proportion of communal high schools with enrollments of 100 or more students was 73.8% higher than that of congregational high schools.

OTHER FINDINGS IN THE STUDY

“This is especially noteworthy,” he said, “since the study shows that high schools of this size have the apparent budgetary capability to schedule more hours of instruction, offer more classes in the upper grades and be staffed both by teachers with superior qualifications and longer tenure and by principals with more years of experience in teaching, supervision and administration.”

Conversely, Brody said that 76.7% of the congregational high schools surveyed had enrollments of under 100 students, and that nearly three-fifths of that number had enrollments of less than even 50 students.

“This significant finding is dramatically reflected in the fact that 71.4% of all students enrolled in congregational high schools attended classes only one day a week,” he said. “And this paucity of attendance — added to such factors as the high dropout rate and limited curriculum — must inevitably prompt the Jewish communal and educational establishment to ask whether the independent congregational high school can remain a viable instrument for transmitting the religious, historic and cultural experiences of the Jewish people.”

FURTHER QUESTIONS RAISED

Brody said the study raises further questions with reference to the educational viability of the congregational high school. He said the high turnover rate of its teachers (30.1% with less than 2 years of service and another 30.9% with 2 to 5 years of service), coupled with their lack of accreditation, “supports the AAJE’s widespread observation in the field that many such schools are forced to engage housewives, volunteers and others peripheral to the educational enterprise.

“Although in-service training may raise the level of their knowledge and classroom effectiveness, such people must ultimately be regarded as a second-best choice,” he said. “This not only contributes to a lack of continuity and diminished quality of instruction in congregational high schools but is detrimental to the morale of their students.”

Brody emphasized that the Jewish teenager “tends to feel isolated and somehow ‘different’ when he is a member of a small class of a small congregational institution that fails to provide the social as well as educational ambiance of a school. Without this feeling of belonging,” he said, “he is more apt to lose his motivation and less likely to continue his Jewish education.”

Brody said this combination of elements “makes it imperative that congregational high schools seriously explore the feasibility of uniting into larger, stronger and more financially stable institutions. Virtually all national synagogal bodies have expressed a willingness to amalgamate individual congregational high schools along denominational lines or to cooperate in organizing communitywide, communally sponsored high schools,” he said. “It would seem that the time to do so has never been more urgent.”