This policy brief is part of a series of thematic policy briefs prepared as part of the OECD's Resourcing Higher Education Project. It examines the frameworks that govern the employment of academic staff in publicly funded higher education institutions in Israel. It compares these frameworks to those in place in comparable OECD higher education…

This article presents the findings of a large scale study that tested a comprehensive model of predictors of three manifestations of sustainability: continuation, institutionalization, and duration. Based on the literature the predictors were arrayed in four groups: variables pertaining to the project, the auspice organization, the community, and…

International schools and schools offering curricula and qualifications that are not those designed and delivered by the state are increasingly common in many countries. They offer parents an alternative to national schools and the normative education they deliver. This article compares five research exercises conducted in Switzerland, Japan,…

Class size is one of the small number of variables in American K-12 education that are both thought to influence student learning and are subject to legislative action. Legislative mandates on maximum class size have been very popular at the state level. In recent decades, at least 24 states have mandated or incentivized class-size reduction…

The expansion of digital technologies and the rapid changes they undergo through time face users with new cognitive, social, and ergonomic challenges that they need to master in order to perform effectively. In recent years, following empirical reports on performance differences between different age-groups, there is a debate in the research…

The Israeli high school sociology curriculum underwent changes during the 1980s and 1990s, the main one of which was the replacing of the 1988 academic-oriented curriculum with the "new" (1998) pedagogical-didactic curriculum. An analysis of the two reveals issues regarding the content of the two curricula. The article covers nine issues…

Based on recent research reports, the blended learning model, which combines face-to-face and online learning, is now the preferred model for online course design. Its superiority over online learning, which lacks face-to-face interaction, is evident from studies that examined both student achievement and satisfaction. Nevertheless, there is…

Scoring guidelines are given for four forms of the practical skills tests of the Second International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Improvement Science Study conducted in the following countries in the 1980s: (1) Hungary; (2) Japan; (3) Korea; (4) Singapore; (5) Israel; and (6) the United States. (SLD)

This article explores the effects of the Time To Know program, a comprehensive technology-rich learning environment, on low socio-economic status (SES) students' learning achievements in Mathematics, Hebrew, and English as a Foreign Language (EFL)in Israel. The study is based on the assumption that one of the possible solutions for bridging the…

Sources of observed differences in difficulty between items in graph comprehension performance were studied using 132 items from the Psychometric Entrance Test, an Israeli college entrance examination. Results indicate that item difficulty can be predicted successfully on the basis of item characteristics and task demands. Implications for graph…

The development and administration of practical skills tests in science as part of the Second Science Study of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement are described. Scoring and sampling for Hungary, Israel, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States are reviewed. (SLD)

This study examined the relationship between student ratings and instructors' predictions of these ratings, taking into account other instructor, student, and course characteristics. Participants in the study were 198 instructors in the School of Education at a major teacher training college in Israel. Data corresponding to one randomly selected…

Examines 94 Israeli elementary school principals's work behavior, using a structured observation technique. Principals exhibited certain work characteristics (brevity, variety, fragmentation) supported in other research. They differed from conventional job descriptions in demonstrating internally oriented social (but not political) inclinations,…

We report the results of a study on students' interest in physics at the end of their compulsory schooling in Israel carried out in the framework of the ROSE Project. Factors studied were their opinions about science classes, their out-of-school experiences in physics, and their attitudes toward science and technology. Students' overall interest…

The aim of this article is to attain insight into the issues of empowerment and motivation in principalship in general and in feminine leadership at schools in particular. It presents a case study of a woman principal who "bred" 12 principals during 12 years of principalship, most of them in her last 5 years on the job, in the middle of…