A breakthrough project documenting and analyzing classroom and school-wide practices which contribute to successful mathematics and science teaching
In Israel there are a number of excellent public schools that have risen above the difficulties they face to succeed. In these high caliber schools, students are not chosen by selection criteria and the schools’ funding and teaching corps is standard in comparison with others. They manage to lead their students to success, sometimes against all odds, and they do so skillfully even in the advanced levels of Mathematics and the Sciences. These schools’ success stories however, have not yet been documented and analyzed thoroughly and therefore the practice behind their success remains a mystery.
The Israel Institute for School Leadership (Avney Rosha) proposes to identify and document the practice of five exemplary public schools which have consistently and continuously succeeded in elevating student outcomes in Mathematics and the Sciences. The work of these schools will be captured in writing and film using a model developed by Richard Elmore of Harvard University, which identifies five core elements in a school that need to be integrated: student learning, teacher instruction, teacher learning, collaboration among teachers and school management. Footage will be edited into a series of short films which will provide case studies of each element and each school. These films will then be made available to the general public and the professional community via the internet.
Avney Rosha is Israel’s center of expertise on school principals. A private-public partnership founded in 2007, Avney Rosha is responsible for the professional development of school heads in Israel. The Institute is administratively hosted at the Center for Educational Technology and is governed by a steering committee chaired by the Minister of Education. Avney Rosha intends to use the films in a number of professional development courses and workshops for school principals across the country.