Institute for Curriculum Services

ICS offers a variety of services to different communities according to their needs. For services offered to the educators, please click here. For services offered to publishers, please click here. For services offered to the general community, please click here. For services offered to the students, please click here.

The Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) is a non-profit project of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA). ICS is dedicated to promoting accurate instructional materials about Jews, Judaism, and Israel. ICS is a national organization that works with policymakers, education officials, educators, and publishers as the representative of the mainstream Jewish community. ICS partners with Jewish communities nationwide to review education standards, policies, and materials and to interact with publishers.

ICS has established excellent working relationships with policymakers in many states who share the ICS goal of establishing policies and standards that ensure accurate and pedagogically sound curricula. ICS staff has worked with policymakers to develop criteria and policies that ensure pedagogically sound and culturally sensitive approaches to religious issues in public schools. In addition, ICS helps policymakers develop appropriate policies for teaching about religion in the public schools. ICS staff has in-depth training and experience dealing with religious issues in public schools on local, state, and national levels. ICS has broad support from the national Jewish community, which turns to ICS for advice on education policies at the national, state, and local levels.

ICS offers all policymakers:

Confidentiality and discretion
Detailed reviews and recommendations of social studies standards and frameworks with content pertaining to Jews, Judaism, and Israel
Factual information and resources to back up recommendations
Reviews and recommendations of policies that support constitutionally appropriate requirements for teaching about religion in the public schools
Reviews and recommendations of policies that are sensitive to the needs and requirements of the diverse belief systems in the U.S.