The Nature of Human Values - Dissertation Example

The Jewish -American population has enjoyed an unprecedented amount of academic and educational success throughout their relatively short tenure in the United States, exemplified in the high number of Jewish student enrollment in prestigious colleges and universities all over America. Jews comprise nearly 21% of enrollment in Ivy League schools, ten times more than would be the norm given their 1.7% composition of the general population. Jewish enrollment rates are even higher at the 50 small schools that U.S. News and World Report ranked among the "Top 50 Undergraduate Schools of 2003” (Peace, 2005) Furthermore, recent estimates indicate that approximately 90% of all college-age Jews enroll in some type of college, a dramatic contrast to the national average of 25.2%. High rates of enrollment in institutions of higher education have brought widespread attention to the Jewish-American population, particularly as it relates to comparisons with other ethnic minorities.

The educational profile of American-Jewish communities indicates that they have become one of the most educated and academically successful minority groups among “all American ethnic and religious groups, of all Jewish communities around the world, and of all the Jewish communities ever recorded in history,” reflecting the value that Jews have placed on education and educational opportunities available in America (Goldscheider, 1993 p. 260). The emphasis on educational opportunities has led to increasing enrollment in high-school and universities around the United States, with nearly all Jewish students completing high-school or a similar degree, and approximately 90% of students attending colleges (Goldscheider, 1993).

The Jewish American population has also made a significant impact on the educational and academic world as faculty members and seminal thinkers. Any review of the faculty of most schools of higher education will evidence a disproportionate number of Jewish teachers. Jewish instructors are, for example, roughly 30% of the faculty of the Harvard, Stanford, and Yale law schools (Pease, 2009).