Complete Coverage

Down in Rankings, Israel Seeks Changes in Education

By Lisa Goldstein

Focus On: World Learning Alarmed by declining student achievement compared with other nations, advocates from within and outside the education establishment, as well as the Arab constituency, are calling for sweeping changes to Israel's entire system of schooling.

The independent Aleh Commission has presented the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and the Ministry of Education with a redesign of the system that includes several controversial changes. The commission's report is also replete with features that resonate in the United States: changing how teachers are trained, the way schools receive funding, and what students learn.

"When we look at the state of achievement, we are all very worried," said Dan Ben-David, an economist at Tel Aviv University and a member of the Aleh Commission, a volunteer group made up of professionals unaffiliated with the country's precollegiate education system. "One of the most important things for growth in economy is education. We are worried about the caliber of people we have been producing from our education system and what it might...