Baltimore Jewish Day Schools

Using Systematic Data from College Age Alumni to Address Parental Concerns

by Dr. Leonard Saxe and Fern Chertok

Reprinted with permission from

Over the last decade, there has been substantial growth in day school enrollment, particularly among non-Orthodox students (see Marvin Schick, “A Census of Jewish Day Schools in the United States 2003-2004,” available at www.avi-chai.org). Nevertheless, still no more than 4% of the children of non-Orthodox families attend Jewish day schools. Most of these students attend only elementary schools and, despite the availability of new “pluralistic” options for high school, Jewish high schools principally serve the most traditional students. In this article, informed by an article we have co-written with others entitled “The Impact of Day School: A Comparative Analysis of Jewish College Students” (available for download at www.brandeis.edu/cmjs or at www.peje.org), we consider the concerns that keep non-Orthodox parents from choosing a day school education for their children and suggest how systematic data from our national study of the academic, social, and Jewish trajectories of college-age day school alumni relate to these concerns.

Parents want to know whether day schools will prepare their children to succeed academically in college.

Although financial concerns are undoubtedly important, non-Orthodox parents who consider day school for their children want to know that they are not shortchanging them academically or restricting their options for higher education. In response to this concern, our research indicates that day schools provide top-notch preparation for a broad range of colleges and universities. College-age day school alumni are indistinguishable from Jewish peers with a public or private school background. Just like Jewish undergraduates who did not attend day schools, they gain entrance to a wide range of universities—including the most select schools, and once enrolled perform just as well academically. In fact, students with day school experience demonstrate the highest levels of academic confidence. Day school alumni pursue major concentrations and seek higher degrees in similar percentages as their peers. In other words, day school alumni attain academic success in college and feel secure in their ability to master the tasks required to do so.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE.