Television Campaign Targeting Parents

The foundation’s roadmap in middle school operates to expand and strengthen the circle of excellence in mathematics and the sciences. Since 2018, we have seeded a portfolio for the development of advanced level learning assignments, the preparation of teachers and the opening of additional excellence classes across the country. This effort relies on partnerships with the universities, municipal education administrations, school networks and regional districts.

In parallel, the foundation initiated with its partners the creation of a Collective Impact coalition (called: “TOP 15”), which aims to support the effort to bring Israel to the top performing countries on the PISA tests. The new government invited the TOP 15 coalition to work together towards its target of increasing the rate of Israelis employed in the local high-tech sector to 15% of the workforce. This target reflects the emerging and urgent need of rapidly expanding high-tech companies in Israel, which lack sufficient talent.

Traditionally in Israel, there has been a unique correlation between performance on the PISA tests and employment in the high-tech sector: 9% of 15-year-old Israeli students excel in mathematics on the PISA tests and the 9% of the workforce is employed in the high-tech sector. On both ends, they are mainly male, Jewish, and from the center of Israel. This correlation may attest to the fact that Israel fulfils its current potential. However, as need is growing, so too must we expand and diversify our pool of talent and allow for as many students as possible, male and female, Jews and Arabs, from the center and periphery, to study at a high level in middle school.

Looking towards 2022, when a new cycle of the PISA test will be administered in 85 countries, including Israel, we see an exceptional opportunity to ignite a sense of momentum around our efforts. We believe this is a year in which a window can open onto the possibility of engaging parents and persuading them to become much more proactive in their children’s learning in middle school. We will need to convince them that the future of their children depends on choices they make about their studies in middle school.

The choice open to them in middle school is to join an excellence class where they will learn along with top performing students and excellent teachers. They will be taught advanced mathematics, as well as courses in physics and computer science. Graduates of excellence classes are almost automatically accepted to the five-unit tracks in high school. The problem today is that these excellence classes are not always available and the majority of parents is unaware of their existence and importance.

In order to address this challenge, we approached Channel 12 (Keshet), the most popular television broadcaster in Israel. Through its nonprofit arm, the Looking Forward Association, they are proposing a three-month campaign, starting in March and ending in May 2022, to run in parallel with the administration of the PISA tests in Israeli schools. The campaign will target parents of middle school students, mostly in the secular and religious Jewish sectors. It will highlight how important it is for their children to excel in their studies.

The campaign will include promotional commercials aired during prime time programs, interviews on the morning, evening and late night shows, articles and video items on digital platforms, special podcast chapters and documentary testimonials with graduates, high-tech executives and teachers. The campaign will be carefully prepared, monitored and analyzed by using surveys and focus groups in order to allow for mid-course improvements and evaluation of its impact.

* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 479