Faith-based education under the microscope
JPR examines Jewish school system in the UK
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Are faith-based schools a good idea? Do they work - for the UK government and for society as a whole? To what extent do they work for parents and pupils, as well as for their sponsors and supporters? These are some of the key questions posed in a comprehensive, 190-page JPR report published in July. The future of Jewish schooling in the United Kingdom: A strategic assessment of a faith-based provision of primary and secondary school education, by Oliver Valins, Barry Kosmin and Jacqueline Goldberg, synthesizes for the first time all the key measurement data on education outputs - including national examination results and OFSTED inspection reports - in primary and secondary schools in the independent and state sectors. |
Pupils Achieving five or more GSCE or GNVQ grades A*-C, academic year 1999-2000, % |
Presenting the results of both qualitative and quantitative research, the report enables authorities and decision-makers to gear their future policies to the facts. Based on extensive research data, and in-depth interviews with educational professionals and parents, the report shows British Jewish education to be at a crossroads:
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Growth in attendance at Jewish day schools from 1950 to 1999 |
As well as assessing the current provision of general and Judaic subjects in Jewish schools, the report also examines key strategic issues facing the sector, including: provision of places, human resources, financing, and communication and information. The report also analyzes challenges facing educational provision for children with special educational needs (SEN), thus placing this issue firmly on the communal agenda.
This study is the fourth piece of research to be published as part of JPR's project, Long-Term Planning for British Jewry. This four-year policy research programme aims to influence the development of policies and priorities for Jewish charities and other voluntary organizations in the years to come.
Meeting the challenges for Jewish children with special educational needs
Jewish day schools are flourishing. The numbers enrolled have rapidly increased over the last fifty years, with pupils achieving examination results that are far higher than the national average. In parts of London, schools are over-subscribed, with some parents struggling to find places for their children. For the sponsors and supporters of Jewish day schools, this represents a tremendous success story, especially considering the fears often expressed of a threat to the very survival of British Jewry.
Nevertheless, there are some important challenges facing the sector: the recruitment and retention of high quality Judaic subject teachers, the lack of information available to parents to assist them in choosing schools, financial concerns (particularly in the strictly orthodox sector), and the teaching of multicultural education. one of the key issues for the sector - that is often missing from the communal agenda - relates to the provision for children with special educational needs (SEN).
Hard questions need to be asked about the balance between achieving success in the educational league tables on the one hand, and providing services for children with particular, and sometimes complex, special needs on the other.
More than one in five children in state-sector Jewish primary schools is identified as having some form of special educational needs. At secondary level, the figure is around one in ten. Approximately 1 per cent of Jewish day school pupils has a SEN Statement - a legal document that sets out what a child's special needs are, how these will be met and by whom. There are likely to be around 3,500 children identified as having some form of SEN in 'mainstream' Jewish day schools, with some 220 children having (or requiring) SEN Statements. There are also about 110 children in Jewish special needs schools, although not all these pupils have SEN Statements and not all are Jewish. SEN is clearly a major issue for the community to consider, especially given the surprisingly large numbers of children affected. Moreover, given the Jewish ethos of these schools, the moral imperative to ensure high quality education for all members of the community cannot be overstated.
The JPR report identifies four key challenges for the sector:
- To improve provision for children with 'moderate
learning difficulties'
SEN professionals identify a gap in provision for those whose needs are not severe enough for them to be in a specialist SEN school, but who are currently considered too difficult to place in Jewish day schools. Despite their wishes, parents in these circumstances are often unable to find a Jewish day school education for their children, especially at secondary level. - SEN provision in strictly orthodox independent
schools.
The majority of such schools do not belong to the state sector, and thus have to finance education from private sources. A shortage of funds - exacerbated by rapid demographic growth in this community - has meant that SEN is sometimes not given a high enough priority. In the words of one strictly orthodox headteacher: 'Special needs are a luxury. If your roof is falling in, that comes before providing for special needs'. Strictly orthodox schools are more likely to take in children with moderate learning difficulties than the rest of the sector, but a lack of funds and experienced senior staff means that some children with SEN are not being identified, or given the support they need. - Jewish specialist and SEN schools
There are difficult ethical, philosophical and financial questions regarding the extent to which the Jewish community should invest in expensive specialist services, rather than leaving these to the state or to other educational organizations. The key to this debate is the quality of Jewish services compared with alternative provision, and the 'added value' of providing education to children in a specifically Jewish environment.
