Learning Together
Programs for Youth At-Risk
and Dropout Prevention

Two of the most pervasive problems faced by educators in the United States are how to insure that "at-risk" youth receive an education that will allow them to overcome the circumstances that have placed them in danger and that students stay in school to complete their programs. In Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports that 12 percent of 15-16 year-old Jewish youth and 43 percent of 15-16 non-Jewish (Muslim, Christian and Druze) youth are outside the framework of the formal educational system and are not participating in the normative adolescent experiences of school or work environments. This situation tends to affect their ability to internalize basic social values and causes them to become alienated from society. Over time, social isolation and alienation can lead to a life of aimlessness and delinquency. The consequences of dropping out of school are not unlike those found in the United States.

The Ministry of Education's Social and Youth Division created the Youth Advancement Service to deal with these social problems — its mandate being to develop and expand socioeducational treatment modalities for youth at risk and/or youth who dropped out of the formal education system. A number of programs that tackle the at-risk and dropout populations are listed below, not all of which are Ministry of Education supported. Programs range from a highly structured educative and rehabilitative experience provided year-round at a residential campus to projects emphasizing individualized programming, work experience and pursuit of academic and vocational courses. The target populations range from kindergartners through high school. Two programs — Instrumental Enrichment (IE) and Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) — are research-based programs that are already available in the United States.

ORT-Israel (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) operates a network of 125 educational institutions with approximately 80,000 students ranging in age from 13 to over 60 and with a staff of teachers, management and administrators numbering about 7,000. Approximately 25 percent of ORT's student body falls into the category of socially, economically or emotionally deprived in need of special attention to their learning needs. ORT has researched, developed and implemented several programs dealing with this population.

Youth Advancement Service

Contact:

Noach Greenbaum
Division of Social and Youth Education
Ministry of Education and Culture
1 Devora Hanevia Street
Jerusalem 91191, Israel
Tel. (02) 293135-6, Fax. (02) 293886

Objectives:

To develop trust and meaningful relationships with this youth population to integrate them into normative activities of education, study, work and cultural activities within the community and society.

To help each young person develop and actualize their innate potential so they may help themselves for their own benefit and for the benefit of society.

To prevent such youth from social isolation and alienation from their community and from society.

Target Population:

Youths 14-18 who are defined as "at-risk." This includes those who are not studying or working in any formal structure; working youth without a supporting educational-treatment system; youth who are enrolled in various apprentice frameworks and work groups; and youth in danger of becoming involved in overt or covert criminal activity.

Program and Activities:

Local Community Treatment Programs for youth at risk include:

— Creation of Youth Advancement Service bureaus at the local community level.

— Remedial Educational Services for the completion of elementary school education for youth at risk (HILA).

— Information centers, youth counseling services, etc.

Regional and National Treatment Programs for youth at risk include:

— Youth villages (MANOF, KEDMA, YEHOSHUA Center).

— Work groups in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and the Israel Defense Forces.

— Camps, seminars and specialized courses of the Ministry of Education (in cooperation with appropriate agencies).

The basic principle is one of "reaching out" — not waiting for youth to come to the agency but to send workers to make contact with the children in their own environment without any preconditions. Treatment services are offered at individual, group and community levels. Recognizing the complexities of the problem, services cover a wide variety of treatment technologies that are tailored to the unique needs of each potential client.

Major programs developed and operated under the auspices of the Youth Advancement Service include:

— Programs that provide services to youth at risk who are not studying in a formal educational framework under the "Law for Free Education."

— Programs that prepare youth at risk for the military draft process and military service in the Israel Defense Forces.

— "Life Without Drugs" — a program for the prevention and reduction in the use of drugs and alcohol among disengaged youth.

— "Shelach" — a program of field trips to learn about nature and historical sites.

— Development of personal skills and personal excellence within a resident camp setting.

— "Mafneh" and "Etgar" — use of computer-based programs for the enhancement of educational and treatment objectives.

— Financial grants to aid individuals in need.

Programs for the Treatment Staff members include:

— Computer programs to identify potential and actual client populations.

