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All you need to know about education in Israel

Israel is usually known for its good higher education system and its excellent research. In contrast, the school system has to deal with several problems. For example, this could be seen in the relatively poor PISA Study results Israeli students had until 2009, where they always scored under the OECD average score. In his article "Education in Israel: The Challenges Ahead" (2012), researcher Laurence Wolffs partly explains that by the "division of schooling into four almost completely separate sub-systems each of them dependent on religious ... observance and/or affiliation. (...) secular Jewish, religious Jewish, Arab, and ultra-orthodox." The Israeli government therefore put into effect several reforms to improve the school system as well as the result of international learning assessments, one of the biggest reforms being the New Horizon Programme in 2007. And indeed, Israel began improving its results. In 2013, a new government and minister of education nevertheless decided to suspend part of this "testing constraint" at least at the national level by pausing the Meitsav assessment ("Growth and Effectiveness Measurement of Schools"). Still, the new government went on implementing reforms to improve the education system. Wolff`s second article "Learning Assessments in Israel`s Schools: Beyond Controversy and Towards Best Practice" (2014) gives a more detailed account of these reforms. Both articles cited here provide a good overview and outlook on Israel`s education system and its challenges.

Ginzburg and Aizenman extend this overview to the year 2022 in their article "A Story of a Divided System: Education Fragmentation" (2022) - with a similar focus on the sectoral Israeli education system and a historical perspective that goes back to 1917.

Our webdossier provides more information on the following aspects of Israel`s education system:

General Information on Education

Israel
The website which is provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), provides a broad overview of research and education in Israel, including information on statistics, educational reports, policy or cooperation with Germany and other countries. Additionally, you will find basic country data.
[Abstract: [...]

Israel
The country dossier for Israel, compiled by the International Bureau of Education of the Unesco (IBE), provides information on statistics (from the World Data on Education - WDE), national education reports, education plans and policies, a bibliography (partly with fulltexts) and links to other sources. [Abstract: Editors of Education [...]

Israel; Germany
The website of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) provides ample information on academic exchange and cooperation with Israel. Information only available in German. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Israel
This Website of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides a short overview over education in Israel. You will find the following sections: Adult Education, Challenges, Higher Education, Preschool Education, Primary and Secondary Education. The menu bar on the right provides you with additional links and information to the specific [...]

"This paper is directed towards those living outside Israel who wish to understand the educational challenges that Israel faces. It describes and seeks to explain reasons for the mediocre performance of Israel's primary and secondary schools as well as the problems brought about by the division of schooling into four highly separate sub-systems. It reviews recent initiatives [...]

Israel
This site presents short summaries of the Israeli schooling, university and marking system as well as about accreditation.
"anabin" is an information database of the German Conference of Ministers of Education - Central Office for Foreign Education (Kultusministerkonferenz - Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen - ZAB). [...]

Authorities in Educational Policy

Israel
The homepage of the Israeli Ministry of Education is mostly in Hebrew. The English version consists of one single page which unfortunately doesn't provide a lot of information. Moreover, the links provided here mostly lead to pages in Hebrew. At least the link to "Evaluating foreign academic degrees" leads to an English website. [...]

Israel; international
The Israel Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology provides information on research, scientific cooperations, events, Call for Papers, publications and more. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Israel; international
The Yozma is a unit of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. It does evidence based research for decision makers in Israeli (educational) policy. Its website provides information on current and past research foci, a lot of fulltext publications, information on events, video lectures and more. Among their [...]

Israel; China, People's Republic of; India
"The Council for Higher Education (CHE) was established in accordance with the Council for Higher Education Law 5718-1958, as the State institution in Israel responsible for higher education. The goal was to establish a public, apolitical, independent and professional body to stand between the [...]

Israel; international
"The MOFET Institute is a national intercollegial center for the research and development of programs in teacher education and teaching in the colleges. (...) It was founded by the Department of Teacher Education in the Ministry of Education in 1983 and is a Ministry of Education-funded non-profit organization." The [...]

