Following the results of the 2022 PISA and 2023 TIMSS international assessments, the Ministry of Education announced a five-year plan aimed at aligning Israel’s curricula with global standards. The ministry’s goal is to upgrade mathematics and science education in line with technological advancements worldwide and position Israel among the top 15 performing countries on international […]
Hadera is a city in central Israel, ranked below average on the socio-economic scale, and home to 110,000 residents. It operates nine high schools that serve more than 7,500 students. In 2023, 13.4% of twelfth-grade students matriculated with five units in mathematics (compared to the national average of 16.3%), and 8.6% (107 students) with a […]
In 2025, the Trump Foundation is taking its first steps towards implementing a roadmap to prepare Israel’s next generation of excellence in science and technology. Cultivating this generation is a key driver for Israel’s recovery after the war and for restoring and rebuilding the country’s competitive edge. The foundation’s primary effort is dedicated to developing […]
Established in 2014 by the Trump Foundation, “It’s Time for Education” (Higi’a Zman Chinuch) has become the most popular digital magazine on education in Israel. In 2024, the magazine reached 66,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram, composed mostly of teachers, school principals and education professionals. The magazine also sends a weekly newsletter to 37,000 subscribers […]
The term “high-tech matriculation” was coined a couple of years ago in an in-depth study conducted by the Aaron Institute which analyzed the profiles of Israel’s high-tech employees. The study found that in high school, many of them studied a combination of five units in mathematics, English, physics and/or computer science. This finding paved the […]
In 2022, the Trump Foundation approached the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University to conduct an in-depth study on employees in Israel’s high-tech industry. The study examined approximately 400,000 high-tech workers, focusing on their high school specializations and academic education. The research findings revealed that the largest group of high-tech employees in Israel […]
Atid is a network of vocational and educational institutions established in 2004. It operates 32 secular and religious secondary schools serving both Jewish and Arab students. Currently, the network educates over 20,000 students in middle and high schools, with 19% of twelfth graders studying five-unit mathematics and approximately 12% (477 students) enrolled in the high-tech […]
The Amit School Network is the second-largest school network in Israel, serving 37,000 students across 90 schools. Established in 1977, the network has been a long-standing partner of the Trump Foundation. Through five previous grants, implemented in both high schools and middle schools, the network successfully increased the percentage of students graduating with five-unit mathematics […]
The city of Holon is the tenth largest city in Israel. It is home to 200,000 residents of lower-middle socio-economic status. There are 14,000 students attending the city’s secondary schools (14 middle school and 11 high schools). Since 2018, the city has partnered with the foundation to increase the rate of high school graduates in […]
The high level and pace of learning in excellence tracks require strong mental skills. Students need to stay focused on tasks, manage them effectively, and overcome ongoing difficulty, anxiety and fatigue. This type of learning can be stressful, and students need support to maintain their success over time. Their teachers, however, were not specifically trained […]
For over thirty years, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) has hosted an influential annual conference focused on the pressing challenges facing Israeli society and its economy, ranging from fiscal and labor issues, to transportation, health, environment, and welfare. The conference brings together government ministers and officials, business leaders, and practitioners from civil society to engage […]
Earlier this year, Tel Aviv University launched the High-Tech Matriculation Database and Index for 2022. The launch event took place at a special conference that received wide media coverage and was attended by the Minister of Interior, many mayors, and local authority heads of education departments. High-Tech matriculation refers to a study track of five […]
When the war started and schools closed, teachers and students moved to online teaching and learning from their homes. During that challenging period, the foundation invited its partners from the academic community to offer 450 teachers to take part in online workshops. During the last school year, 45 workshops, designed to assist in teaching applied […]
When the war started and schools closed, teachers and students moved to online teaching and learning from their homes. During that challenging period, the foundation invited its partners from the academic community to offer 450 teachers to take part in online workshops. During the last school year, 45 workshops, designed to assist in teaching applied […]
In middle school, female students constitute a minority in the excellence classes, making up 40% of the students. Their performance on the PISA mathematics test is lower than that of boys, with only 30% of excelling students being girls. A recent study by the Aaron Institute reveals that elementary school mathematics teachers tend to favor […]