— Courses and training in aspects of socio-educational treatment and professional enrichment seminars.

— Research and development think tanks.

— Publication of relevant papers about the field of youth at risk.

HILA

Contact:

Chaim Ben-Ami
Director General, ORT Israel
39 Sderot David Hamelech
P.O. Box 16087
Tel Aviv 61160, Israel
Tel. (03) 520 3222, Fax. (03) 523 4827

Objective: To help boys and girls who have dropped out of school before eighth grade and are on the streets and in danger receive a basic education.

Target Population:

Students who would be in grades 8-10.

Program and Activities:

The HILA program is designed to, at least, pass on the basic tools of learning — reading, writing and basic math to students who have dropped out of school. Some students are brought to the level where they can be integrated into a regular school program. Others can and do reach the level where they can take a technicians course. Currently 2,500 students in 60 different locations are involved in this program, studying and learning on essentially a one-to-one basis.

Each study program is based on at least two meetings weekly during the afternoon so that the threat of competition that exists in the regular school framework is eliminated. Non-standard study material is used, designed to suit the particular student. There is flexibility regarding time, place and subjects studied as well as the use of innovative instructional methods. The instruction can take place in the home of the teacher or of the student or in an educational facility. Emphasis is placed on the student-teacher relationship — both have to agree on the responsibility students must take for their own achievement. Computers are used to give students an appropriate study program according to their ability, motivation and personality.

ORT Educational Centers

Contact:

Chaim Ben-Ami
Director General, ORT Israel
39 Sderot David Hamelech
P.O. Box 16087
Tel Aviv 61160, Israel
Tel. (03) 520 3222, Fax. (03) 523 4827

Objective:

To enhance student morale and enable them to experience a sense of achievement.

Target Population:

Pre-eighth grade drop-outs through low- to middle-level achievers in junior and senior high schools.

Program and Activities:

ORT has established Educational Centers at five sites in addition to special sections in each of its comprehensive schools, most of which are in development towns. Students study in small groups (never more than 24 children in any one class). Upgrading of achievement is provided in reading, writing and all the compulsory subjects (Hebrew, math, English, Bible) using innovative methods and computer programs. Students can acquire marketable skills such as auto mechanics, hairdressing, fashion, sign writing, window dressing, stain glass work, metal engraving, carpentry and electricity.

The Mifne Environment (TME)

Contact:

Moshe Sharir
JDC Israel/Education and Regional Projects Division
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc.
P.O. Box 3489, Jerusalem 91034, Israel
Tel. (02) 557167, Fax. (02) 661244

Objective:

To help students avoid dropping out of school and to provide educational opportunities for those who do.

Target Population:

Teenagers at risk of dropping out of school.

Program and Activities:

The Mifne Environment was launched in 1987 as an intervention project for high school dropouts in Jerusalem, students whose needs are not met by the regular school system. Mifne is the Hebrew term for "turnabout" and reflects the goal of generating true and lasting changes in the lives of the program participants.

The principles underlying TME include:

— A multi-dimensional program that relates to four dimensions of the rehabilitation process: cognitive, scholastic, emotional and social.

— A team approach in which teachers bring expertise from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, and are personally responsible for the placement of graduates in suitable study or work at the end of the program.

— Individual learning programs focusing on students' strengths, continuous monitoring of student progress, making adjustments as needed to meet the changing needs and abilities of each student.

— Innovative learning materials using advanced computer technologies that emphasize the development of cognitive skills.

— A prestigious learning environment with respect to both the physical setting and advanced information technologies aimed at attracting youth and encouraging them to study.

TME is a complete educational structure that includes individual activities called "Mifne Learning Units," each of which consists of a preparatory activity, a core computer-based activity and a summary activity. The computer-based activities are based on fictional representations of everyday problems with the student asked to contend with the situation while following certain rules and constraints. The computer provides continual graphic and textual feedback.

The Mifne Learning Units have three major objectives: To foster cognitive skills, develop and practice basic learning skills, and expand the student's world of concepts; to familiarize the student with an up-to-date computer environment and to provide the tutor with tools for analysis and diagnosis of the student's cognitive, social and emotional status.

