Task Force Activities
Arab students’ scores on the 2018 PISA test -- a periodic test given every three years by the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to 15 year-olds around the world — have dropped since the 2015 exam, making the gap in PISA scores between Jewish and Arab students in Israel the largest gap between socio-economic groups in the 79 countries that participated in the test.
The results of the 2018 OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment Tests (PISA), which is given every three years to a representative sample of 15-year-olds, showed lower scores from 2015 among Israel’s Arabic-speaking students in all three subjects, reading, mathematics, and science. A Ha’aretz editorial stated, “If you isolated Arab students’ scores from those of Jewish Israelis, they would be in last place among the 79 countries where students took the exam, in the same league with countries like Kosovo, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Morocco.”
Our latest newsletter gathers and summarizes research relating to Arab citizens and Jewish-Arab relations in Israel.
A recent comparison of two surveys of Israelis ages 20-29 about overall personal well-being found a significant improvement in the emotional state of young Arabs, and that Arabs and Jews rely on different factors to determine well-being.
The Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute recently published an infographic report summarizing its comparison of data collected by the Central Bureau of Statistics from surveys in 2003 and 2017 regarding well-being of “young people,” defined as ages 20-29. This group currently comprises 14% of the country’s population, and the report notes that a sense of subjective well-being both affects the decisions they are making that will affect their futures and is shaped by those same decisions.
A new study for the Ministry of Finance examines the increasing numbers of Arab students in higher education and continued barriers to their full integration. The study points to gaps in the Arab and Jewish public school systems in preparing students for higher education, and notes that matriculation rates have risen by the same percentage among both Arab and Jewish students. Continued focus among Arab students on healthcare-related fields of study has resulted in about one-quarter of them studying abroad due to lack of spots; the study recommends expanding these fields in Israeli institutions to increase students' employment prospects. The study has not yet been formally adopted by the Ministry of Finance.
Join us for a day of learning with the Society for Advancement of Education, Jerusalem (SAE) and American Friends of Kidum with experts from the US and Israel discussing the latest educational innovations in Haredi and Arab Society in Israel and the challenges of ensuring gender equality.
Join us for the Task Force Annual Meeting, Changing Landscapes in Israel's Jewish-Arab Relations on December 16 from 8:30 am-2:30 pm.
A year of back-to-back, too-close-to-call elections has thrust Israel's Arab parties and electorate into an unprecedented spotlight with political influence. How does this reflect Arab citizens changing interests and priorities? What impact has the drive for deeper Arab political participation had on Israeli discourse overall? How have government economic integration efforts been able to advance in parallel? Join us for an insightful day of shared learning with leading Israeli presenters.