Promoting applied mathematics skills among Bnei Akiva’s female students

Bnei Akiva is a veteran religious school network in Israel, founded in 1954. The network includes 58 secondary schools serving more than 20,000 students. Studies are separate for girls and boys, who learn in gender-based institutions. In the 22 schools for girls, at 8^th and 9^th grades, there are 3,000 students, of whom 660 (22%) study in the mathematics high ability group, and 19% matriculate the five-unit mathematics track. However, only 5% matriculate with five units in computer science, and only 4.5% in physics.

Bnei Akiva assesses that this gap, which correlates with the PISA results, attests to the need to promote applied mathematics skills. Therefore, they are proposing to create a program that implements applied mathematics tasks for female students of the high ability group. To do so, Bnei Akiva will train six of its best mathematics teachers to form a leadership team. The lead teachers will train the network’s 40 teachers of the high ability groups, providing them with instructional coaching, while communicating with the school principals and management team.

In parallel, the 660 participating students will also take part in an applied mathematics competition. The first stage will be used to diagnose their abilities and determine the baseline benchmark for the program. In the second stage, excelling students from each school will form a school team, competing on a special day, with 150 students then being invited to the finals. The competition will be performed in collaboration with the Israel Center for Excellence through Education.

It is expected that the program will be able to double the rate of excellence among female students in the diagnostic assessment, which would be aligned with the 5-6 levels of PISA.