Three units — Room for Two, Target: Job; and Motorcycle Shop have been translated and adapted for use in the United States and are being field tested in conjunction with the Federation Employment and Guidance Service in New York.

The Mifne Environment and Learning Units are or have been used with a variety of projects: high school dropouts (Mifne Jerusalem Project), teenagers at risk of dropping out (the Ten Plus Project), disadvantaged teenage girls (the Mishlav Jaffa Project), hard core delinquent girls (the Magen Project), underachieving junior and senior high school students (the Mifne Environment in Beer Sheva High Schools), and Arab and Druze high school dropouts. In addition, the learning units and some aspects of The Mifne Environment have been used with psychologically disturbed adolescents (the Dorban Project), to acculturate Ethiopian immigrants, and to provide educational enrichment for gifted children in remote areas of Israel. Since 1987, more than 10,000 youth at-risk have used the Mifne learning materials.

Some 400 students have studied at Mifne Jerusalem during its first six years. Data collected for each group one year after graduation indicates that 30 percent of the students returned to full-time studies, 39 percent entered vocational training programs and 18 percent found full-time employment.

Instrumental Enrichment Program

Contact:

Prof. Reuven Feuerstein
International Center for the Enhancement of
Learning Potential
47 Narkis Street
P.O. Box 7755
Jerusalem 91077
Tel. (02) 391951, Fax. (02) 619815

Objective:

To improve the level of cognitive functioning and enhance learning motivation of individuals, particularly those who have demonstrated deficient behaviors.

Target Population:

Originally designed for youngsters in need of remediation of deficient cognitive functions (i.e., educationally or developmentally retarded), the program has been expanded to include blind individuals, youngsters with Down Syndrome and a variety of others requiring social, vocational and rehabilitation services. In Israel, the IE program is used with socially disadvantaged adolescents in Youth Aliyah schools; new immigrants from Ethiopia; at-risk high school students; young adults in vocational training courses and other individuals who can profit from remediation of deficient cognitive functioning.

Program and Activities:

Instrumental Enrichment consists of more than 500 pages of paper-and-pencil exercises, divided into 15 "instruments." Each instrument focuses on a specific cognitive deficiency, but addresses itself to the acquisition of other prerequisites of learning as well — e.g., spatial and time relations, comparisons and classification, analytic perception, syllogisms, etc. Initial teacher training in IE requires 40 hours, with subsequent in-service training for a total of 120 hours. The time and the context for student involvement in the Instrumental Enrichment exercises varies considerably with the individuals.

Instrumental Enrichment has been translated into all major European and Asian languages and is currently used in more than 30 countries. In the United States, it has been used extensively with educationally disadvantaged populations.

Originally designed for youngsters who were educationally retarded, the program has been successfully adapted and employed with other groups who could profit from mediated learning experiences. For example, Instrumental Enrichment has been translated recently into Hebrew and Arabic Braille, providing persons who are legally blind or visually impaired with opportunities to enhance their cognitive functioning. Another recent development has been training youngsters with Down Syndrome in the care of the elderly and the handicapped, enabling them to work as care givers in hospitals and day care centers as well as homes for the aged and handicapped.

Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD)

Contact:

Prof. Reuven Feuerstein
International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential
47 Narkis Street
P.O. Box 7755
Jerusalem 91077
Tel. (02) 391951, Fax. (02) 619815

Objective:

To provide for dynamic cognitive assessment as an alternative to the conventional intelligence tests.

Target Population:

LPAD has been widely used with educationally deprived and socially disadvantaged children, adolescents and adults; new immigrants and "cultural minorities"; individuals; special education school students in need of integration into the regular school framework. In the United States, dynamic assessment has been advocated for gifted individuals as well.

Program and Activities:

The Learning Potential Assessment Device consists of a series of tests designed to assess the learning potential of the individual rather than their manifest level of functioning. It represents a dynamic approach to judging learning potential in contrast to the static approach of conventional testing. The LPAD model has exerted a considerable influence on the current trend toward process-oriented rather than product assessment procedures.

