Following the success in meeting the target and in order to maintain its high performance
The Jerusalem District of the Ministry of Education comprises 70 middle and high schools in cities, including Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Ma’ale Adumim, Modi’in, Mevaseret Zion and the Binyamin settlements. Several years ago, the District led an effort to double the rate of its five-unit graduates in mathematics from 11%, reaching 20% in 2019. This effort was assisted by the Israel Center for Excellence through Education (ICEE) and by a grant from the foundation. ICEE provided instructional coaching to 60 teachers, focusing on how to reduce the student drop out rate and create a support network for students and teachers.
Following the success in meeting the target and in order to maintain its high performance, the District worked to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of its efforts. It discovered that there is a mismatch between the limited opportunities available to students in middle school and the high expectations in high school. Illustrating this conclusion is the finding that only 15% of the middle school students learn in excellence classes, and then 35% are pushed to enroll in the five-unit track in high school, however only 20% complete it successfully.
To address this disparity, the District analyzed the data in order to identify the places where there is significant untapped potential in middle school. They found this potential in the city of Modi’in where only 14% of middle school students learn in excellence classes, but 38% enroll in the five-unit track in high school, with 25% completing it. Furthermore, in the Binyamin settlements, there are no excellence classes in middle school but in 10th grade, 35% of students enroll in the five-unit track, though half of them drop down before graduation. The District estimates that if it concentrates its efforts in these areas, then by 2024, 30% of the District’s ninth grade students will graduate from excellence classes.
Therefore, the District plans to add additional teaching hours over two years to 38 of the high ability groups in mathematics in Modi’in, Mevaseret Zion and the Binyamin settlements. In these two additional hours, students will learn how to engage in high-order mathematical thinking and to apply mathematical modelling and reasoning to solve complex, real world problems. ICEE was invited by the District to facilitate the selection of learning tasks from among the portfolio of assignments developed by the foundation’s programs. ICEE will also help lead the professional development of teachers who will learn how to teach these skills.
ICEE will operate two professional learning communities for 40 mathematics teachers of the excellence classes and high ability groups. They will use 20 learning tasks which are aligned with the top 5-6 levels of the PISA framework in mathematics. In addition, eight District instructors and 20 mathematics department heads will be trained to provide the teachers with instructional coaching. The 29 principals of the participating schools will meet twice a year, and the District will organize conferences and seminars for all the program participants.
A diagnostic tool, in line with the 5-6 PISA levels, developed by CET will be used to measure the success of the program with the aim that after three years, 80% of the students will meet this bar.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 425