A Program To Train New Mathematics & Science Teachers

Since the 1990s, Israel relied on a generation of excellent mathematics and science teachers, a large proportion of whom immigrated from the Former Soviet Union. However, with time, they have naturally retired. As a result, a shortage of teachers has grown during the past decade, which was among the significant factors contributing to the decline in the number of students who graduated with five-units in mathematics and the sciences. Many schools were unable to find a replacement for the retiring teachers and were forced to close classes of the advanced learning tracks.

When the foundation was established, we had to answer a threshold question: who will enter the shoes of these excellent teachers? In a country where science and technology are so dominant, it was obvious that talented university graduates of science and engineering departments will prefer to pursue careers in high-tech or academia. Soon we found out that by the age of 35-45, many of them actually begin to seriously consider changing careers into teaching. They expressed a wish to give back to society and see it as their mission to close a circle and to nurture the next generation of engineers and scientists.

With grants from the foundation, a series of training programs was designed for them, using a rigorous and competitive admission process and a school-based training approach. The Teacher Residency model, now offered by 17 universities and colleges across the country, is training a few hundred such new teachers every year. As a result, dozens of new classes re-opened and the pipeline of many more high school students who are able to learn in the five-unit track is widening. An evaluation report by the Szold Institute found out that a large proportion of these new teachers overcome the difficulties of integration in schools, and remain as teachers.

Within a few years it turned out that this trend of high-tech professionals switching to mathematics and science teaching was becoming a significant movement, making it a majority among the new teachers. Therefore, in 2016, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, we approached the “5P2 Initiative” to convene a collective planning team, engaging Ministry officials, researchers and teachers. The joint team recommended to create a task force, which will work on behalf of all parties involved to smooth the transition from high-tech to teaching. It will do so by recruiting potential candidates, defining shared standards with the training programs and helping the graduates with placement, absorption and mentoring.

Following these recommendations, the Ministry and the foundation decided to approach the Mofet Institute to establish such an Initiative on an experimental basis. Headed by former school principal and Mayor of Ra’anana, Nahum Hofree, this Initiative started a year ago to play the role of coordinating, convening and integrating between the training programs, the schools, the municipalities and the Ministry. It soon served as an address for candidates and re-trainees, helping them in solving problems they encounter along the way. However, at the current pilot phase, this Initiative cannot grow or sustain beyond its current scope.

At this point, the Ministry decided to take this initiative a major step forward with a new goal to train an additional 1,500 teachers of mathematics and the sciences over the next five years. The Ministry intends to take responsibility for the programs the foundation supported and to allocate more than 45 million NIS for the training courses, scholarships and loans to the participants. The Ministry asked the foundation and Mofet to jointly fund the expenses of the Initiative. A joint team of the Ministry, the foundation and Mofet prepared a shared work plan for the complete program, in which the Initiative will:

1. Create central systems for marketing, admission, placement and instructional coaching for the new teachers.
2. Formulate and implement procedures that will smooth the transition between the stages, from sourcing, via training and onto placement and integration in school.
3. Convene the training programs to share learning, discuss difficulties and develop joint professional standards.
4. Develop, in collaboration with the Ministry, policy and effective procedures for optimally arranging regulation to recognize previous experience as teaching seniority and from previous professional development for supplemental salary.
5. Provide hands on individual assistance to every candidate, student and teacher, while holding on to an up-to-date database to enable an effective and efficient response.
6. Establish an alumni network for the graduates of the various training programs, to strengthen their professional identity and help them become proud and strong teachers.

The Ministry will commit to allocate a five-year budget to the teacher residency programs for 1,500 five-unit mathematics (>60%), physics (>20%), chemistry and computer science teachers, and will allocate stipends and conditional loans to students. It will instruct its districts, units, local authorities and schools to assist, support and ensure optimal placement and integration of the new teachers in schools. The Ministry will also create an efficient process of recognizing teachers’ previous experience and professional development as teaching seniority and salary supplements.

The planned outcomes of the five-year plan expect that 95% of the graduates will be integrated into teaching in schools, that 90% will remain in teaching for five or more years and that students’ achievement will improve in their classes. These indicators as well as additional measures will be explored in a detailed evaluation report which will be prepared towards the end of the five years by the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 318