Israel
RAMA was created in 2006 and is the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education. Among others, the site provides information on international assessments like PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, and SITES. Since its redesign in around mid-2023, the site provides information exclusively in Hebrew. On [...]

Educational Reports, Statistics, Assessments

Israel
The Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel provides data tables from the publication ´Statistical Abstract of Israel´ (also see for further tables under "Chapter 8: Education"), a separate page on higher education statistics, results from the OECD publication "Education at a Glance" as well as many of their own publications. [...]

Israel
RAMA was created in 2006 and is the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education. Among others, the site provides information on international assessments like PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, and SITES. Since its redesign in around mid-2023, the site provides information exclusively in Hebrew. On [...]

Israel
The Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS) provides the most recent basic data on education in Israel. You will find information on the following issues:
* General information
* Education System
* Participation in education
* Progression and completion in education
* Education expenditures
* [...]

Israel
This interactive website is provided by the OECD. It can be used to compare Israel's results from different international educational assessments (PISA, TALIS, ...) as well as Israel's educational statistics with that of the average OECD results or with the results of other countries. You can create graphs, tables and others, which can [...]

The Israeli National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RAMA) provides a summary of the most important findings of the 2009 PISA-Studies for Israel. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide].

"This report [from 2014] seeks to put these controversies in context both within Israel and internationally. It summarizes Israel's experience with its national assessments, the Meitsav, reviews what actually happened to account for Israel's recent improvement in international tests, and discusses issues related to the Bagrut. It comments on recent policy changes and discusses [...]

"The article [of 2013] provides perspectives on the assessment policies and practices in the Israeli educational system. It highlights the contested issues that the Israeli educational system is coping with, describes the national and international tests that students in schools have to take and provides some discussion and pointers for further consideration." [Abstract: Site [...]

During the winter of 2008, the [Expert Committee on Guidelines for Revising the System of Education Indicators in Israel] held a seminar on education indicators. (...) The Committee's final report was published in 2010. Table of Contents: (...) Executive Summary: Conclusions and Recommendations * Introduction and Summary * Indicators for Education in Israel: Review of Existing [...]

Organisations & Associations

Israel
The "Israel Science and Technology Homepage" lists websites of professional educational associations in Israel. According to their own statement, "Israel Science and Technology Homepage is the national database and directory of science and technology related sites in Israel." [Abstract: Site editor’s information supplemented by [...]

Israel
Amal is a network of more than 128 educational institutions engaged in the advancement of comprehensive and technological education for youth and adults. Located throughout Israel, Amal's approximately 50 schools can be found in Jewish, Druze, Bedouin and Arab communities. The establishment of Amalnet, a computerized communications [...]

Universities & Research in Education

Israel
"The Council for Higher Education (CHE) provides a search for institutions in the higher education sector in israel. You can filter orsearch for the type of institution (university, college, etc.), for the area (region) and for budget. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Israel
This Wikipedia article provides a list of Israeli universities and colleges. The universities' list has additional information on website, year founded, number of students and several classification numbers from different university rankings. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Israel
The page provides information about the higher education system in Israel. It addresses students interested in studying in israel. On subpages information is provided about the structure of higher education in Israel, Degree Studies at Academic Colleges (in Hebrew), Degree Programs in English, Programs for Visiting Undergraduate and [...]

Israel
Beit Berl College is one of the oldest colleges (founded in 1946) and one of the leading institutions for teacher training in Israel. The college holds academic courses for teacher training (pre-school, primary and high school, special and informal education, and youth advancement), arts and the cinema, nature and the environment, and [...]

Israel
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem provides a list of all its research centres. You can find the folowing research centres for educational research:
1) The NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education
2) [...]

Israel
The Department of Education in Science and Technology of the well-known Technion Israel Institute of Technology has a focus on "research on learning, teaching and assessment in the fields of STEM" (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The website provides information on 14 different fields of research, information for [...]

Israel; international
The website provides an overview over Science Education at the well known Weizmann Institute of Science.
The Davidson Institute of Science Education focusses on teaching and transder. Amongst others, it runs a museum, the Clore Garden of Science, as well [...]

