Rabbi Nochem Kaplan, director of the global Chabad-Lubavitch movement's Office of Education, was elected Vice President/Vice Chair of the National Council for Private School Accreditation, the highest private educational supervisory body in the country. The election took place at the NCPSA's annual summer meeting in Washington, D.C., on June 19.

As member of the NCPSA's executive board, Kaplan will be responsible for helping to set national accreditation standards for private schools nationwide, on both an academic and administrative level.

Kaplan is not only the first rabbi, but the first Jewish representative to this top-level educational conclave, elected by representatives of all major state and national accrediting agencies.

The NCPSA is the umbrella organization for U.S. private accrediting agencies, representing more than 30,000 preschool, elementary and secondary private schools.

In addition to his newest position, Kaplan chairs the only national Jewish accrediting agency, the National Accreditation Board of Merkos L'inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.