Training Course for Managers of Excellence Programs In Local Authorities

Over the past five years, the foundation has formed partnerships with ten cities (Ashdod, Haifa, Ra’anana, Bat Yam, Sachnin, Herzliya and Rishon Lezion, Petach Tikva and Be’er Sheva, and Nazareth) in order to increase the percentage of 5-Unit mathematics and physics matriculation graduates. The municipal programs focus on the growth of clinical teaching, and work with teachers, principals and school staff to achieve pre-defined ambitious goals.

Each municipality hires a program manager to integrate and coordinate different program components, monitor student and teacher data, and assess performance. This position, which varies in scope and is funded at least 50% by the municipality, has emerged as a complex role that requires a number of skills and capabilities. Program managers require pedagogical expertise and understanding, data management skills, as well as familiarity with municipal functions and procedures.

Managers of our municipal programs are usually former mathematics department heads and former principals with practical experience, but they have reported feeling a lack of some of the skills required to maximize the potential of their position. The municipalities understand the importance of this role, and are eager to develop these capacities within their organizations. We feel there is a need is to formulate a definition for this essential role, and create a suitable training process for it.

To achieve this, the foundation approached educational consultant Itzik Cohen, previously the deputy General Director of the Education Ministry. In the past, together with the Unit for Professional Development at the School of Education of Bar Ilan University, Cohen has developed and operated a large range of training and professional development courses for local authorities, including for senior teaching staff and a course for Education Department Heads of Local Authorities.

Bar Ilan, together with Cohen is now proposing to develop a training program for Municipal Excellence Program Managers. The goal of the program is to provide them with the professional and organizational skills to be able to develop and implement the municipal program. The training will expose them to clinical teaching programs for mathematics and science, best practices for working relationships with the local and regional education systems, and data-driven management skills.In order to devise the specific syllabus, the program leaders will join a forthcoming 2-day residential seminar we are arranging for the cluster network of municipal programs. The intention is that 20 participants will enroll in the course, comprised of our partnering cities, as well as those who are in pipeline and those who will participate in the government’s and “5p2″‘s emerging programs in the periphery.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 236