Schechter Schools Move to Upgrade Technology in Bid to Promote Student Achievement in the Sciences
NEW YORK, NY, MARCH 15, 2006 - As America's captains of industry have become increasingly concerned about a threat from abroad to the country's leadership role in global innovation and technology, instruction in science and math at all levels of our nation's schools has come under intense scrutiny. This challenge has left educators - both public and private - scrambling to develop innovative curricula to better equip our young people to compete in the international arena once they graduate, thus enabling the United States to maintain its economic strength and political advantage in the 21st century.
The Solomon Schechter Day School Association, a consortium of 76 independently operated private schools across North America that offer an integrated education in Judaic and general studies under the banner of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, is on the frontlines of responding to today’s most pressing educational issue. Several of the association's member schools have taken the lead in their communities in incorporating cutting-edge technology into their programs in ways that have affected every area of the curriculum, from humanities and the arts to advanced science and mathematics. Moreover, these savvy administrators have developed creative development approaches and novel strategic partnerships with institutions of higher learning, federal research agencies and multinational corporations, reaching beyond their parents and alumni, to defray expenditures as well as to expand learning opportunities for their students.
Among the bold recent initiatives:
- Solomon Schechter High School of New York offers the Science Research Program, a multi-year experience for college credit that pair students with mentors in research facilities throughout the city, including Mount Sinai Medical Center; New York University; and CUNY Graduate Center, leading to entry in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search and other local and national contests. A number of SSHS-NY students have advanced in the Intel competition
- Schechter Regional High School, Teaneck, NJ has created a wireless environment in which students move through the facility with laptops used for note-taking, research and presentations
- Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor, MI, a K-8th-grade school, installed a state-of-the-art computer lab with the financial backing of a technology executive/philanthropist from the Washington, D.C. area who wished to remain anonymous. A letter-writing campaign by students to industry leaders nationwide identified this critical source of funding
- Gerard Berman Day School, Oakland, NJ, a K-8th-grade school, has partnered with Johns Hopkins University to offer an enriched math curriculum to middle school students. Upgraded technology has permeated all levels and disciplines at GBDS, with projects as diverse as research into First Temple construction through the website of the Davidson Museum at the foot of the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City and investigations of temperature sensing in the South Seas or at the South Pole through worldwide NASA’s weather stations
- South Area Solomon Schechter Day School, Stoughton, MA, a K-8th-grade school, has launched a technology-and inquiry-based, integrated science and math curriculum in its middle school, co-directed by a Harvard Medical School professor who does vascular research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of computer science on the SASSDS faculty. The program provides increased weekly class time in science and math as well as a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates technology into instructional units in natural and computer sciences, mathematics, language arts, humanities, economics and Judaic studies
Additional information on projects and programs at these and other schools affiliated with the Solomon Schechter Day School Association is available through Dr. Elaine R.S. Cohen, the association's associate executive director. Dr. Cohen may be reached at (212) 533-7800, ext. 2509 or email cohen@uscj.org.
