School-Based Support System for Clinical Teaching of Five-Unit Mathematics in Ashdod

The city of Ashdod has set a city-wide goal to increase the number of students who choose, persist and succeed in physics and mathematics at advanced levels. Six years ago, it was decided initially to focus on increasing the number of students graduating with advanced level physics matriculation from 13% to 25%. In order to do this, the municipality has been backing city-wide initiatives to improve physics education by working with teachers and adding supplementary hours and resources for excelling and struggling students.

A year and a half ago, they broadened their focus to include mathematics, with a program supported by the Trump Foundation which aimed to increase the rate of students graduating from advanced level mathematics from 16% to 23% over three years. The program aims to cultivate 15 skilled instructional coaches and a professional cadre of 90 mathematics teachers in Ashdod who are committed to student achievement at high levels; and to creating a city-based support network for teaching and learning in the advanced track.

In the first year of the program, 15 mathematics teachers from 5 schools took part in a weekly professional development group, which uses teaching events from their classrooms via lesson observation and feedback, in order to improve their practice. Over the year, three instructional coaches were trained, and the plan now is to open more professional learning groups, gradually reaching most of the city’s teachers of 5 units by the end of the program.

The program already sees signs of improvement in the schools of the participating teachers. Nevertheless, working with the teachers has revealed that work patterns of the schools involved are essentially conservative and rigid, and there is concern that in the long run, the old mindsets will prevail and schools will return to traditional practices. In order to effect long-term, systemic change in schools, there is a need to create a school-wide support system for high quality teaching of advanced level mathematics.

To this end, Ashdod municipality, via its non-profit operating arm (The Ashdod Municipal Organization for Culture Sports and Community Centers), has turned to the foundation and its programs for assistance in implementing such a support network. At the heart of this network, is the implementation of clinical teaching components around the learning of each student in schools. The network will use the foundation’s clinical teaching programs, including diagnostics to monitor the progress of every student, and documenting and analyzing classroom-based videos. It will be led by the master teachers, who are being trained in the earlier program, to align the school-based effort with the subject coordinators, homeroom teachers, the school principals and parents.

*The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 140