ICS has been a fantastic resource for me in helping to formulate educational materials and strategies for our community about Israel. Their work is comprehensive, thoughtful, insightful, balanced, and provides a wonderful overview of how to present Israel t multiple audiences. Their staff is a pleasure to work with and are always amenable and proactive about providing us with with their resources and guidance. ICS is an outstanding non-profit organization and a value not just to the Greater San Francisco community, but to many communites around the country.
Ever since I read about ICS in the J, I've been impressed by their important work, enough so that I urged my husband that we should make a larger donation than we ever have to any organization. We did, and we've been extremely pleased by regular reports about the ongoing successes ICS has had. That such a small staff can accomplish so much is amazing. We've been invited to presentations about the work being done and the ensuing results and receive regular communications. ICS may have a small profile but, through its steady efforts, it makes a large impact on the accuracy of what's presented about Jews, Judaism, and Israel in textbooks. It's an impact that can significantly alter attitudes of the next generation. We are grateful for their dedication to doing what's necessary in the background.
I am a JCRC director who can testify to the professionalism of the ICS staff and to their expertise in the subject areas. They did a terrific job in our State, reviewing a large number of textbooks in a timely fashion. Their hard work resulted in 700+ edits which removed inaccurate and biased statements about Jews, Judaism, Israel and the Holocaust. I was impressed with the thoroughness and clarity of their critiques and the persistence with which they followed up in those (few) instances in which publishers did not immediately accept their suggested revisions. ICS performs a critical service for the American Jewish community, which would otherwise face the prospect of responding on an individual basis when egregious errors are brought to our attention. They also perform a critical service for American students of every background who, because of ICS, have access to accurate textbooks. Having participated in the textbook adoption process in my State for many years, I can say without reservation that ICS was able to accomplish more in a few months than we have been able to do locally in years.
The Institute for Curriculum Services has exceeded every expectation. With an outstanding team, ICS has catipulted itself onto the national Jewish scene as the go-to place for making sure that American textbooks are accurate with respect to Jews, Judaism and Israel. They have achieved stunning success after stunning success. They have developed excellent relationships with publishers and received great feedback for their teacher traning. With 50 million American students in public schools what a great contribution they are making to what is taught about Jews, Judaism and Israel.
I was aware that textbooks often contain misinformation about Jews, Judaism, and Israel and that there was no national Jewish organization focused on addressing this problem. I believed there was no more important need, so I contributed $$ to form the Institute for Curriculum Services. Their work is outstanding, and I am glad I was able to help the Institute for Curriculum Services. The staff is professional, scholarly, committed, and hard working. If more people contributed, they could increase their achievements.
As a (retired college-level) educator I have been astonished by the wildly inaccurate ideas about Jews and Judaism that I have occasionaly heard voiced by my students. There are, of course, many sources of this misinformation, but one that I would judge to be important is elementary school classes and textbooks. The Institute for Cirriculum Services, in addressing both of these issues is doing boh the Jewish and the larger community a great service by identifying specific misstatements in textbooks, and by conducting teacher workshops to help clear up any misconceptions they may have. This is difficult and exacting work, involving (for example) not only tactful negotiations with publishers, but also carrying out lengthy and sometimes tedious close reviews of the textbooks in question. As the saying goes, "it's a tough job, but someone has to do it"; however to my knowledge no one was doing it before ICS! Hats off to them for identifying this problem, and addressing it so effectively.
ICS is one of the most effective organizations I've come across - it is really making a difference in what American students learn about Jews, Judaism, and Israel. It has incredibly dedicated and talented staff people. I was shocked by a text that asked students to examine the claim that the Holocaust was a small scale purge of minorities. As a result of ICS efforts, the publisher agreed to remove that activity which legitimized Holocaust denial.
