Fourteen high school master teachers will form a 'practice task force' to discuss and report on questions surrounding the nature, role and purpose of master teachers in the education system
The Trump Foundation strategy aims to help mathematics and science teachers learn from their practice and improve it so that they are able to better address the needs of their students. Such a collaborative effort rests on the professional capacity of a cadre of highly skilled teachers, mentoring new and struggling teachers, and coaching teachers in professional communities to discuss evidence of teaching and learning.
Indeed, in the past three years since the foundation was launched and its portfolio has emerged, dozens of programs across the country are relying on such master teachers at the core of their work. For example, the Teacher Residency Training Programs have been harnessing excellent teachers to coach the new teaching students in schools; the Weizmann Institute and Haifa University have been employing great physics and mathematics teachers to lead the regional learning communities of teachers; and many more.
But as critical as the role of master teacher is, their capacity and function are not yet standardized nor recognized. Without such standards, there is a risk of compromising the high quality needed for this role. In addition, without recognition, their compensation is always reliant on special and temporary funding sources and therefore extremely volatile.
To address this issue which is important to the Israeli Education system beyond our focus on mathematics and science teachers, we consulted with the Minister of Education. As a result, we created a partnership with the Ministry and with Yad Hanadiv (the Rothschild Foundation) and approached the Israel Academy for Science and Humanities. The Academy was commissioned to produce a ‘green paper’ on how to architecture and administer the role and functions of master teachers in Israel, including mathematics and science teachers.
Following the Academy’s recommendations three task forces are now being set up to jointly produce a ‘white paper’, translating the recommendations to concrete steps:
The ‘practice task force’, which is proposed and recommended here, will comprise 14 high school master teachers, of which 6 will be five-unit mathematics and science teachers. It will be hosted by the Davidson Center at the Weizmann Institute, and will be led by Ms. Miri Shlisel.
The group will meet over two months, spending a total of 30 hours in afternoon discussions, and two residential work days, to discuss the following questions:
The task force will conclude its work by March 2015, presenting a detailed report on the above questions, which will be integrated into a unified report of the three teams. This report will be presented to the next Minister of Education.