The Substantial Lack of Equivalency, State Sanctioned Educational Neglect, Some Yeshivas

Posted to Lost Messiah on April 28, 2021

THE CITY Sues the Department of Education to Get Brooklyn Yeshiva Investigation Documents

THE CITY filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city Department of Education after the agency refused to provide documents related to its investigation of the content and quality of instruction at Jewish religious schools in Brooklyn.

The DOE launched its probe of the yeshivas in mid-2015 in response to complaints from former students and advocates connected to the group Yaffed, who alleged that little to no instruction in subjects such as English and math was being provided at roughly three dozen Orthodox schools.

In August 2018, after advocates accused the city and Mayor Bill de Blasio of slow-walking the probe, then-Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza wrote a letter to the state Education Department revealing that 15 of 28 yeshivas at the heart of the investigation had refused entry to DOE officials.

State guidelines requiring that education at private schools be “substantially equivalent” to instruction at public schools governed the inquiry, even as those standards have been shifting in recent years.

It wasn’t until December 2019 that Carranza confirmed officials had visited 28 yeshivas, which he identified in a follow-up letter to state education officials, and revealed summary findings without specifying the conditions uncovered at each school.

The investigation found that just two of the yeshivas visited by the DOE could prove they provided “substantially equivalent” instruction to their public school counterparts.

Five of the 28 schools were described as providing an “underdeveloped” level of learning, including some showing “no evidence that English is consistently used as a language of instruction,” according to the update provided to SED.

The City

DOE Excuse Flunks ‘Smell Test’Carranza wrote that his agency was sending a letter to each of the 28 schools “communicating the information, observations, and findings specific to each school.” THE CITY requested copies of those letters under the state’s Freedom of Information Law on Jan. 2, 2020.

More than 10 months later, on Nov. 16, 2020, the DOE provided two of the 28 letters — regarding the schools where instruction was deemed substantially equivalent. Officials denied access to the remaining 26 on the basis that sharing them would “interfere with ongoing law enforcement investigations.”

A month later, THE CITY filed an administrative appeal with the DOE. City education officials denied the appeal on Dec. 28, 2020 — again arguing that the investigation was ongoing and that release of the letters would interfere with the probe.

The City: To Continue reading click here.

NYS Steps to Review Private Education

New York state takes next step in reviewing private school education, including at yeshivas

The state has set a series of virtual meetings as it again looks to update century-old education requirements for private schools, an issue raised by activists critical of academic instruction in some ultra-Orthodox yeshivas.

Former state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia started a review in 2016 of the state’s enforcement of a long-ignored law requiring that secular instruction in private schools be “substantially equivalent” to what public schools teach. By the time the state proposed new regulations for enforcing the law in 2019, though, the issue had become perhaps the most contentious in New York education.

The Orthodox Jewish community, along with groups representing Catholic and other private schools, assailed the state’s efforts as government overreach. More than 140,000 comments were submitted to the state before the state Board of Regents decided to reopen discussions with private schools about state oversight.

The scheduled virtual meetings are intended to drive that process. Five of the meetings will be regional, with one aimed at the Hudson Valley: Dec. 7 from 10 a.m to 1 p.m.

To continue reading in Lohud, click here.

Tens of Thousands of NYS Students Denied Education, Sanctioned by NYS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, February 10, 2020 
Contact: Liza Dee, ldee@skdknick.com |860.304.2294

 

YAFFED Statement on State Education Department’s Delay of New Private School Regulations

 

Today, the State Department of Education decided to seek another round of stakeholder feedback on regulations that govern the state’s oversight of private school education, including instruction at Orthodox Yeshivas. This adds yet another delay to what has already been an inexcusably long process. The following is a statement from Naftuli Moster, founder and executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED):

 

“New York State already conducted an extensive public engagement process, met with stakeholders and visited Yeshivas. There is no longer any question tens of thousands of students are being denied a basic education required by law. A recent New York City DOE report found that 26 of 28 Yeshivas investigated are failing to meet the very minimum threshold of substantial equivalency. And it’s safe to say there are more out there. Every day we delay enforcement is another day children aren’t receiving the skills promised to them and their families.  

 

“Earlier today, during the commemoration of Black History Month at the Board of Regents meeting, a Frederick Douglass quote was cited: ‘Some know the value of education by having it. I know its value by not having it.’ It’s astonishing to me, a Hasidic Yeshiva graduate, to hear those words at a Regents meeting surrounded by a dozen Yeshiva lobbyists who are trying to keep tens of thousands of children from receiving the education they are entitled to by law and are granted in our state constitution.”