Long-awaited NYC Report Finds Five of 28 Yeshivas With Insufficient Secular Ed

New York – Nearly 80 percent of yeshivas are substantially equivalent — or on the verge of it — to the secular education required of public schools, a long-awaited report by New York City’s department of education released Thursday stated.

The report, which was launched in 2015 after a handful of unnamed former yeshiva students claimed to not have a solid secular education, is based on visits to 143 classrooms in 28 yeshivas. This includes 25 elementary schools and three high schools.
“At the majority of the schools visited,” wrote Richard Carranza, the schools chancellor, in the report, “school leaders expressed a commitment to expanding students’ exposure to secular instruction and to improving instruction.”

It is unknown how the report will affect yeshivas since the state’s education commission has already unilaterally issued regulations to extend their oversight over yeshivas and other private schools. Nearly 140,000 people objected to the regulations in a two-month comment period. The Board of Regents is expected to vote over the next few months whether to adopt them.

Aside for one of the high schools, all of the yeshivas provided English Language Arts and math classes, submitting sample curricular materials and curricula overviews. Seventeen of them provided instruction in science, fifteen in social studies, thirteen in history and twelve in civics. Five schools stated that they provide instruction in health and hygiene and three in physical education.

The report stated that eleven of these schools are providing the constitutionally mandated “substantially equivalent” instruction or are well-developed in moving towards that target. Two are currently considered substantially equivalent and one is on the verge of becoming substantially equivalent. The other eight are exhibiting proficiency in meeting the requirements.

Of the remaining 17, twelve of them are developing in their provision of substantially equivalent instruction while the other five are considered “underdeveloped” in providing evidence of it.
Moving forward, Carranza said, Bernadette Fitzgerald, the senior executive director of the department’s Office of Non-Public Schools will oversee the yeshivas.

Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein said the report has only validated the fact that Yeshivas provide a great education. “The New York City Department of Education’s report completely and rightly confirms what we have been saying since day one,” he said. Adding that “yeshiva education by far exceeds its public school counterparts, not only in terms of the education they provide but they also achieve far greater graduation rates and higher test scores. Now that we know that out of 275 yeshivas in New York City, a handful need additional resources, let’s see if these so-called advocates will join me in advocating for additional government resources to help the 1% improve, and if you’re not willing to join me in this fight, it is time for us to call it what it is a hateful smear mongering campaign.”