Standard Exams in Boston Hebrew Schools

Boston has standard examinations in all Hebrew (Continued on page 4)

schools for the first time this year. Feb. 11 will be examination day in the chain of Hebrew schools, according to plans outlined by the principals of the schools. Thousands of children will be examined in Hebrew, the Pentateuch and in the early Prophets. The examinations will be conducted simultaneously under the auspices of the Principals’ Association of Greater Boston, the superintendent of the Bureau of Jewish Education and the dean of the Boston Hebrew Teachers’ College.

Among the cities which are to participate in this new plan of testing the knowledge of pupils of the Hebrew schools are Boston proper, Cambridge. Dorchester. Roxbury. Lynn and Revere. All grades will be tested with examination questions that have been compiled by a competent committee of educators who have been selected to conduct the examinations.

The first effort in the direction of standardizing the Hebrew instruction was inaugurated when prospective candidates when prospective candidates of the Hebrew Teachers’ College submitted to a uniform system of questions. The new step is being taken with the hope of standardizing the Hebrew educational system.

Louis Hurwich, superintendent of the Bureau of Jewish Education, is chairman of the special committee with Jacob Newman and Israel Pollack as associates. who will have complete charge of the examination questions that will be kept a secret until the hour of the examination period. Special messengers will deliver the questions to the various schools on the day of the examination and the same messengers will also take the papers back to the committee.

This is the first effort of its kind in this country. It is also the first periodic examination of a series that will be given in a similar fashion twice a year. at the end of January and in June. While all the schools are not taking part in this effort those in charge believe that in time all the schools will fall in line.