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Dr Oliver Valins |
The community needs to ask some difficult questions. How should one define the success of schools? What is the responsibility of the community to cater for children with sometimes expensive and complex needs? These issues should spark a communal debate about the strengths and weaknesses of current SEN provision, so that services to those children who are most in need of community support can be improved. |
Some reactions to the report on
Jewish schooling from within the community...The report has received excellent coverage in the Jewish and national media, as well as the international Jewish press.
Simon Goulden, Chief Executive of the United Synagogue Agency for Jewish Education, said: "The report has made a very valuable contribution to the discussions on the future of Jewish day schooling in the UK. The work on the need for more and better-trained teachers is of especial relevance. The chapter on special needs education is one which should raise the level of debate throughout the community and is to be welcomed".
Ruth-Anne Lenga, Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, wrote: "I was greatly impressed by the thorough and detailed report. The issues that emerge from your findings and analysis are critical for the future of Jewish education in this country and contribute pertinently to the wider discourse on the place of faith schools in pluralist Britain... Congratulations to all of you on this report, which I feel will have a significant impact on the future of Jewish education in this country".
In a letter addressed to JPR Director Professor Barry Kosmin, Lady Jakobovits wrote: "I am just reading The future of Jewish schooling in the UK and am totally fascinated... Every page full of information, wonderful easy reading, very exciting. What satisfaction my dear husband would have from all these developments. True, like you, I only hope and pray that all this will produce great Jews and citizens, and even, P.G. leaders for the future of Anglo-Jewry. Kindly convey my gratitude and admiration also to Oliver Valins and Jacqueline Goldberg, members of your great team..."
Leeds chosen to launch JPR's long-term planning survey
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The Long-Term Planning Survey was launched in July 2001 with the Leeds Community Survey, which received the full support of the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board and the Leeds Jewish Housing Association. Conceived as a key component of JPR's four-year project on Long-Term Planning for British Jewry, this crucial survey of the British Jewish population will ascertain its needs and expectations regarding various communal social services, and in particular education, housing, and care for the elderly and infirm. The Leeds survey serves two purposes. It is a self-contained study of a medium-sized and compact Jewish community in a large city in the north of England. It also serves as a pilot study for the larger and more complex survey planned for London later this year. |
Professor Stanley Waterman, Visiting Fellow at JPR and Professor of Geography at the University of Haifa, is directing the JPR Survey |
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Leeds Community Study |
Over the past year, JPR has conducted comprehensive consultations with academics and market research experts to ascertain the most effective ways to obtain information of the greatest benefit to the communal agencies serving the Jewish public. After considering several different approaches to acquiring the information that Jewish decision-makers will need in order to create a social planning policy for the next 10-15 years, JPR decided to conduct a postal survey. To this end, the JPR team prepared a comprehensive questionnaire, with professional input from the National Centre for Social Research. The questionnaire comprises three sections (one general for all respondents, one for the elderly or infirm, and one for households with children of school age) and includes questions on schooling, health, social attitudes, culture, leisure, housing and migration. The questionnaire contains 145 questions, many of which contain several subsections.
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After the preparation of the questionnaire came the issue of dissemination. The address list was prepared at JPR, but the actual dissemination and tracking of the questionnaires, as well as the coding of the information, were undertaken on JPR's behalf by National Opinion Polls, one of the country's largest and most professional survey and market research companies. The team operated under strict Market Research Society rules to ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of individual responses. During the first half of July, over 5,000 Leeds households received the detailed questionnaire. By the end of August, 1496 had been returned, which is a good response rate. Preparation of the questionnaire and the list of addresses to which it would be distributed raised several interesting methodological questions. In designing a survey to gather information on the expectations and demands of Jews for Jewish services in the next decade, it was necessary to try and locate the 'potential market' for these services. As there is no community list in Leeds, it was decided to err on the side of inclusion by sending out more questionnaires than there may be households containing at least one member who considers her/himself to be Jewish.
The material from the Leeds survey will be analyzed in the autumn and the lessons learned will be applied in the preparation of the questionnaires for the London survey, due in early December 2001. The preliminary results of the Leeds survey will be a key focus for discussion at JPR's 5th Annual Jewish Voluntary Sector seminar for communal lay leaders and professionals to be held in November.
JPR's role in Madrid meeting
Participants from 40 countries attended the 2nd General Assembly of the European Council of Jewish Communities in May.
JPR Director, Professor Barry Kosmin delivered a paper entitled Toward a European Jewish population study. Presentations were made by Professors Lars Dencik and András Kovács on their community surveys in Sweden and Hungary.
Participants agreed that there was a pressing need for similar work in other European countries, and that there should be Europe-wide efforts towards co-ordination through the use of standardized questionnaires and definitions. They endorsed the recent joint initiative by JPR and the Hebrew University to investigate the feasibility of a European Jewish Survey.
