Over the past six years, the Trump Foundation has developed a portfolio of programs to advance its goal to help expand the circle of excellence in mathematics and science studies in high schools. The programs are designed in line with a strategic roadmap, harnessing talent into teaching, nurturing clinical teaching expertise and supporting high quality teaching at scale. While we are very focused on the results and on the impact of our programs, we are also aware of the knowledge, the knowhow and the lessons that can be derived from this experience.
This kind of information, which stems from practice, is highly valuable to the professional community. It provides insight and advice to new programs entering the field and to veteran programs to overcome difficulties. It is also important to the foundation’s staff in engaging with our partners, while facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration. As we enter new areas of work, such as junior high schools and the social periphery, a deeper landscaping and understanding of the field is also vital.
Therefore, and as part of our effort to produce and disseminate knowledge, we are proposing to commission in the coming year a series of cases and field studies, around the following questions:
- What is the reality facing the alumni of our teacher training programs in schools? In the coming years, 700 graduates of teacher residency programs will be entering the classrooms. The first cohorts have already reported a need of a stronger support system. The study will therefore identify the professional, administrative and emotional needs of graduates, in order to ascertain the type of support required. It will rely on deep interviews with alumni, dropouts, veteran teachers and school principals and the findings will be presented to the programs as well as to the Education Ministry.
- What are unique characteristics of schools in the social periphery? As we prepare to increase our work in social periphery schools, we need to have a closer concept of their unique needs and opportunities in order to promote and preserve excellence in mathematics. A series of in-depth interviews will be held with principals, educational counselors, and mathematics teachers in six selected periphery schools, as well as in two schools at the center, for comparison. The report will allow us to define next steps, while the findings will be presented to our partners at the regional, municipal and school levels.
- Why is mathematics and science teaching in Arab schools different from Jewish schools? Past research has revealed that mathematics and science teaching in Arabic speaking schools is distinct from Hebrew speaking schools in Israel. For example, female students outperform male students, there is a great tendency towards Chemistry studies, and there is no correlation between very low performance in PISA tests and medium performance in the matriculations. The study will look into classroom pedagogy and school culture and will be performed by an Arab mathematics teacher. He or she will conduct a series of in-depth interviews with peers as well as with school principals in order to explain these differences.
- What are the inconsistencies between Junior High and High School mathematics and science study? Our work with both high school and junior high schools reveals a lack of communication when it comes to preparing students for advanced study of mathematics and the sciences. Sometimes there are many students in the top class in ninth grade, but only a few of them make it to the 5-unit class in tenth grade. Although in many cases teachers share the same campus, they use different curricula and hold separate meetings, and as a result, their definitions and measures for what constitutes excellence and success are different. The study will ask a small group of mathematics and physics teachers to brainstorm, explore these issues and offer insights and recommendations.
- What are the challenges for using diagnostic assignments in class? Adapting teaching to the individual needs of each student lies at the core of clinical teaching. As such, the foundation has supported the development and pilot implementation of diagnostic assignments to allow teachers to ascertain student difficulties, monitor progress and respond in real time. However, the feedback from teachers is that there are difficulties with integration. The study will dive into the practice of using diagnostic assignments in classes, asking teachers for feedback and critique, documenting different operating models and exploring if and how would it be possible to use them at scale.
- How can professional learning communities be used successfully in schools? The foundation has helped to seed regional communities of teachers, which are by now very popular among teachers and attract interest and funding from both government and local authorities. We are now looking into the possibility of implementing this model on a school level as well. The study will conduct school visits and interview mathematics and science teaching teams to try to explore strengths and weaknesses, and to identify the required conditions in which school-based communities are likely to thrive.
Each report will constitute 15-25 pages and will be completed over the course of one year. Final reports in the form of articles, blogs and short films will be published and disseminated to the public and among our partners. In certain cases, we will hold designated workshops to discuss the findings in depth.
* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 265
