For second straight year, Druze town has top matriculation rate

[shira]

For the second year in a row, the Galilee Druze town of Beit Jann beat other localities in Israel to achieve the highest rates of students passing the high school matriculation exam in 2015, according to figures released Monday. According to the Education Ministry, 99 percent of students in Beit Jann received their Bagrut, or graduation certificates last school year, up 4.6% from 2014, and 7% from 2013.

The Arab village of Abu al-Hija, outside Karmiel, came in second nationwide with a 98% success rate, followed by Kiryat Ekron at 96%, and Givat Shmuel and Kedumim with 93%. Among Israel’s bigger cities, Rishon Lezion led the way with 77%; followed by Haifa with 76%; Tel Aviv and Beersheba at 70%; and, way below, Jerusalem, with 47%.

Unsurprisingly, predominantly ultra-Orthodox communities and some poorer Arab towns had the lowest percentage of students passing the matriculation exams. The ultra-Orthodox towns of Modiin Illit, in the West Bank, and Kiryat Ye’arim (Telz-Stone), outside Jerusalem, had the lowest overall rates with an unprecedented 0% pass rate. For Modiin Illit, the 2015 score marked a 3.7% drop from figures recorded the previous year.

In Bnei Brak, a mostly ultra-Orthodox city in central Israel, only 11% of students passed the exams, though the meager showing was a slight improvement from its 10% pass rate in 2015. The comparatively low figures are in part due to minimal high school attendance rates in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/for-second-straight-year-druze-town-has-top-matriculation-rate/

[6chars]

1. How can this be?

[shira]

2. I'm sure this will be spun into something evil and racist. You know how it goes here. n/t

[Little Tich]

4. I couldn't find a way to crap on this story. Sorry to disappoint. n/t

[Little Tich]

3. How Israel reduced dropout rates among Druze teens

Source: ISRAEL21c, JANUARY 24, 2016
The matriculation rate across Israel’s Druze sector rose from 52% to 73% since Yeholot introduced an accelerated learning program for underachievers.

(snip)

Freshmen identified at risk of dropping out after failing an average of seven subjects are placed in an accelerated three-year Yeholot program geared to earning a full matriculation certificate at the end of 12th grade. Older students who failed or are expected to fail the matriculation exam in up to three subjects enter a one-year accelerated learning program to enable them to pass the exams.

“A combination of these two steps has increased the matriculation rate in the Druze high school in Beit Jann from 70 percent to 100%, and in Peki’in from 60% to 93%,” Cohen tells ISRAEL21c. “The matriculation rate across the entire Druze sector went up from 52% to 73% since we began the program.”

This achievement required nothing less than a conceptual transformation of education, says Cohen, whose trainers work closely with administrators, teachers and Education Ministry officials in the Druze sector.

Read more: http://www.israel21c.org/how-israel-reduced-dropout-rates-among-druze-teens/