Series of Studies for the 2024 Consultation

The Trump Foundation’s roadmap for middle schools aims to help Israel become one of the top 15 countries in the world excelling in mathematics by 2028. This benchmark is measured by the OECD’s PISA international assessment which focuses on the level of readiness for 21^st century life and work. It concentrates on skills for solving real life problems in unfamiliar contexts and in conditions of uncertainty. In mathematics, these skills include the ability to apply mathematical knowledge using modelling, reasoning, and assessment.

As we approach the final five years on this road, we wish to dedicate the foundation’s 2024 biannual consultation to looking deeply and critically into our work in this realm to date. We wish to analyze the activity on the ground and more clearly understand the methods and means by which Israel moved up to the 22^nd place on the PISA test in 2022. We would then need to develop an operational plan that will ensure this trend persists, and Israel continues to advance on the scale and improve its achievements on the upcoming two PISA cycles.

As they unfold, we will have to take the effects of the war into consideration. In this process, Israel will need to heal and rebuild its social services. People and communities will have to recover from trauma, and develop new outlooks on life and dreams for the future. What will constitute “excellence” in this new era in terms of intellectual abilities, mental resilience, moral values, and social commitment? These questions will require a deep reflection on the changing patterns of Israeli society.

And how can Israel maintain its leading position in science and technology, under these circumstances, when the global race waits for no one? The advancements in new technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and bio convergence, alongside immense developments in cyber computing, capture the imagination and lead us to contemplate prospects and challenges for the future. Many countries have already designed national programs fueled by substantial budgets. It seems that Israel is lagging behind in preparing its physical and human infrastructure.

These issues will set the basis for the foundation’s biannual consultations planned for November 2024. We intend to use the occasion of the international conference on education we are planning to hold at the same time and to invite its international keynote speakers to join our discussions and advise us. Ahead of this gathering, we are proposing to commission a series of studies to shed light on the questions we will be confronting:

1. How does the war influence education and pedagogy in Israel, and particularly the effort to expand the circle of excellence? Is the dream of a high-tech career still valid, and what additional values are being favored?
2. What steps must Israel take now and in the coming years so that its circle of excellence, as measured by PISA levels 5-6, expands and Israel enters the group of top 15 excelling countries in mathematics on the PISA assessment by 2028?
3. Within this goal, what special efforts should be made so that children from families of low economic backgrounds receive equal opportunities to enable them to reach a high level of performance and advance to excellence tracks?
4. How should Israel prepare its future pool of talent to create innovative new technologies and specifically, how should the high school curriculum change ahead of the technology revolution?
5. What are the mental skills required to succeed in learning in an excellence track and later on, in science and technology careers, and how should these skills be nurtured, starting in secondary school?
6. What additional domestically-monitored measures would be important to pursue? Particularly, how could the “tech-matriculation” formula, which predicts a career in science and high-tech, become a preferred route and goal?
7. How is the foundation’s philanthropic relationship evaluated by our grant recipients and partners, both within the local context, and in comparison to international benchmarks?

The studies will be written in Hebrew and then translated into English and be disseminated in advance of the conference to the professional community and the international experts speaking at the education conference.

* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 553