The Institute for Curriculum Services

In public and private schools across the country, millions of students each year learn about Judaism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and other related areas. For these learning experiences to be both positive and grounded in fact, educators leading them need relevant professional development opportunities and support. With this guiding principle, the Institute for Curriculum Services works with social studies textbook publishers, develops curricular resources, and trains middle and high school social studies teachers around the country to improve the quality of education on Jewish subjects.

As an experienced educator, I can attest to the invaluable roles that accuracy and objectiveness play in the classroom, especially in discussion of sensitive, complex issues. In my personal experience, ICS’s detailed lesson plans, workshops, and conferences augmented my ability to provide a diverse community of students with a more impartial, open-minded, and global perspective on Jews, Judaism, and Israel.

– Michael Waxman, Social Studies Teacher, Stuyvesant High School, New York

Now, with its new National Professional Development Scale-up Initiative, ICS is poised to offer even more professional development to pre-service and in-service teachers. In particular, ICS will dramatically increase its offerings to educators and will begin hosting four regional Summer Institutes each year to provide in-depth education on the Arab-Israeli conflict and peace process. With three new regional trainers, ICS also will have a stronger presence at educator conferences, schools of education, and school districts

Honestly, this was one of the most comprehensive (Jewish history) and human (stories, psds, videos) presentations of content I have attended. Every lesson we had an opportunity to “try out” was an investment in my future practice and my familiarity with the content. The willingness of the presenters to be accessible via post session conversations or email was remarkable.

– Laura Keldorf, Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher, Riverdale High School

A national nonprofit initiative of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, ICS builds deep and lasting relationships with teachers in American classrooms and, ultimately, improves the accuracy and balance of their instruction about Jews, Judaism, and Israel. At scale, this initiative will engage over 2,000 teachers and potentially hundreds of thousands of high school students, Jewish and non-Jewish, each year.

More information about ICS is available at www.icsresources.org.

The Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded more than $660,000 to ICS.