GILAT — Cultivating Intelligence
Among Infants in “At Risk” Groups

Contact:

Shlomith Lustig
7 Halamed Hey Street
Jerusalem 93661, Israel
Tel. (02) 630944, Fax. (02) 586747

Objective:

To promote normal growth in children from the most extremely culturally deprived families, and to prepare such children for mainstream education.

Target Population:

Children considered to be at high environmental risk because their mothers are unable to benefit from any counseling through available enrichment programs.

Program and Activities:

The program originated from observations by a psychologist that certain children were entering school at such a level of severe disadvantage that they were inevitably channeled into special education programs and sometimes even diagnosed as mentally retarded. Some of these children even appeared to have suffered mental deterioration early in life. A program of early intervention seemed to have more possibility for success than later efforts.

GILAT presently serves about 50 children in need of intervention in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh and Nesher. Children are refereed to the program by Mother and Child health clinics, health centers or social service agencies. The process of accepting a child involves an assessment of the extent of the risk and whether other enrichment programs might be sufficient to meet a given child's need.

The theoretical basis of the project is its emphasis on the inner activity of the child him/herself, the process that insures the development of cognitive mechanisms, a process that is found in the normally nurturing family. To insure active involvement, the child determines the timing, content and rate of activities. This approach helps establish the basis for later motivation for learning.

Once the child has been referred to and accepted into the program, a process begins for establishing contact with the family and the child. The teacher visits the infant's or toddler's home daily, bringing along a bag of toys. The teacher works with the child for one hour a day, six days a week. The interaction is one of unstructured speech and play activities appropriate to the child's level. It is the child's motivation and curiosity and interest that are the basis of the intervention, often using household items and relating to the child's primary experiences such as feeding or diaper change. The child may be taken to such places as a local park, zoo, pool or museum. When the child is older and attending kindergarten, the teacher will meet with them two or three times a week during afternoons.

GILAT functions through a combination of professionals and paraprofessional volunteers. Apart from the senior staff, the professionals are psychologists or social workers that deal with difficult cases too complicated for other teachers of infants to cope with.

The paraprofessionals are recruited from young women doing national service in lieu of regular army service. They are trained and supervised to work as teachers for GILAT children. National service paraprofessionals are trained in an intensive course of several weeks. Their training includes study of the physical and psychological developmental processes of infants and young children; familiarization with other early childhood programs in the community; visits to child-care agencies; and first-hand experience in physical handling of young children.

Staff members are supervised either individually or in a group, at least once a week in the case of the paraprofessionals. The supervisor maintains contact with the family and children. Supervision of the professional staff includes their training to fulfill supervisory roles in their third year and even to independently run the program in certain areas.

The program functions under the auspices of the Ministry of Education within its Welfare Projects Department since the children are of pre-school age. To generate interest and funding, a public association (amuta) was formed in 1984 with members drawn from the ranks of psychologists, social workers, educators and pediatricians as well as the general public.

Readiness for the First Grade

Contact:

Gad Abecassis
Education and Welfare Services Division
Ministry of Education and Culture
2 Devora Hanevia Street
Jerusalem 91191, Israel
Tel. (02) 293770, Fax. (02) 293775

Objective:

To provide intense preparation for school during the transitional period between the compulsory kindergarten (preschool) and the first grade.

Target Population:

Children who have been diagnosed by the psychological service as functioning on the marginal level in the cognitive, emotional and motor areas, children who have been recommended by the psychological service to spend an additional year in kindergarten but whose parents object and children recommended by the psychological service to attend first grade but who meet with difficulty. In addition, children who have not been diagnosed by the psychological service but whose preschool teachers suggest a summer program prior to entering first grade.

Program and Activities:

The program involves a three-week summer day camp that operates parallel to the municipality's summer day camps. Each group will include 14-16 children who qualify, but will not include children with severe behavior disturbances or those who need special education.

The program is based on a principle of "suspense and relaxation" — activities are sequenced so that an activity that demands concentration and stress is followed by a more relaxing activity. The activities range from multisensual thinking games to simple textbooks, to watching a children's program on TV or listening to a story.

