ORT-Israel is the largest education network in Israel, comprised of 100 schools including 87 middle schools. ORT and the Trump Foundation have collaborated in recent years on the goal of raising the rate of five-unit graduates in mathematics from 12% in 2016 to an expected rate of 18% in 2021. As part of this effort, […]
Since 2012, the Trump Master Teacher Award has celebrated and recognized outstanding teachers of mathematics and the sciences in Israel’s schools. During the first six years, in alignment with the foundation’s roadmap, the prize committee concentrated on identifying excellent high school teachers of the five-unit track. In recent years, following the transition of the foundation’s […]
In 2018, the foundation approved a grant to launch a municipal program in Ma’ale Adumim to increase the percentage of five-unit mathematics matriculation graduates from 13% to 20%. In 2019, 15.3% of the students graduated five-unit mathematics. This year, 24% of the twelfth grade students are enrolled in the five-unit mathematics track and the city […]
Less than one percent of Israel’s Arabic-speaking students have reached excellence levels on the 2018 PISA exam in mathematics, as compared to more than ten percent among the Hebrew speakers. This untapped potential in Arab schools led the foundation to dedicate a special effort, which began with an online program initiated by the Center for […]
The Jerusalem District of the Ministry of Education comprises 70 middle and high schools in cities, including Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Ma’ale Adumim, Modi’in, Mevaseret Zion and the Binyamin settlements. Several years ago, the District led an effort to double the rate of its five-unit graduates in mathematics from 11%, reaching 20% in 2019. This effort […]
When the foundation planned its philanthropic steps to assist in raising the bar for middle school mathematics, we focused on two significant areas of work: a) Creating an arsenal of challenging learning material that encourages students to learn about and engage in high-order mathematical thinking and its applications in science, and b) Opening additional excellence […]
Excellence classes in middle school are designed for highly motivated students who demonstrate capability and potential to study mathematics and science at high levels. Typically, students in these classes come from the high ability group in mathematics. The excellence class is taught additional 4-6 weekly hours that are dedicated to accelerating and enriching the mathematical […]
The Amit School Network is the second largest charter school network in Israel with 46 secondary schools, mostly for Jewish religious students. Amit collaborated with the foundation to increase the circle of excellence in mathematics and physics (two grants totaling 4.2M NIS in 2012 and in 2015), resulting in more than doubling the number of […]
During this school year, students spend extended periods at home, and their learning depends, largely, on their own motivation. In the absence of school routine, they must organize their schedule and self-regulate their studies. The learning of mathematics under these circumstances is especially challenging, as it requires ongoing effort, practice and perseverance. In a survey […]
High-order mathematical thinking requires deep mathematical knowledge and an arsenal of skills. Among these skills are the ability to devise mathematical models and to reason the choices and decisions the student made by applying mathematical arguments. These skills can be applied both in solving complex abstract problems, as required by the five-units track in high […]
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system in Israel has experienced an upheaval. It immediately closed and moved to distance learning and later to hybrid learning with frequent transitions and mixes of in-school and home-based learning. During this period, the central government has been struggling to provide schools with coherent regulations and […]
The city of Hadera, in the northern Sharon region of Israel, is home to 97,000 residents. Its school system serves 23,000 students, of which about 7,000 study in eight middle and high schools. Traditionally, the city emphasized democratic and humanistic education and had no special focus dedicated to excellence in mathematics and the sciences. In […]
The social protest that erupted in Israel in the summer of 2011 revealed the public’s dissatisfaction with the state of education in the country. Many teachers joined the demonstrations and expressed their frustration with the existing disconnect in their opinion between decision-makers in the field of education and the workers in the field. These teachers […]
Secondary school science and mathematics teachers are at the heart of the foundation’s work and our efforts are designated to attract talent, nurture their skills and assist these teachers in improving their practice. Therefore, consulting with and engaging teachers in the foundation’s work is a cornerstone of our developing DNA. We believe that gaining the […]
The number of students studying mathematics at the level of five units in a high school throughout Israel is declining. This negative trend is due to various reasons. Students interested in studying math at the five-unit level sometimes have to pass entrance exams and strict admission requirements. Uniform traditional teaching that suits everyone also contributes […]
