Israel Studies Have Never Been More Important; Are Schools Rising to the Challenge?

By Dr. Harry Bloom, Founder and President, Benchmarking for Good, Inc.

At a time when educating young Jews about Israel’s history and importance has never been more critical, Benchmarking for Good's recent Parent research results identify challenges as well as good news.

How Satisfied are Parents with Israel Studies?

Research involving 11 diverse Jewish day schools and nearly 1,400 parents indicates a very wide range of satisfaction. The median school had a lackluster Net Promoter Score* of just under 20%; three schools had negative NPS. On the good news front, the top scoring schools, Westchester Day School and JKHA/RKYHS Kushner Academy, had very strong Net Promoter Scores of nearly 50%.

*Net Promoter Score=% Very Satisfied minus % neutral plus % dissatisfied

Written comments by parents cited concerns about curricular quality, teacher continuity and quality, the lack of experiential education, and student deficiencies in Hebrew spoken language fluency as drivers of their concerns.

Student Satisfaction Lags That of Parents

Fourteen hundred High School students attending 8 Jewish day schools indicated a high degree of dissatisfaction with schools' Israel Studies programs. Yet, 2 schools, Denver Jewish Day School and Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls managed positive NPS scores, once again suggesting there is a pathway to progress.

Israel Studies Satisfaction and Hebrew Language Satisfaction are Nearly Perfectly Correlated

It is important to note that there is nearly a perfect correlation (83% where 100% represents absolute perfect correlation) between these two attributes, which raises the bar for school improvement.

Unfortunately, Parents’ Hebrew Language satisfaction trails that of Israel Studies satisfaction, with the median school Net Promoter Score in modestly negative territory.

Benchmarking for Good’s Planned Next Steps: Identifying What Best Practice Schools are Doing Differently

Benchmarking for Good will follow up this initial report with in depth video interviews with successful school leaders to probe what exactly they are doing to achieve high levels of parent satisfaction, so stay tuned for our future communications on this topic.

Benchmarking for Good Research Grants Can Help

In the meantime, we welcome hearing from you relative to your own experience and perspectives on this very important, topical issue. Furthermore,if you would like Benchmarking for Good’s support conducting research into your own school’s performance in this arena please contact harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org to see if your school might qualify for one of our no cost research grants.