Each group will be taught by a qualified preschool teacher with training for primary classes, or a special education preschool teacher with seniority, or a primary school teacher with specialization for special education-corrective teaching. The teacher will be assisted by a preschool teacher's aide.

Parental involvement is viewed as having considerable importance. In addition to a personal conversation with the chidden's parents prior to the day camp, three additional parent-teacher meetings will be held in the evenings.

YACHAD — Children Tutoring Children in Reading

Contact:

Dr. Dan Davis and Aviva Eisen
NCJW Research Institute
School of Education
Hebrew University Mt. Scopus Campus
Jerusalem 91905, Israel
Tel. (02) 882208, Fax. (02) 322545

Objective:

To increase the motivation to read and the reading ability of the tutees.

To increase reading pleasure, curiosity in reading, time spent in reading and to nurture reading as a habit and use of the library on a regular basis.

To improve the social skills, self-confidence and motivation of the tutors involved.

To provide children with effective role who are often able to communicate with and support children who have normally experienced less success in the classroom.

Target Population:

Tutees are second graders who are slow readers and tutors are fifth, sixth and seventh grade children.

Program and Activities:

The rationale for tutoring is based on the fact that it provides an opportunity for individualizing instruction in a setting where the tutee enjoys the full attention of the tutor. In 1993-4, 11,000 students in 386 schools participated in YACHAD.

In designing and implementing the YACHAD program, the planners dealt with a number of difficulties often experienced in children tutoring children activities such as excessively high expectations of the tutors, tendencies to over-correct tutees and reluctance to praise their tutee's successes. Planning involved more than simply placing a tutor with a tutee — a strong guidance and support structure was designed.

The materials consist of a 126-page Tutee's Workbook, a 218-page Tutor's Guide and some 100 pages of handouts for the school coordinators and program supervisors.

Structured activities were developed and graded so the tutees would enjoy many positive reading experiences. The texts and the activities were developed or chosen on the basis of high interest value. They are graded so tutees succeed 80-90 percent of the time. Tutors are trained to keep the tutee activities interesting and to praise success and self-correction. Reading outside the tutoring framework is encouraged and supported at home and in the library. Tutors are also encouraged to develop their own reading-related games to be used in addition to the program-structured activities.

The program includes 28 tutorial meetings during the school hours, usually twice a week. In addition, tutors meet once a week to plan the sessions for the coming week. There are up to six activities that take about 35 minutes. After these activities are completed, the tutees return to their classrooms. Meanwhile, the coordinator and tutors spend 15 minutes discussing what went well and what difficulties were encountered during the session.

During the first 20 meetings, the tutor: engages the tutee in a short conversations as a warm-up activity; reads aloud from a set of selected books; has the tutee read aloud from the workbook, praising, encouraging and correcting the tutee following a set procedure; asks questions designed to focus attention on the significance of the passage, prompting and leading the tutee to meaningful interpretations of the text; engages the tutee in a reading-related activity and involves the tutee in a game that was selected or developed by the tutor.

During meetings 21 to 30, the tutor and the tutee take turns reading from a book that is selected by the coordinator according to difficulty level. Each book is accompanied by a set of instructions and questions. The tutor and tutee read until a "critical" point when the tutee is asked to take the book home to find out what happens. At the next session, the book is discussed following instructions provided by the tutor.

Meetings 31 to 38 take place either after or during school hours at the local library and last for about one hour. Although the coordinator is present, the initiative is in the hands of the children who select books for themselves that are checked out for home reading. At the following meeting they discuss their respective books and repeat the process. Guidance is provided in the book selection process.

An important side-effect of the tutoring activities is their influence on the tutors, who have been found to experience cognitive, personal and social growth as an outcome of volunteering, helping and teaching.

The YACHAD staff has worked out a process in which principals sign a "contract" regarding the principles, procedures and commitments to be followed, including the selection of the coordinator, the selection and training of the tutors and the selection of the tutees. Parent approval is needed for children to participate. Tutors must affirm that they will keep up with the classwork they miss while they are tutoring.

