The recommendations of a national panel looking at fixes to the ailing Israeli K-12 education system has the entire country up in arms. The Dovrat Commission has recommended defunding small schools, setting new national academic standards, increasing teacher pay, extending the school day and year, instituting new teacher certification regulations, and, most controversially, firing upwards of 14,000 teachers. Ultra-Orthodox religious groups are opposed, as the recommendations threaten the existence of the state-funded Haredi education system for Orthodox children, and teacher unions are gearing up for national strikes. In the face of such clamor, the Israeli cabinet delayed a vote on accepting the report and re-negotiations may resume shortly. They're definitely needed. While there are useful bureaucratic fixes in the report, it studiously avoids the real question: what are Israeli children learning? The commission's focus is on inputs, soft measures of achievement, and credentials-based certification, not on rigorous standards and assessments. As columnist Batya Medad writes, "The failures in the Israeli educational system are due to faddish curriculum planning and failure-prone teaching methods. . . . We must get beyond the superficial."
"Cabinet pushes off decision on Dovrat commission," Arutz Sheva, January 12, 2005
"Dovrat: Rotten idea," by Batya Medad, Arutz Sheva, January 11, 2005
"Dovrat report spurs salary spat," by Yulie Khromchenko, Ha'aretz, January 10, 2005
"Dovrat report outlines education reform," Jerusalem Post, December 23, 2004