Israel
The School of Education at the Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan has a focus on cognitive science research. Furthermore, it runs TV Studies in order to improve the education of teachers in the field of multimedia. The website also provides information on publications, theses and dissertations, staff, research, study programmes and more. [...]

Israel; international
Unfortunetaly, the English website of the School of Education is an old one from 2006. The new homepage is only available in Hebrew.
The School of Education has the following departments:
- Department of Special Education and Educational Counseling
- Department of Education Policy and [...]

Israel
This page provides a list of research centres and institutes at the University of Haifa. You will find the following centres for educational research:
- Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities
- [...]

Israel
The website of the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa provides no Ebglish information. An English version of the website is said to be under construction and available soon (information as of 22.08.14).
[Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Israel; international
This site provides a list of research centres at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. You will find the following centres for educational research:
- Center for Futurism in Education
- [...]

Israel; international
The "Research Center for Innovation in Learning Technologies" was created in 2010 and replaced the "Chais Research Center for the Integration of Technologies in Education" (2004-2010). The centre conducts research on the use of new media and technologies in higher education. The website provides some annual reports and [...]

Israel; international
"The MOFET Institute is a national intercollegial center for the research and development of programs in teacher education and teaching in the colleges. (...) It was founded by the Department of Teacher Education in the Ministry of Education in 1983 and is a Ministry of Education-funded non-profit organization." The [...]

Israel; international
The Taub Center is doing research on social policy in Israel. This research is divided into 5 sections: economics, education, health, labor markets, and social welfare. For each section, you will find publications (some as fulltext) and statistical data (such as expenditure on education e.g.). The Taub Center also [...]

Israel; international
The Yozma is a unit of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. It does evidence based research for decision makers in Israeli (educational) policy. Its website provides information on current and past research foci, a lot of fulltext publications, information on events, video lectures and more. Among their [...]

Disabilities / Inclusion

The German Education Portal provides an integrated literature search over several databases in Germany and two international databases containing literature from the educational research. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Israel
The link we provide here leads you to a series of publications started in 2012 by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute. According to their own statement, the institute is one of the most important centers for applied social research in Israel. One focus of their research is on disabilities. The "Facts & Figures" reports also include a [...]

Israel
This is the first report of the Commission for Equal Rights for Persons with disabilities, which was established in the year 2000 under the Israeli Ministry of Justice. Unfortunately, the report of 2011 (Word [...]

Israel
[This is a copy of the original website as of 01.08.2014. The original website is offline.]
This is a bibliography on the issue of inclusion of children with special needs in regular (educational) settings in Israel. The titles documented run from 1985 to 1994. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Israel
Part two: http://makom-m.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?s=4&id=200&defid=-1&page=1&item=3420.
*** This literature review is onyl available in Hebrew. Nevertheless, the automatic Google-translation (for [...]

Israel; international
The Center for Research on Disabilities belongs to the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute which is one of the most important centers for applied social research in Israel, accroding to their own statement. One focus of their research is on disabilities. The Center published freely accessible fulltexts on different disability [...]

Israel
Beit Issie Shapiro is one of the leading Israeli disabilities non-profit organizations, dealing with and supporting issues concerning persons with disabilities. "Since 2001, Beit Issie Shapiro has offered courses through the Inclusive University. This (...) program is given under the auspices of Beit Issie Shapiro’s Trump [...]

Israel
The Ruderman Family Foundation has offices in the USA and Israel. It aims at supporting the inclusion of (Jewish) people with disabilities. Here, we link to articles, programmes, Initiatives and more that deal with inclusion in the education sector. You will also find information on other organisations, projects etc. with whom Ruderman [...]

Israel
"Israel Unlimited" is a programme initiated in 2009 that aims at promoting the inclusion of people with disability in Israel. The programme is a partnership between the Israeli government, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Ruderman Family Foundation. As the progamme hasn't got a website of its own, we link [...]

Israel; Palestinian Territories
This analyses of the special education situation of the Arab people living in Israel is only available in Hebrew. Nevertheless, the automatic Google-translation can give you some [...]