Workshops are held at the start of the school year for new (two for five to six hours) and veteran (one for four hours) school coordinators.

A newer program based on the success of YACHAD is YACHAD SCIENCE which involves outstanding sixth grade students tutoring average third graders to become interested in science. Begun in 1992-3 in eight schools with 320 students, YACHAD SCIENCE expanded to 16 schools in 1993-4 with a doubled enrollment.

The YACHAD SCIENCE tutoring program is aimed at schools with many disadvantaged children, endeavoring to increase curiosity and scientific thinking on the part of both tutors and tutees. The program is to be implemented in schools using YACHAD reading and will include tutees in that program. Science tutoring is viewed as a continuation of the tutoring in reading and, as a result, it also includes the reading of informative texts.

A tutoring program for new immigrants is in the early stages of development. Its purpose is to improve the communication skills and social integration of children in grades one to three. Tutors are fifth and sixth graders. This program was initially field tested in two Jerusalem schools with new immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia and is being further developed.

The American Israeli-Cooperative Enterprise introduced YACHAD to educators in North Carolina in 1994. Guilford County, the third largest school district in the state, is now working with Hebrew University to adapt the program for use in the United States.

Preparatory Classes for 6-7-8th Grade

Contact:

Gad Abecassis
Education and Welfare Services Division
Ministry of Education and Culture
2 Devora Hanevia Street
Jerusalem 91191, Israel

Tel. (02) 293770, Fax. (02) 293775

Objective:

To prepare disadvantaged students from low-income areas who have shown poor academic achievement for absorption into the junior high or high school, particularly in the matriculation routes.

Target Population:

Disadvantaged students from low income areas — sixth graders who are to move to junior high school and eighth graders moving to a four-year secondary schools.

Program and Activities:

The program is operated by the absorbing secondary school. Students attend two afternoons a week and sometimes an intense three-week summer program. The subjects taught include English, mathematics, written expression plus general enrichment. Students are integrated in the social activities of the secondary school. Secondary school students tutor the project's students once a week.

This program provides the basis for the "MAHAR" Program to the University described below.

“MAHAR” to the University and "MALBAM" — Transition to Modular Matriculation

Contact:

Gad Abecassis
Education and Welfare Services Division
Ministry of Education and Culture
2 Devora Hanevia Street
Jerusalem 91191, Israel
Tel. (02) 293770, Fax. (02) 293775

Objective:

To prepare students for the university and for an academic course of study; help them cope successfully with secondary education and strengthen their motivation for studying academic subjects.

Target Population:

Students in grades 6-9 from disadvantaged populations who have exhibited poor performance, individuals who are perceived as underachievers in terms of their ability.

Program and Activities:

The focus of the intervention is on the cognitive, social and emotional aspects of development. In the cognitive realm, the basic subjects (mathematics, English and Hebrew) will be enriched. In the social realm, group interactions will be aimed toward providing mutual support. In the emotional realm, an attempt will be made to open a dialogue between the teacher's and the student's inner and external worlds.

A battery of diagnostic tools will be administered, including an abstract verbal thinking test, a self-image inventory, an anxiety scale, an adjustment test and a standardized achievement test. Teachers nominate students whom they think are underachieving.

In every settlement town, two centers — one at a state school and the other at the religious school — will be established in the secondary schools of that settlement. A coordinator will be appointed for each center. Experienced teachers who have expertise in their subject area, will be provided with in-service workshop training as well extension courses — the latter to deal with learner-learning principles. Tutor-mentorships will be arranged for high school students to work with student participants. Counselors will be provided.

Student groups will be limited to no more than 20 students; each group will meet in the afternoons, twice weekly for three hours for a six month period.

The program will include: written and oral expression (22 hours), English (22 hours), mathematics (22 hours), enrichment stressing social elements (12 hours), fostering thinking modes (24 hours) and improving learning processes (12 hours).

A related program for essentially the same target population and with similar goals is titled MALBAM — Transition to Modular Matriculation. The certificates given to many students in the comprehensive schools does not serve them well after graduating from high school. The MALBAM Project is aimed at helping students in educational centers and directional classes to study in an open and modular route.