How to prepare the young generation for an era of machine learning and artificial intelligence is now the new burning issue for education systems around the world. Still in their infancy, several countries are already rolling out rapid steps to start teaching these new innovative topics. Their emerging curricula cover relevant content, skills and values […]
Only half of the middle schools in Israel (about 500 out of 1,000) have excellence classes. In these classes, highly motivated and capable students learn advanced mathematics and develop solid foundations in physics and computer science. Graduates of these classes are more likely to excel on the PISA test and often choose the five-unit tracks […]
During our activities over the past decade, we noticed that, alongside cognitive skills, students in excellence tracks also need mental abilities. For some, the excellence class is the first instance in their lives where they are studying with better-performing peers, confronting learning difficulties, and sometimes even facing the need to overcome failure. They are expected […]
Philanthropy has played a unique role in Israeli society, with foundations being highly active and instrumental in almost all areas of Israeli life. From education to welfare, culture to the environment, foundations establish institutions, support programs, and train professionals. Each with its own perspective and size, they all contribute to a better and stronger Israel. […]
The national religious education stream in Israel serves 14% of Israeli school students. It includes schools operated by the Ministry of Education, municipalities, and a range of independent school networks. One of these networks is the Noam Zvia Education Network, which includes 33 high schools, of which 11 are Yeshivot (religious high schools for boys) […]
The 2022 PISA results in mathematics for Israel’s Jewish national religious schools were very surprising. Male students reached a peak level of performance, with 18.5% excelling in mathematics, whereas female students dropped dramatically by 50% to a very low rate of 4.3%. The foundation published the results in national religious media, which triggered an overwhelming […]
The 2022 results of the PISA test in mathematics revealed a decline of 32% in the number of excelling female students in Israel (in comparison to an 11% increase among male students). This downturn among Israeli female students correlates with similar trends in other Western countries following the COVID-19 pandemic. We assume this decline is […]
Since the lockdowns of schools during the pandemic in 2020, we have witnessed a decline in performance among female students at the highest levels of the PISA assessment in mathematics. This decline correlates with reports of higher levels of stress and anxiety, and a decrease in self-confidence and efficacy among female students. Since the war […]
How to prepare the young generation for an era of machine learning and artificial intelligence is now the new burning issue for education systems around the world. Still in their infancy, several countries are already rolling out rapid steps to start teaching these new innovative topics. Their emerging curricula cover relevant content, skills and values […]
In June 2020, the foundation approved a grant to the Branco Weiss Institute for a program to implement applied mathematics assignments in 240 middle school excellence classes and high ability groups in the Central District. When implementation of the program began, there was a huge demand for it from Hebrew-speaking schools. This year, 500 teachers […]
The turnaround over the past few years in the number of high school graduates of the five-unit tracks in mathematics and the sciences has been a result of a special combination of government policy, academic R&D and teaching practice. Many players across the Israeli spectrum have joined hands to ignite momentum and create a supportive […]
Israel’s National Security agencies are now building a cyber-security and warfare capacity which would allow them to monitor computer communications, to defend national infrastructure from computer hacking, and so forth. This endeavor is expected to have a ripple effect on many elements of life in Israel. For example, alumni of these agencies would have the […]
Israel relies on exceptional human talent, that led the creation of a remarkable science-based tech economy. For many parents and children in Israel, fulfilling “the Israeli dream” has meant graduating high school with five units in mathematics, serving in an elite army intelligence tech unit, studying engineering at university, and then finding a lucrative R&D […]
In 2022, female students comprised 50.1% of the high school graduates from the five-unit track in mathematics. This marked a significant milestone after years of substantial efforts to reduce gender gaps, resulting in female students constituting a slight majority for the first time. This improvement was intentional, as many high achievers in the four-unit track […]
The results of PISA 2022 revealed large gaps between students from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds. Specifically, 19.2% of students from families in the top third of the socioeconomic scale achieved a top-performing score (levels 5-6), compared to only 1.8% of students from the lowest income third. These substantial gaps have placed Israel in an […]
