The Open University will document the practices of five middle schools where there a high proportion of students attends excellence classes
The foundation’s roadmap in middle schools requires an effective organization within the schools. Schools need raise the bar, open more opportunities for excellence, develop teaching capacities, implement mangement routines, collect data, engage the staff and smooth the transition to high school. The ultimate goal is to create pathways to excellence for at least 40% of the middle school students, focusing on high order thinking and mathematical applications in science and technoloy. This kind of effort requires heavy lifting and high quality of professionalism by the school principal, the management team and the teaching cadre.
In order to encourage middle schools to choose this route, we believe it would be useful if there will be a series of best practice case studies. Therefore, we approached the Open University of Israel to document five middle schools, in which more than 40% of the students already participate in excellence classes. The Open University’s Unit of Professional Advancement of Educators gained relevant experience in similar work as a veteran operating arm of the Israel Institute for School Leadership.
The Open University is suggesting to prepare documentary video films on each school, focusing on student learning, teacher instruction, the professional development of the staff and the collaboration among teachers and the school management. The footage will be made available online to the professional community and the intention is to use it in the future for training middle school principals in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.