Many students at the educational center and at the comprehensive school directional classes suffer educational and environmental deficiencies, having experienced previous failures in different educational frameworks. Many in the target population have come from "broken homes" and have been exposed to "violent or delinquent environments." Their behavior patterns often include low self-images, deficient and inadequate learning habits, violent behavior and discipline problems, irregular school attendance, low motivation for studying and poor academic achievement.

Students will be identified by teachers and principals in educational centers, youth centers and in directional classes in comprehensive schools. The curriculum will include subjects mandatory for matriculation in the academic and technology routes. The focus will be on improving students' learning habits and behaviors, motivation, study skills and self-images. Learning will be modular and in reduced study units to be added to the customary study units.

The “Second Chance” Program

Contact:

Gad Abecassis
Education and Welfare Services Division
Ministry of Education and Culture
2 Devora Hanevia Street
Jerusalem 91191, Israel
Tel. (02) 293770, Fax. (02) 293775

Objective:

To provide an additional opportunity for high school graduates from disadvantaged homes who had failed some of their bagrut (matriculation examinations) at the completion of the twelfth grade or who were not given access to these examinations in the first place because they were deemed unable to pass.

Target Population:

High school graduates of disadvantaged origins who had failed or had not been given access to matriculation examinations.

Program and Activities:

Students who are selected for the Second Chance Program are given an opportunity to continue their studies after completing the twelfth grade for an additional period of four months in a highly intensive learning environment. Their induction into military service is deferred until completion of this study course.

The assumption underlying the program is that students who have passed most of their matriculation exams at the end of the twelfth grade and lack passing grades in only two or three subjects, will be able to pass the exams they failed if provided with the necessary opportunities and conditions that were missing during the "first chance."

Students study in local, regional or national study centers — the national centers include residential facilities. Study is intensive and concentrated, with a sharp increase in the number of lessons. The study groups are smaller than the classes the students have experienced previously. The teachers are generally highly proficient in preparing students for exams, have had considerable teaching experience with low-functioning students and have had no previous contact with these particular students.

Because of the nature of the program, the students are in groups that do not include prior classmates. Consequently, the student is able to benefit from a fresh start with respect to relations with the study group/class since neither the fellow students nor the new teachers are aware of the student's "failure" or past.

Thus the conditions of the program that encourage learning and increase the motivation of students include: (a) Focusing on a limited number of subjects (one to three) rather than the large number usually studied in high school; (b) providing for up to 15 weekly sessions per subject as compared to the five or six weekly lessons in high school; (c) limiting the study period to a fixed period of four months; (d) enabling the structuring of a new reference group that facilitates developing a new image; (e) providing new, skilled teachers who are unacquainted with prior failures of the student; and (f) deferring military service for four months. The deferment of induction into the military is sometimes a problem since the student's friends have already been inducted.

The program was originated in 1977 with 103 students. Currently some 916 students are enrolled in 23 study centers, including the four residential centers. A study of the Second Chance Program found that most of the students came from large families of Asian or African origin, ones in which parents had low levels of schooling (10 or fewer years), suggesting the continuing need for the project. The residential course is more expensive than that at the non-residential centers but the results indicate more positive examination results and a higher level of student satisfaction. Moreover, students in residential centers report that this condition is the most important element for success.

Many students report that "Second Chance" has raised their aspirations for higher and continuing education. The rate of acceptance to universities is much lower, however, among this population than the national average indicating that additional ways need to be found for increasing their entry.

A study suggests that a number of the factors that contribute to the success of Second Chance students can be adopted by the regular high school system, thus increasing the success rate at that point and reducing the need for a Second Chance.

I Can Achieve Project

Contact:

Dr. Avigail Yinon
School of Education
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
Tel. (03) 5318439, Fax. (03) 5353319

Objective:

To create a learning environment that promotes high achievement expectation of students, teachers and parents and provides the tools to fulfill these expectations.

Target Population:

The program's models are focused on three populations: elementary school (grades 1-6), junior high school and high school.

