Executive Summary

September 2, 2014

For the Report on:

Middle East Curricula in Newton Public Schools
(Newton, MA)
Between May 2014, and September 2014, Verity Educate
analyzed 26 individual pieces of educational material used
in Newton public high school curricula related to the
Middle East. Parents and community members asked
Verity Educate to assess the material for factual accuracy
in response to a multi-year controversy. The 26 pieces
include handouts, assignments, readings, and one video.
All were provided to Verity Educate by students, parents,
and community members in Newton.
Verity Educates final report was completed on September
2, 2014. 152 pages long, it addresses over 300 specific
points of inaccuracy and inconsistency in the curricula.
Some educational materials were found to be without
error, but others were replete with factual inaccuracies
and sometimes blatant biases.
Verity Educates primary finding is:
There has been a demonstrated lack of subject matter
expertise in the creation and oversight of these Middle
East curricula, and the vast majority of materials used do
not originate from authoritative sources or are so altered
as to have lost their authority
Additional findings include:

A high frequency of inaccurate and false information.

Some materials present multiple, easily-refuted
inaccuracies per page.
Academic dishonesty in multiple pieces of material.
This ranges from instances of plagiarism (omitting
citations or attribution when copying material), to
changing copied material without any indications, to
deceptively editing material to alter its meaning.
Material taken directly from a hate-filled, religious,
proselytizing website. This website also prophesies
about an Armageddon when all Jews will be murdered
and the rest of the world will convert to Sunni Islam.
Assignments that prejudice students in favor of the
radical position of a one-state scenario in Israel/the
West Bank/Gaza.
A neo-Orientalist mistreatment of various Arab
perspectives, particularly the infantilization of Arab
peoples and countries in the twentieth century and
elevation of the perspectives of the PLO and Hamas at
the expense of the perspectives of Palestinian
individuals.
A regular presentation of bias in place of facts. There
is no single, overarching bias. However, the curricula
present repeated instances of bias against Israel, bias
against the U.S. and its actions in the Middle East, and
bias that sanitizes the ideology and actions of terrorists.