A paper by JPR's Research Director, Dr Jacqueline Goldberg, was presented at the workshop on Outreach to the unaffiliated. JPR research was used to illustrate the point that young unmarried Jews can no longer be seen as one homogeneous group with similar views and behaviours.
Lena Stanley-Clamp, JPR's Director of Public Activities, chaired and gave a presentation at a workshop entitled What is Jewish culture today? The other panellists included Ruth Gruber (Budapest), Jackie Jakubowski (Stockholm) and Laura Mincer (Rome). Participants agreed that there was a need for a wide and inclusive definition of Jewish culture as arts and cultural activity which reflect the Jewish experience, and that the diversity of Jewish cultural expression should be encouraged.
'Entrepreneurship and Social
Investment'
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The Chancellor Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP |
Exactly one week after this year's general election, JPR President, Lord Rothschild GBE, together with JPR Patron, Sir Ronald Cohen, hosted a reception at 11 Downing Street featuring the Chancellor, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, as guest speaker.
Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman of Apax Partners & Co Ltd, addressed the many entrepreneurs present at the reception. 'Being Jewish is almost synonymous with being entrepreneurial and with having a sense of responsibility to help the less fortunate. The Task Force on Social Investment, which I have led, has defined more effective ways in which entrepreneurship in the most disadvantaged communities across the UK can be harnessed for the benefit of these communities. I look forward to keeping you informed as the Chancellor introduces a number of important measures to stimulate social investment and to involving you in the initiatives that follow.' |
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The Chancellor praised JPR's research, saying: 'JPR has gone from strength to strength. The organization is a highly regarded think-tank addressing all the issues of importance, and I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the pioneering work you do and the contribution you make to British society. You set an example to us all.'
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Sir Ronald Cohen addresses the guests |
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JPR President, Lord Rothschild GBE welcomes the guests |
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Lord Rothschild calls for generosity In his words of welcome, Lord Rothschild congratulated the Chancellor on an historic victory and thanked him twice: firstly, for welcoming JPR to No. 11 Downing Street so soon after the general Election, and secondly, for the reforms and encouragement he had given to philanthropy. Lord Rothschild said: 'The reforms put us on an even footing with the United States... it is therefore inexcusable for those with wealth not to give generously. There is a lot to be done. Charitable donations by wealthy individuals in the UK fall substantially below those in the United States in percentage terms. After being flat through many years of very substantial wealth creation in this country, in real terms they have even begun to fall. We have to correct this ungenerous performance. It's not just individuals: in the corporate sector, companies contribute on average only 0.2% of their profits to good causes, compared with 1% in the United States. It is particularly appropriate that my fellow patron tonight should be Sir Ronald Cohen. He has been an extremely generous supporter of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, where I serve as President, and has the distinction of being the best venture capitalist in the country. He chaired the Social Investment Task Force and was asked by the Chancellor to come up with proposals for encouraging the flow of venture capital into deprived areas. I can tell you from first-hand experience he has done just that and I hope the Chancellor will support his proposals of venture philanthropy for inner cities. In the United States there have been similar initiatives and the impact on inner city life has been quite dramatic. The same should happen here...' |
From the left: Graham Davin, JPR Treasurer Larry Levine, and JPR Patron, Barbara Sieratzki with Gordon Brown
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Sir Ronald Cohen with Gordon Brown |
Lord Rothschild with Dr
Miriam Stoppard and |
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Gordon Brown with JPR Patron,
Frank Green and JPR Chairman, Peter Levy OBE |
JPR Patron, Leslie Levy, with Judith Russell of JPR, who organised the reception
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Gordon Brown with Lord Haskel
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Gordon Brown with Lord Haskel and Felix Posen |
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A critical analysis of the first 100 days of the Bush Administration
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The Fourth William Frankel Lecture was given in May by James Rubin, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. Mr Rubin, a policy analyst who worked directly under Secretary of State Madeline Albright from 1997-2000, spoke on 'The Bush Administration: A Foreign Policy Assessment'. Speaking to an engaged crowd who had gathered at Chatham House to hear one of the Clinton administration State Department's most visible media figures, Mr Rubin offered a running analysis of the key foreign policy initiatives during the first 100 days of President George W Bush. Mr Rubin observed that the Bush Administration could generally be credited with 'running a fairly smooth ship'. On issues of tone and diplomatic relations, however, Mr Rubin said, 'they have alienated more governments more quickly than anyone would have predicted'. |
From the left: William Frankel CBE, Vice-President of JPR, with James Rubin, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Lord Rothschild GBE, JPR President |
Highlighting specific policy initiatives towards Russia, Iraq, China, the Balkans and Western Europe, Mr Rubin reserved his harshest criticism towards the Bush Administration's approach to North Korea. A former think-tank analyst in the field of nuclear disarmament, Mr Rubin faulted the Bush State Department for having 'spurned diplomacy and gone instead for a technical fix' in its attempt to curtail the development of North Korea's nuclear capabilities.
