Grant amount
NIS 140,000
National Index of Advanced-level Scientific Matriculation
The foundation will commission a searchable database and a report highlighting major findings, and comparing between the achievements of local authorities
The foundation will commission a searchable database and a report highlighting major findings, and comparing between the achievements of local authorities
Over the last 25 years, Israel’s education policy has been to expand access to higher education. The state supported the establishment of regional academic colleges and allocated them budgets to incorporate a significantly larger cohort of students. As a result, the percentage of undergraduates grew from 23% in 1990 to 48% in 2014, making Israel second only to Canada in its ratio of citizens with an academic degree.This endeavor has had an effect on the upper secondary stage of high school and the quest for a matriculation diploma. Since the matriculation is a major vehicle for universities to screen their candidates, teaching and learning in high school became more focused on increasing the ratio of matriculation certifications. As a consequence, the eligibility for a matriculation diploma rose from 30% in 1990 to 50% in 2014, correlating with open positions for students in higher education.
As long as this policy bore fruit, it was not criticized, and it became the norm for high schools, school networks and municipalities to strive to achieve a better ratio of matriculation eligibility among students. However, in the last decade the higher education system has halted its growth process and its leadership has expressed concern regarding the lowering of academic standards. Professor Manuel Trachtenberg, who headed the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Higher Education Council, even wrote in his annual report: ‘it seems as if the potential for higher education in Israel is exploited’.
This new policy emphasized some of the liabilities of the previous policies. One such issue, which is at the heart of the Trump Foundation’s work, is the decreasing number of students studying advanced level mathematics and science in high school. School principals, parents, teachers and students, were reluctant to take a risk with advanced levels and difficult learning processes, and preferred a safer route to secure a matriculation diploma. They did not notice the incremental process of elevating the bar by the army special units, the more prestigious university departments and the competitive jobs in the labor market.
The current bottom line is that today, it is not the eligibility for a matriculation diploma which determines one’s future, but rather its quality. In other words, a high school graduate who majored in advanced level mathematics, English and a science subject, will more likely have doors opened to desirable army service, higher education and the employment market. Despite this, there is no formally defined index for the ‘Advanced-level Scientific Matriculation’; it is not yet measured nor practiced by the various layers of the education system.
We therefore propose to take a first step in this direction, and to commission a research institution to collect data from across the country, and present it in a database which compares between local authorities, and segments the data according to gender, socio-economic status and ethnic and religious affinity. The database will include data generated from 2001 to 2013, in order to show trends of improvement and decline.
Initial contact has been made with the Henrietta Szold Institute, a well-known research center with whom we have worked in the past, in order to lead this research effort and prepare a searchable database and a report highlighting major findings. We propose to use these findings in order to increase public awareness of this issue, and specifically to raise the attention of the municipalities, who are in charge of the high school system in Israel.
We therefore suggest that in addition to the database and report, we will prepare a short film, documenting the success stories of the three most improved cities in Israel between 2010-2013 and to broadcast it via both traditional and new media. In parallel, we will increase our discussion with the new government, in order to think together about appropriate ways to make this effort more formal and binding.