As the director of the JCRC in Sacramento, CA, from 1980 to 1996, I began working with our Education Committee Chr., Susan Mogull, to testify at Department of Education hearings for California Social Studies textbook adoptions. Many egregious errors in the texts were brought to our attention by concerned parents and we felt the only remedy was to convince the State Board of Education and textbook publishers that changes were required. From this modest, but important beginning, Susan Mogull worked to establish ICS which has become a nationwide organization. I continued for many years to help prepare reviews and sometimes to testify. I cannot think of a more important organization than ICS which helps teachers and students all over the country have an accurate picture of Jewish history, culture and religion. Teachers were/are often ignorant of the facts and rely heavily on on the textbook and teacher's guide. It is critical to the well-being of our community that what is taught in public schools does not contribute to anti-semitism or anti-Israel expression. This is the only organization that has a successful track record of working with publishers to make critical changes in the text. Although I am no longer involved on a regular basis, I continue to support ICS in any way I can.
I am the director of education at the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Virginia. I educate teachers on Holocaust and genocide, teach middle school and high school students in special programs. This year we were able to oversee the passage of HB 2409, a bill on Holocaust education. 2009 has been especially busy because social studies textbooks are up for adoption. The Virginia DOE reviews and approves a large number of textbooks, but the various school systems are free to adopt any of the approved books. The Institute for Curriculum Services has reviewed every single book approved for middle and high school for accuracy and sensitivity to the Holocaust and genocide. This is an extremely time consuming job and it was done knowing the importance of teaching history accurately. The staff listened to suggestions, implemented and wrote reviews making it possible for me to understand what Virginia students will be learning in the coming years.
I first heard about the Institute For Curriculum Services through my volunteer work on the Jewish Community Relations Council. From the very first I was impressed with the idea of learned Jews looking at our childrens' textbooks and pointing out the misstatements contained about Judaism. I was horrified at some of the awful inaccuracies the children were learning in school. One sentence said (and I paraphrase) that Passover is about the celebration of the killing of the first born Egyptian child. Anyone that is familiar with the story knows that Passover is about freedom from slavery and much more, but certainly not about celebrating death. So the Institute carefully goes over the texts and attempts to correct these blatantly false statements. Over the years as I hear more about their pioneering work, I am so thankful they are out there. Especially, now that my grandchildren are getting into the grades that teach about religion I am thrilled that the Institute is on the watch to make it right. No one else to my knowledge is doing this work..so they are unique. A greatly needed resource for our Community.
I well remember the bad old days before ICS was founded. No organization in the Jewish community was dedicated to insuring that publishers heard from a voice whose sole mission was to correct and enhance what was in textbooks and curriculum materials about Jews, Judaism and Israel. Religion was introduced as a formal subject in public elementary school textbooks in 1990. It was then that the problem surfaced clearly.
ICS reviews textbooks used in public and private schools to ensure that information about Jews, Judaism, and Israel is presented accurately and fairly. As a donor I strongly believe this is the most important organization that I have ever supported. ICS serves an important function that is not filled by any other national Jewish organization, and does so successfully.
In 2006 the Community Relations Councel of the Louisville Jewish Federation decided that it would like to participate in Kentucky's textbook selection process for history and social studies textbooks for the State's K-12 public school approved textbook listings, to guaranty that approved textbooks would not include bias and anti-semitic and or anti-zionist rhetoric and/or inaccuracies. Over the next year, the ICS was instrumental in reviewing all the books that the State was considering, working with the publishers to revise problematic texts and helping us work with the State to finalize an approved textbook list, with textbooks that we knew were free of bias. This task would not have been done properly without ICS oversight and support.
As Director of the Community Relations Council (CRC) of the local Jewish Federation, I was informed of a textbook being used at a local community college that presented details and maps that were biased against Israel.I contacted Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) for advice and suggestions and was told that they were aware of the erroneous information in this textbook and were working with the publisher.The provost of the community college removed the textbook.Since that time, CRC Directors from Northern Virginia, Richmond and the Peninsula have worked closely with ICS.Across the board, we are all impressed with the staff's knowledge, professionalism and expertise.Their attention to detail and diplomacy continue to earn them the respect of educators and publishers alike.It is a pleasure to know them and an honor to be associated with them.
I am involved with ICS through their newsletter and website. I have been following their progress for several years and am very impressed with their work. As an educator, I know how critical it is to have accurate information in textbooks and to provide teacher training. Their work with publishers is critical but sadly old textbooks with many errors continue to be used in schools. This makes their presentations at social studies conferences and their other work with teachers even more important. I have used information from their website in schools in my city and forwarded their information to teachers and principals. They are a great organization that should have centers in every state and province in North America.