Tech English Challenge

High proficiency English language skills are essential for the 21^st century job market, particularly in high-tech professions that engage with global markets. The study of English is compulsory in Israeli elementary schools and is a required test on the high school matriculation exams. Forty three percent of the twelfth-grade students complete their high school studies with five units in English. However, the overwhelming feedback from universities and high-tech companies is that the graduates’ level of English is far from sufficient.

A recent study by the Aaron Institute revealed that 87% of the employees in tech jobs in Israel graduated high school with five units in English, and almost 20% are native speakers of the language. These gaps between needs and capabilities led the Ministry of Education to align the national curriculum with the International CEFR standards. The CEFR standards (level B2) were reversed engineered to reflect the demand in the job market, including oral and presentation skills. In practice, implementing these standards in schools is still partial.

The public committee appointed by the government in 2022 to prepare a plan to expand the ranks of high-tech employees in Israel brought these issues to the attention of policy makers. Consequently, the new excellence classes in middle school include an additional teaching hour of English, and the Tech-Matriculation Index includes data on the rate of graduates of the advanced track in English, alongside mathematics, physics, and computers. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Education is still vague about how it will customize the content and teaching methods to the specific needs of excellence class students.

To catalyze the development of quality curriculum and pedagogy, we approached the 8200 Alumni Association. Initially, we asked them to dive deep into the needs of high-tech companies and learn what skill aspects of the language are required. They also analyzed the content of the intended curriculum and the teaching and learning in schools, as well as the supply and quality of teachers and teaching. They found big classes, many untrained teachers and a growing shortage of them, a strong bias towards teaching grammar, and reluctance to engage in using the language as a communication tool.

Now, the 8200 Alumni Association is proposing to catalyze the development of solutions to this growing need. They suggest using their Challenge methodology, in which they call upon technology startups to focus their efforts and propose high level content platforms for students and teachers. The Challenge methodology was initially used by 8200 in a joint project with the foundation to develop a personalized learning platform for five-unit mathematics. Among the 207 startups which answered the call, seven were chosen to test their solutions in hundreds of schools. Recently the Association concluded a second Challenge for Social Emotional Learning together with Yad Hanadiv (“the Rotschild Foundation”) and others.

The Tech English Challenge they are now proposing will seek AI-based solutions for personalized self-learning of English skills required in tech jobs and high-tech companies. The target audience will be students in excellence classes, who will cover skills of writing, reading, speaking, and presenting in English. The challenge will include independent learning by students, as well as assisting teachers to customize their teaching to the individual needs of their students. The plan is to choose 10 startups and to mentor them in the development and pilot testing stages in 50 schools.

The selection and coaching process will be guided by an advisory committee of experts, with the intention of choosing a winning solution that will implement its platform in 150 additional excellence classes. The goal of this program is to catalyze interest and movement in schools and the wider ecosystem of policy makers and developers.

We recommend a grant for this innovative initiative to ignite such a movement. Although English language is not our primary area of expertise, we acknowledge its importance and relevance to our overall effort. Therefore, we expect the Association to raise most of the funding from other sources and have already helped by introducing it to our colleagues at the Azrieli, Steinhardt, and Maimonides Foundations.

* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 526