Grant amount
NIS 385,000
Study to Learn the Five-Units Mathematics Reform as a Model for Future Reforms in Education and Public Services
The Israel Democracy Institute will offer insights and recommendations for future reforms
The Israel Democracy Institute will offer insights and recommendations for future reforms
In 2012, a sharp decline over less than a decade in the number of high school graduates majoring in mathematics and the sciences, indicated an emerging problem for Israel’s education and future. With less than 10% of students ranked “high achievers”, the danger of a drying pipeline of talent has turned the public eye towards this issue. Since then, through a collaborative effort of policy, research and practice, the negative trend changed course. A composition of professional capabilities, public agreement, and leadership, ignited a new sense of momentum. With dozens of organizations, government, industry and the social sector, the number of five-unit graduates has now doubled.
Such a remarkable system shift is unusual, and it aroused interest of leaders and professionals in other areas of education and the public sector. They are asking to learn how this shift happened, what were its ingredients, who did what, what were the significant steps, which hurdles appeared along the way and how were they confronted. The foundation is an address for such frequent questions, and so far we have tried to share our thoughts with many who asked us, through meetings and conversations. We even published a book of case studies, documenting the effort from several angles, however it required further study.
Now, the Israel Democracy Institute’s (IDI) proposes to take the issue a step forward. As part of a new research program at IDI, they wish to learn from successful reforms in Israel’s public services and to offer insights and recommendations for future reforms. They want the five-unit reform to be the first case study to be learned, and hired Dalit Stauber to lead this study. Stauber, former Director General of the Ministry of Education, and member of the foundation’s Advisory Council, will study past education reforms, identify patterns and criteria, and use them to deep dive into the five-unit endeavor.
Through interviews with leaders of past reforms and participants in the five-unit effort, the study aims to design a model for possible successful reforms. The study will be guided by a steering committee, which will include Anat Gofen and Adam Nir of the Hebrew University; Gila Ben-Har, former CEO of the Centre for Educational Technology and Ron Tzur, former head of the Civil Service Commission. The findings will be prepared in the form of a printed and a digital report, and will be presented at the “Caesarea Economic Policy Planning Forum” on Economy and Society to the professional community and the general public.