Neta Hebrew

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 90 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. Many students and educators have expressed negative feelings towards this program and feel that this program actually lowers student's Hebrew levels. Although many teachers attempt to back up and support the program, students adamantly believe that the curriculum has not furthered their fluency in the language, even after years of the program's use. In fact, many believe using Neta is simply a waste of time, money, and effort, for the materials used have in no way correlated to success in educating hebrew-speakers.

Student Response

Due to negative feelings expressed by some students, anti-NETA groups have appeared on Facebook. Only a few groups are public, and they have between 70 to over 2000 members. Many of these groups promote the removal of NETA from school curriculums and the burning of NETA workbooks. However, according to NETA, there has been a large numbers of NETA graduates who have praised the program. It is unclear why their research that goes into their curriculum is not shown on their website, causing many to believe that NETA is unable to back up claims of their program's success.

External links

• Official site