Sheatufim are proposing to assist Israel’s education system reach the top 15 excelling countries in PISA by the year 2025.
Back in 2013, in collaboration with the Rashi Foundation and Intel-Israel, we turned to Sheatufim, to create a cross organizational partnership around excellence in mathematics and the sciences education in Israel. The partnership, titled “5p2”, aimed to spark a movement focusing on doubling the number of high school graduates with five units in mathematics, science and technology. Almost 100 organizations joined the effort which eventually transformed into a successful national program.
One could expect that the partners would be so satisfied with accomplishing their mission and rest on their laurels. However, in the past year ‘5p2’ delved into the indicators coming in from the field, identifying middle school as a weak link. They noticed that gaps between students are significantly widening in middle school, resulting in lower performance of female students, Arab students and students residing in the periphery.
Moreover, high order skills, such as deep mathematical understanding and its application in science and technology, are rarely taught. These skills, as well as critical, computational and analytical thinking and advanced problem solving and modeling, are all required for the 21st century labor market. Particular in Israel, which prides itself as the “Startup Nation”, these are necessary components for education at the levels of excellence.
In its original mission statement, ‘5p2’ declared its aim to help Israel reach the top 15 countries in the world in measures of excellence of mathematics and science education. Regardless of the domestic success in five units, in the international PISA test, which focuses on these advanced traits, Israel was ranked in 2015 only in the 33rd place. Of our 15-year-old students, 8.9% have reached the 5-6 excellence levels in the PISA test (in comparison to an average of 10.5% in the OECD countries).
Therefore, in agreement with many of the ‘5p2’ partners, Sheatufim are proposing to embark on an ambitious second stage of the partnership. This stage will focus on instilling these advanced skills in middle school, with a target of assisting Israel to achieve the top 15 excelling countries by the year 2025. Such an effort would have to build on the previous partnership and success, however will need to adapt to the new mission.
As a first step, Sheatufim will convene a panel of representatives from the army, the universities and the high-tech industry. As the ‘clients of excellence’, these representatives will be asked to define what is the excellence that they are currently looking for when they recruit candidates (in terms of knowledge, skills, experience, character traits and values). The product of this process, alongside a literature review of similar work in other countries, will be disseminated among the partners and the general public, in order to serve as a compass for the entire effort.
Concurrently, and towards a new government in Israel and the worldwide publication of the 2018 PISA results in December 2019, Sheatufim are planning to engage the media. The idea is to harness several of the partners, mostly from the high-tech industry, to express the importance of high order skills for the job market and the PISA test, and their implications for education at the middle school level.
The partnership will be modified as well, to suit the new target. Partners from start-up companies will join the current partners from the big multinational corporations. Representatives from additional government agencies will be asked to join the Ministry of Education (e.g. the army, the cyber authority, the innovation authority, the Bank of Israel, the Ministry of Science, and more).
Last but not least, Sheatufim are assuming that implementing the new agenda will also require a deeper partnership with the local authorities and the school networks. Therefore, a roundtable of relevant players will be convened, to share knowledge and to focus the effort on the new target.
* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board of Directors / Grant number 350