Mr Rubin said his greatest frustration, however, was in seeing peacekeeping efforts in Israel and the Middle East unravel in the wake of the second Palestinian intifada. 'I spent more time in State Department rooms talking about the Oslo Accords than any other subject,' he said. Characterizing events on the ground as a 'mini-guerrilla war', Mr Rubin criticized the Bush Administration's 'measured' engagement in the area 'to be so defensive and cautious as to be offensive.'
Asserting that 'for decades the United States has played the leading role in trying to resolve the Middle East conflict', Mr Rubin stressed the importance of a more active American involvement, specifically along the lines of the recommendations endorsed by both Israel and the PLO in the Mitchell Report. 'Time after time history shows us that if the United States doesn't push, there won't be an agreement', Mr Rubin said.
American Jews in the age of 'Compassionate Conservatism'
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This was the subject of a seminar held at JPR in August, with guest speaker Professor Alan Mittleman, Associate Professor of Religion at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. Professor Mittleman is also co-director of the project 'Jews and the American Public Square', which explores the relationship between the faith and culture of American Jews and their civic engagement, and aims to foster a greater public understanding of the role of religion in American public conversation. Professor Mittelman introduced his subject with the revealing statistic that in the 2000 US elections, 77 per cent of Jewish voters cast their ballot for Al Gore, while only 23 per cent voted for George W Bush. Small wonder, he observed, that the majority of American Jews were both anxious and perplexed by Bush's policy of 'Compassionate Conservatism' and the faith-based provisions arising from that policy. On the other hand, when Senator Joseph Lieberman was nominated Vice Presidential candidate in August 2000, Mittelman's Jewish students were fearful that this would stir up antisemitism, although they had never personally experienced it themselves. In general, he said, while the majority of American Jews were pleased that a Jew had been nominated for high office, they were concerned that he was a religious Jew. |
Professor Alan Mittleman |
Mittelman maintained that most Americans had a deep confidence in religion - he called it a 'faith in faith', and thought it was the best way to strengthen family values. He reported that more than six out of ten Americans favoured earmarking federal funds to faith-based organizations that help the poor. $50 million had recently been allocated to training religious organizations on how to apply for federal grants. Jewish organizations alone received $3 billion each year from federal government.
Nevertheless, American Jews are anxious about what they perceive as the increasing entanglement of church and state, despite the fact that faith-based organizations are prohibited from proselytising, or discriminating on religious grounds while providing welfare services for their clients.
Mittleman observed that since the 1980s, there had been a shift away from the traditional strict separation of church and state (which Jews have always been keen to maintain), and towards the idea of equal treatment of religions. Many policy makers now feel that the government should disregard who is providing the welfare service and instead look to the results.
But American Jews, who have traditionally regarded their country as a secular society, with religion strictly a private matter, are now fearful that the constitutional separation of state and church is under siege. Paradoxically, while Jews dislike hearing American political leaders affirm their faith in God, non-Jews actually prefer it. Whereas non-Jews generally believe that religion is a force for public good, resulting in greater tolerance and a decrease in crime, Jews, on the other hand, fear that an increase in religious activity will spawn an increasingly intolerant fundamentalist Christianity.
Professor Mittleman disclosed that he did not personally share this anxiety, which he attributed to feelings of outsider status. Since American Jews are, in fact, insiders, he said, and part of the establishment, they should stop fearing being marginalized.
As an illustration, he cited statistics from a recent survey showing American Jews to be amongst the most popularreligious groups for other groups to marry: the most favoured religious group was the Methodists, followed closely by Presbyterians and Jews.
He regretted that American Jews were unwilling to experiment with tuition vouchers for education in private schools. He wished they would be more open to government funding of faith-based schools, more confident in their status as insiders, and show more interest in
'Compassionate Conservatism'. The 'wall of separation' between church and state should be more flexible, he said.
