Reineh will Expand the Rate of Excellence Class Graduates

Reineh is an Arab local council in northern Israel (located between Nazareth and Kfar Kanna) with some 19,200 residents of generally low socioeconomic status. 1,186 students attend the council’s two middle and two high schools, including 644 at middle school. There is one excellence class, which 19 (10%) ninth grade students attend. In 2020, 12.6% of the students completed matriculation in five-unit mathematics. This points to an untapped potential of students who can take part in and graduate from the five-unit track.

Therefore, the council now wishes to expand the pipeline of excellence in middle school, in order to provide more students with the opportunity to learn at high levels. They are planning to elevate the level in the existing excellence class and in addition, open two more excellence classes in 8th and 9th grades, where students will study high order mathematics content and its applications in science. Reineh will provide each of these new classes with four additional weekly teaching hours.

Five mathematics and two science teachers will participate in professional development. They will attend state-level teacher communities organized by the developers of the learning material. In the communities, they will become familiar with teaching practices that promote high-level mathematical thinking skills aligned with the PISA excellence levels. In addition, an academic organization will provide the mathematics teachers with instructional coaching every two weeks to assist them when implementing the content in their classrooms.

Two department heads will attend a state-level professional learning community, and receive instructional coaching to help them guide their mathematics team in implementation of the content. A program coordinator will also organize seminars and workshops for the education staff in the municipality and work with the teachers. It is the council’s goal that by 2025, 69 (36%) ninth grade students will graduate an excellence class.

* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 469