Grant amount
NIS 1,200,000
nstructional Coaching For Mathematics Teachers of the Central District
Instructional Coaching for 120 Mathematics Teachers of the Central District to Further Expand the Pipeline of Students in Five Unit Mathematics
Instructional Coaching for 120 Mathematics Teachers of the Central District to Further Expand the Pipeline of Students in Five Unit Mathematics
The Central District, one of eight districts of the Education Ministry, serves 320,000 students in 56 cities and is responsible for 132 high schools. In 2013, 15% of 12th grade students (2,120 students) took the advanced five-unit mathematics exam and 28% (3,950 students) took the four-unit exam. The district supervisor learned that 44% of their four-unit students excelled in the final test. This phenomenon led them to believe that given the right educational circumstances, these students could comprise an untapped potential source of excellence at advanced levels.
To seize this opportunity the Central district embarked on “The New 5” program. In collaboration with the Branco Weiss Institute and with funding from the Trump Foundation, the program scouts excelling students of 4-unit mathematics and provides them with student-centered teaching and individual support. In 2016 the program operated 126 new five-unit classrooms in 60 schools across 25 cities. Branco Weiss is coaching the district’s mathematics instructors as well as the teachers in schools. This program is perceived as a significant contributor to the national improvement in five units.
At this point, the District has concluded that in order to further expand the pipeline of five unit students, it needs to focus on the students as they progress from junior high school to high school, in order to avoid the fall-out of potential 5-unit students between 9th and 10th grade. Junior high schools and high schools in Israel are managed as separate operational and pedagogic entities, which means even if they share the same campus, they have different teachers, separate curricula and diverse goals. Like the schools, the district also operates two separate systems of coaching, professional development and supervision.
To bridge this gap, Branco Weiss, in collaboration with the district, is proposing a program that will bring together school teachers and district instructors from both junior high and high schools, in order to exchange data and forge joint work routines.
In a first stage, the 28 district instructors of both grade levels will build effective lines of communications, conduct regular joint meetings and set the goal of shared responsibility for their students. They will be trained by Dr. Tamara Avissar of the Branco Weiss Institute, who will also provide them with instructional coaching in close cooperation with the District Chief Mathematics Supervisor, Ms. Shlomit Davidovitch.
Eight of those instructors will be selected from this group, and will be trained to coach 9th grade and 10th grade mathematics teachers from 60 schools. The teachers, 120 in total, will be divided into four regional groups, in which they will work together to build shared goals, instill joint data systems to follow the learning progress of each student, and forge work standards and protocols for ongoing communications across grade levels. In addition, instructors will provide instructional coaching for individual teachers and small groups of teachers throughout the program, and will coordinate with school principals and update them regarding progress of the program in their schools.
After three years, the program aims for 90% of advanced level 8th grade students in participating schools to continue to advanced mathematics tracks in 9th grade, and 80% of 9th grade students from advanced mathematics tracks to select 5-unit study tracks in 10th grade.