Update on the European Association for Jewish Culture The EAJC, which was launched last May by JPR and the Alliance Israélite Universelle, (see
Summer 2001 issue of jpr / news) received a warm accolade from Chris Smith MP, the then Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, who praised JPR for promoting
'Jewish cultural expression throughout Europe and securing support from the EU's Culture 2000 programme'. He wrote,
'I hope you will develop long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships and in doing so, help to stimulate creativity, promote our common cultural heritage and widen access to culture for new audiences'. The following grants are currently open for application from professional artists, curators and established periodicals: Performing arts Visual arts Periodicals Further information on deadlines, application guidelines and forms are available on the website:
www.jewishcultureineurope.org,
or by writing to to the EAJC, 79 Wimpole Street, London W1G 9RY, UK. Budapest conference explores Jewish identities
New works for the stage
Exhibitions of new works of contemporary art: painting, sculpture, photography and electronic
media
Translations of articles, essays and short stories relating to Jewish culture to be published in a European Jewish periodical or special issues on Jewish
culture.
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Social scientists from Europe, the United States and Israel gathered in Budapest in July for a three-day jpr conference on Jewish Identities in the Post-Communist Era, organized jointly with the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan and the Jewish Studies Programme at the Central European University, Budapest. The aim of the conference was to compare and analyze research on contemporary Jewish identities in Europe, and to understand how Jews in different places perceive themselves, their relationship with world Jewry and the societies in which they live. These issues are of relevance to Jewish communal leaders and policy planners, who must address the question of the meaning and boundaries of Jewishness. Conference papers were based on recent field work and surveys conducted in Hungary (Professor András Kovács), France (Dr Régine Azria), Poland (Marius Gudonis and Claire Rosenson), Sweden (Professor Lars Dencik), Russia (Professors Zvi Gitelman, Judith Deutsch Kornblatt and John Klier), Ukraine (Professor Vladimir Shapiro and Jeremy Shine), Central Asia (Dr Alanna Cooper and Malka Korazim), the UK (Professor Barry Kosmin, Drs Jacqueline Goldberg, Steve Miller and Jonathan Webber) with a comparative perspective on Israel and the USA (Professor Charles Liebman). |
Professor András Kovács of the Central European University, Budapest |
Among the most interesting findings were the results of surveys of Jews in Sweden and Finland conducted by Professor Lars Dencik of Roskilde University, who spoke about the transformation of traditional Jewish identities. Jews in Sweden show a strongly ethnic self-definition: 66 per cent identify as part of the Jewish people, while only 5 per cent as followers of the Jewish religion; 90 per cent say that it is very important to them to feel Jewish inside. At the same time, the distinctions between secular and religious identities have become blurred, with many secular Jews reporting significant levels of religious observance. 'In an open, pluralistic society like Sweden, Jews enjoy an ethno-cultural smörgasbord', said Professor Dencik. 'They are very self-assertive and focused on being Jewish in the modern world.'
Dr Steve Miller of City University said that the Swedish findings showed many correspondences with the 1995 JPR Survey of the Social and Political Attitudes of British Jews.
Professor Zvi Gitelman's paper, Becoming Jewish in Russia and Ukraine traced the development of Jewish consciousness over the past decade, during which Jews in the former Soviet Union have been free to define their ethnic identities. He confirmed that Jewish identities in those countries were profoundly secular, with Judaism playing almost no role.
The common themes identified by professor Gitelman which emerged in Budapest were:
- Jewish identities are increasingly perceived in ethnic terms, though religious forms are often adopted.
- In several countries young people show signs of 'reverting' to traditional symbols and are expressing interest in Jewish culture, though they are marrying non-Jews at higher rates than their parents and grandparents did.
- There is a trend towards individual choice and a weakening of communal authority and hierarchy. Along with this trend, comes a greater tolerance of intermarriage and of ethnic Jews practising other faiths and adopting belief systems other than Judaism.
- The role of Israel and of the Shoah in Jewish consciousness and identity may be diminishing.
The papers of the conference will be published in book form in approximately one years' time.
Visit by Israel Ambassador to JPR
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The recently appointed Ambassador of Israel, H. E. Dr Zvi Shtauber, visited JPR to address a lunch forum on Israel, which was attended by JPR board members and staff and focused on events in Israel in the wake of the Al Aqsa intifada. The Ambassador sought to put what is being called the 'Palestinian war of attrition' into perspective. He noted that Israel's short-term strategy could not be directed towards peace as a realizable goal, but rather towards 'a gradual building of stability'. Praising the current Likud-Labour Unity government in Israel as 'courageous and responsible', Dr Shtauber predicted that, in time, some kind of talks would resume, 'but only if the palestinians recognize Israel's needs as a democratic state requiring security'. |
The Ambassador of Israel, H.E. Dr Zvi Shtauber, visits JPR |