Program and Activities:

The I Can Achieve Project is still in the proposal stage. It is based on the view that self-perceptions, attitudes and beliefs regarding knowledge and school performance are rooted in the socialization process and environmental influence and includes work not only with students but also with their teachers, parents and school administrators.

Teachers will receive two days (16 hours) of training that aims at shaping their knowledge and attitudes regarding the forces and factors that influence expectations on educational achievement, They will then be provided ongoing guidance and intervention in biweekly two-hour sessions throughout the year. Teachers will be taught how to work with fifth and sixth grade pupils to equip them for the transition to junior high school, raising their perceived self-efficacy in learning and social life, changing their attitudes toward knowledge and giving them tools to deal with social and learning difficulties and eventual transition to high school. Parents will receive counseling on how to strengthen their children's perceived self-efficacy in learning through more effective parenting.

Separate training will be provided for teachers and parents of junior high and of senior high school pupils. At each level, the maturity of children and the context of the learning environment will affect the nature of the intervention. At the high school level, for example, the project coordinator, school psychologist and homeroom teacher will work with the students to equip them with the tools for handling their learning, social and emotional difficulties.

Matriculation Track (MT) Classes

Contact:

Gad Abecassis
Education and Welfare Services Division
Ministry of Education and Culture
2 Devora Hanevia Street
Jerusalem 91191, Israel
Tel. (02) 293770, Fax. (02) 293775

Objective:

To enable high school students from the "weaker" populations to pass the matriculation examinations and to obtain diplomas;

To reduce the number of students who fail or drop out of the system; and

To increase the number of students from the Department of Education and Welfare Services who take the matriculation examinations.

Target Population:

Students from "weaker population groups" who are located in schools in welfare and renewal areas where at least 50 percent of the class is economically disadvantaged, or in schools outside welfare and renewal areas but where 80 percent of the class is disadvantaged. Also, students with marked learning deficiencies who the Pedagogical Council believe have a chance of progressing to the matriculation level.

Program and Activities:

Matriculation Track (MT) Classes aim to promote students from partial to full matriculation. The impetus for this program stems from the recognition that there are students, many from low socioeconomic families, who complete junior high school having demonstrated the potential for matriculation studies but who, for a variety of reasons do not realize their potential. In the course of their elementary school and later in junior high school, they are often assigned to lower streams. As a consequence, their opportunities for study at higher levels are reduced.

The MT class is a homeroom class limited to students participating in the project and will be restricted to 18-25 students. Teachers are to be carefully chosen from among the senior, most experienced staff with a background in teaching matriculation preparation classes.

Teachers will be provided with in-service training and guidance to help them adapt their teaching methods to the students, providing them with the most efficient tool for studying and coping with problems and to study at their own pace. Particular attention will be given to increasing motivation,, changing study habits. changing self-image and overcoming fear of examinations. Special support will be provided for individual students at times of stress.

Developing Thinking Skills Projects

Contact:

Shlomo Kaniel
School of Education
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
Tel. (03) 5318439, Fax. (03) 5353319

Objective:

To develop the metacognitive and thinking skills of children to provide them with the capability needed to more fully realize their potential.

Target Population:

All levels of schooling with particular attention to gifted, culturally deprived elementary school children and preschool children.

Program and Activities:

These projects are based on the premise that for fuller realization of their potential, children need to acquire the ability to solve problems by systematic thinking and metacognition.

The central contention is that it is possible to teach the skills connected with problem-solving since there appear to be common stages of thinking. This involves developing the learner's ability to be conscious of and to monitor their own thought process, and providing training in the full sequence of systematic thinking. The curriculum model deals with the cognitive, emotional and academic development and their integration.

While the curricula are being designed to enhance the systematic thinking and metacognitive skills of all levels of schooling, two populations — gifted disadvantaged and preschool children — are receiving special attention. The focus is on precognitive, cognitive and metacognitive operations that are considered prerequisite to successful learning and are based primarily on the work of Reuven Feuerstein.

Curricula are also being designed for developing strategies and metacognition in listening, speaking, reading and writing; for strengthening learning skills for higher education; and for control and enhancement of memory storage.