Instructional Coaching For Mathematical And Science Teachers

In recent years, fewer Israeli students are choosing the advanced Mathematics and Science studies in high school and many who do, eventually drop-out due to learning difficulties. Despite strong evidence that the quality of teaching is the main influence on student motivation and achievement, teachers are often not trained and sometimes are not encouraged to help those struggling students who have difficulties reaching their potential. In recent decades, many intervention programs have been designed to address the declining academic achievement in secondary schools, however most of them have refrained from working with the classroom teachers and prefer to supplement school hours with enrichment and support.

One very significant such attempt is a program initiated by the Ministry of Education in 2002, targeting the social and geographic periphery of Israel, where the problem is even more acute. The Kdam-Atidim program identifies 9^th-12^th grade students (16,500 in 2012) with academic potential and supports them through achieving a high-level matriculation certificate in English, Mathematics and the Sciences. The program operates through regional operators and is a joint venture between the government and a group of philanthropists under the leadership of Eitan Wertheimer. The Branco Weiss Institute has been a major operator of the Kdam-Atidim program for nine years and is currently responsible of ninety schools (5,000 students) in the program. The Branco Weiss Institute is a veteran education non-profit organization with an annual budget of 110 million NIS, of which 16 million are designated by the Ministry of Education for the program.

However, a professional evaluation of the Kdam Atidim program commissioned by the Branco Weiss Institute, has found that despite the additional investment, only 40% of the program’s participants choose the highest level matriculation exams in Mathematics and the Sciences and of these, only 12% achieve a grade of 80 or above in the final exam. It was also found that there is still a high drop-out rate in the transition from 10^th to 11^th grade, due to learning and teaching difficulties. Thus far Kdam-Atidim provides participating students with extra-curricular enrichment activities and after-school tutoring as well as workshops for personal and social empowerment, and encounters with role models from high-tech and academia. The Branco Weiss Institute interprets the above findings resulting from the program’s lack of direct work with the school teachers.

The Branco Weiss Institute is therefore proposing a complementary program for harnessing classroom teachers into the comprehensive effort to advance student learning in Mathematics and the Sciences. The goal of the new program is to help teachers adopt a student-centered approach, which will enable the teacher to provide individual attention to each student, to develop personalized objectives for students, to help them navigate through the learning difficulties and fulfill their potential. Discussions with the Ministry of Education have already commenced, with the aim to integrate the new component, if it proves to be effective, into the national Kdam Atidim project.

The new component will work with school teachers who are team leaders of Mathematics and the Sciences in their schools, and will train them to act as instructional coaches.  School team leaders are experienced teachers who are appointed by the school principal to lead the teachers of a specific subject area. As instructional coaches, these team leaders will routinely guide and advise the other Mathematics and Science teachers in their schools.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 49