There is a wide variety of factors influencing the level of performance of science and mathematics students in Israel – including among others, student and parent motivation, access to quality teaching, and incentives provided by government and universities. Achieving sustainable improvement in this area therefore is a complex goal which goes far beyond the capacity […]
Science education in Israel has undergone several transformations along the years, which concentrated on curriculum, teacher training and funding. Most of the significant changes were in the 1960s with the decision to invite the science community to lead the development of curriculum and teaching kits; in the 1980s when world-wide research on how students learn […]
The Trump Master Teacher Award was launched in 2012 in order to recognize and celebrate excellent teaching of mathematics and the sciences. The award aims to identify master teachers of these subjects and expose them to the public as role models for high quality teaching practice in Israel, thus stimulating discussion around the question: ‘What […]
One of the ways in which the Trump Foundation strives to expand the circle of five-unit mathematics and science students is by creating partnerships and system-wide support networks for excellence in teaching and learning at scale. Over the past two years, the foundation has collaborated with five school networks – ORT, Amal, AMIT, Darca and […]
In middle school, students are at the age of self-exploration. They are going through a journey of dreams and struggles, of friendships and competition. In school, they experience a more structured and regulated environment that at times contradicts their interests. Therefore, many children in Israel supplement their formal studies with informal and after school activities, […]
The 2020-2021 school year is a transition period in the foundation’s roadmap for middle school. New excellence classes will open and the new learning material developed by the foundation’s programs will be tested. The new material comprises dozens of innovative tasks, aligned with the top levels of PISA framework. They include a portfolio of assignments […]
Afula is a city in Northern Israel comprised of more than 50,000 residents. In the early years of the State, Afula absorbed waves of Jewish immigration from Iraq and Yamen. During the past decade, real estate prices decreased, attracting families with lower economic capabilities. Today, the city’s education system includes 8,000 students, in eight diverse […]
Established in 2014, “It’s Time for Education” has become the largest digital magazine in Israel specializing in education, with 382,000 unique users in 2019 and 48,000 followers on Facebook. The foundation created the magazine as its digital arm in order to interact with teachers and education proponents around the values of excellence in education and […]
In middle school, students are at the age of self-exploration. They are going through a journey of dreams and struggles, of friendships and competition. In school, they experience a more structured and regulated environment that at times contradicts their interests. Therefore, many children in Israel supplement their formal studies with informal and after school activities, […]
The Israeli public education system is facing enormous challenges due to implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools are struggling to maintain continuity and mitigate the effects of growing gaps. Hectic transitions between lockdowns, quarantine and learning pods make it almost impossible to give students a quality learning experience. Under these challenging circumstances and reduced class […]
Teaching mathematics in middle school focuses on procedural fluency and technique needed for later stages of learning in high school. In recent years, the Ministry of Education upgraded the curriculum in order to smooth the transition between middle school and high school. This change included elevating the levels of mathematical thinking in middle school and […]
PISA research was launched in 2000, bringing the concepts of reasoning and applying knowledge to real-world contexts to the center stage of education. PISA uses the word “literacy” to encapsulate the nature of this skill. It advocates a shift of focus by education systems from a traditional inward-looking perspective that prefers basic, pure and procedural […]
The summer school aims to close learning gaps that were created during school closures, and help ninth grade graduates prepare towards the five-unit track in mathematics. The program will operate over 10 days, three hours a day, integrating between teaching curricular material and studying applied mathematics. Students will be able to participate in a learning […]
The Federation of Local Authorities in Israel, which is a nonprofit umbrella organization of the municipalities in Israel, is proposing to create an online mathematics summer school. The program will be offered in two cohorts, each over five days, three hours a day, for 2,000 students across the country. The educational content will be developed […]
Physics is rarely taught in Israel’s middle schools. The national curriculum for compulsory science classes comprises a “tasting menu” of science topics, including biology, earth sciences, chemistry, physics and technology, combined. The science teacher is typically trained in biology, and the students come from all ability groups in mathematics. As a result, not only is […]