Excellence Week 2020

Once every two years the Trump Foundation convenes its International Advisory Council, a voluntary body chaired by Lee Shulman and comprised of education researchers, education policymakers and teachers from Israel. The goal of the council is to provide the foundation with insights concerning the advancement of our philanthropic roadmap and to offer feedback, critique and recommendations. Foundation partners, grant recipients and educators from all across the country are invited to the discussions that are held in an intimate closed forum. At the end of these discussions, the foundation has been inviting approximately 250 of its partners to a special gala evening, to celebrate the shared achievements and discuss the joint next steps.

One of the main reactions of council members was that these rich and interesting discussions only reach an exclusive audience, whereas the wider professional community could also benefit from them. Members felt that the meetings served the foundation and those attending them, but did not create momentum among the professional community or the public. Others noted that the composition of the council, which suited the foundation’s roadmap for high schools, is now less befitting for work in the middle school level. At the threshold of a new philanthropic program in middle schools, we are proposing a rather different and new format, which will take into consideration the feedback we received.

Therefore, we are suggesting to organize in 2020 a series of events, under the title: “Excellence Week”. In one week, we are planning to hold sessions and professional gatherings for three target audiences: the inner circle of the foundation and its partners, the wider professional community and the public. The idea is to start building a coherent language between them, so that our efforts in middle school will be better accepted and aligned:

1. The foundation and its partners: we intend to invite (proposed in the foundation’s administrative budget for 2020) two experts from English speaking high performing education systems, such as Singapore (Chua Ling, President of the Academy of Singapore Teachers), Ontario-Canada (Michael Fullan or Andy Hargreaves) and New Zealand (Viviane Robinson or John Hattie). Together with Lee Shulman, each of our guests will lead in-depth workshops for relevant grantees, partners and foundation staff. They will also guide round table discussions concerning specific topics and practical dilemmas, in which teachers, researchers, decision makers and grant recipients will participate.
2. The professional community: we propose to hold a conference for 500 participants including teachers, principals, researchers, representatives of local authorities, high-tech companies, school networks, education organizations, the Ministry of Education, and others. The experts from abroad will give key lectures, research findings and case studies prepared during the year will be presented, and round table discussions will be organized for dialogue between the participants. Following the conference there will be a gala evening for 200 invitees, in the mold of “An Evening of Quality Teaching.”

Not included in this grant proposal is the option to hold additional relevant events during the week in the framework of other grants of the foundation, such as the award ceremony for the 2020 Trump Master Teacher Award, or launching a book about the education vision of Israel which is now in advanced stages of editing. We may propose specific recommendations for additional grants under this realm, such as holding TED-type events.

3. The public: we have in mind to encourage a series of public events across the country, under the title of “Excellence Week”. This effort will require forging collaboration with education organizations, municipalities, high-tech companies, and others. They will be asked to lead and host special local events that can include small conferences, competitions, visits to high-tech companies and universities, and more. For this purpose, we intend to prepare a website that will present the range of activities on a searchable map and will call on volunteers to initiate events and on the public to participate in an event close to their home. We plan to prepare kits to help the organizers create their events and to build a structure of volunteers that will synchronize the efforts. Traditional and digital media will be harnessed to echo the planned activities.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 356