Neta Hebrew
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
'NETA" is a Hebrew language curriculum for students in grades 7 though 12 created by curriculum specialists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. NETA is funded by The AVI CHAI Foundation and partnered with the Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. NETA is currently being used by over 65 schools in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the former Soviet Union, and provides intensive training for Hebrew-as-a-second-language teachers as well as curriculum, teaching materials, assessment tools, and mentoring for teachers.
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[edit] Controversey
[edit] Range in grades
Many students have been complaining that the NETA tests are too subjective and that teachers are open to grading them based on favor opposed to work. However, a bigger problem is the alarming rate at which students are failing their exams. The issue is that these grades go on the transcript and pull down normally good student's GPA's because they receive a "50" for example on the exam, landing them with a C/C+ for the class. This outrage has led to the creation of a Facebook group called "I hate NETA". Some educational experts including Dr. Matt Teitlebach claim that these programs are in fact detrimental to the students knowledge of the language.
[edit] Claims of Ineffectiveness
Many students and teachers argue that NETA utilizes unproven methods for teaching languages. This and a mixture of ineffective grammar curriculum has caused many to believe that the NETA program is highly ineffective at teaching Hebrew. In a survey conducted by the Department of Language Education at the University of Southern New Mexico, in which 7 randomly selected schools which use NETA and 7 other schools which use various other Hebrew programs were compared, the schools which used NETA ranked lower in quality of Hebrew speaking for students who have been taking Hebrew for 6-10 years compared to the parallel students in the non-NETA schools. The students were also asked to rate NETA and compare it to their pre-7th grade non-NETA Hebrew program. A vast majority of the student gave NETA a rank of 3 and below in ability to teach Hebrew, and said that it was far worse than their previous Hebrew experiences. Dr. Teitelbach has conducted similar surveys and tests and has come up with nearly the exact same results. He is currently analyzing the program and comparing it to successful Hebrew curriculum's to figure out the cause of its dysfunction. He currently thinks it is do to the lack of active grammar and vocabulary stresses within the program, and the use of too much ineffective story and discussion teaching implementations.
