"As an education system, we don't know how to say what the quality of teachers in Israel is," says the Deputy Director of Teaching Staff at the Ministry of Education, Eil Ram, in the background of the negotiations between the Histadrut of Teachers and the Ministry of Finance on the salary of teaching staff and Minister Lieberman's demand to reward teachers according to achievements.
Among other things, the data reveal that 8% of teachers fail in the first year, the internship year, and 14% are not recommended for tenure in the second year.
"The ambition to rank teachers is unrealistic, and is related to the despised 'national sport' - hitting teachers. It has nothing to do with the quality of teaching," added Ram.
"The state also cannot say what the quality of the doctors, nurses or soldiers is and in no way does the state check all its employees.
"Ultimately, the school principal knows what he has in hand, he knows if his teachers are good and if the parents are satisfied. We will never know objectively if they are good or not good. Only in relation to teachers is there this perception and the desire to rank them - and that infuriating".
Teaching staff in Israel, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
Despite Ram's words, the Ministry of Education performs a summative assessment for new teachers in the system in the first two years of teaching to decide if they are suitable for the position.
The data shows that in their first year, the internship year, 8% of teachers receive a "fail" grade and usually do not continue.
On the other hand, 18% finish the internship year with honors.
In the second year of work, the teachers are again evaluated.
14% of them are not recommended for tenure - and the meaning is that they are mostly expelled from the education system.
It should be said that studies have shown that the quality of the teaching force affects the achievements of the students, especially at the elementary level.
However, there are many differences of opinion about what makes a good teacher - whether it is education, experience or personality.
In terms of higher education, the teachers in Israel overtake their colleagues in many countries in the world: an international survey (Talis) found that the vast majority of them (98%) have a bachelor's degree or higher, half of them (46%) have a master's degree.
This figure is higher than the average in the OECD countries.
"Today's teachers are better than those in the past."
Ram, photo: Gideon Markowitz
But on the other hand, the psychometric scores of students in teaching schools are relatively low.
"I am in favor of education, and we at the Ministry of Education finance every teacher's master's degree studies for free, but studies that rely only on formal education as affecting quality should be taken with limited responsibility," says Ram.
"For eight years now, you don't need a psychometric test to study teaching, because we found no difference between the matriculation scores and the psychometric test. Instead, we perform personality tests that predict much better who will succeed. You also have to remember that 50% of the teaching staff who arrive in recent years have been retrained for teaching."
According to him, the level of expectation from teachers is increasing: "What we expect from our children's teachers is not what we expected from our teacher. I think today's teachers are much better than before, but I can't prove it."
It should be noted that every year approximately 46,000 teaching staff go through evaluation processes, but this does not rank them: "The purpose of evaluation is not to decide whether the teacher is of high quality or not, but to help him improve in his work," Ram explains, "It is not intended to rank the The teachers are rather a designer, saying what the strengths are and how they can improve.
"If the teacher has a discipline problem in the classroom, then the principal will join him in the lesson, if there is a problem with the parents - they will accompany him to a parents' meeting, and if he has difficulty in building content - he will send the lesson plans and receive feedback. The goal of the evaluation is to create a culture of continuous improvement."
Negotiations with the teachers union are still ongoing.
One of the demands of the Ministry of Finance and its head was that teachers be rewarded for their work according to achievements and excellence - and not just according to seniority.
Another demand concerns the dismissal of bad teachers from the education system.
Firing teachers on pedagogical grounds is a long and cumbersome process that lasts at least a year.
Bar David Hadar, photo: Bar Ilan University
Pay according to achievements?
"A World Bank report shows that teacher pay based on achievements has not been found to improve achievements," says Dr. Iris Ben-David Hadar from the Faculty of Education, Bar-Ilan University.
"Most of the programs did not show an impressive increase in the students' grades. On top of that, it was found that there are negative effects, such as cheating or teachers who teach for the test."
According to her, in order to pay teachers for student achievements, it is necessary to measure what is not measurable: "The outputs of the education system are mostly not measurable, such as values, contribution to the community, reduction in crime, etc. In addition, the outputs are multidimensional - it is not only A grade in English or mathematics is also learning habits, motivation, grades and more - and they are also not the work of a single teacher. In addition, such models do not allow the payment of a grant for long-term achievements - which are the most important."
What is the solution?
"Instead of discussing teacher compensation according to excellence, teacher salaries should be raised, which will bring quality teachers. In addition, a new mechanism should be created that rewards improvement at the school level. This decision requires courage, but it is necessary for Israel, since the economy is based on the development of learning and knowledge".
In the meantime, the negotiations between the teachers union and the officials of the ministries of finance and education continued, and optimism was recorded regarding the opening of the school year this coming September.
Yesterday, a meeting was held between the parties, which the teachers union defined as a "business meeting", and further talks were scheduled for the rest of the week.
We will remind you that the rest of the negotiation meetings so far have ended in explosions and exchanges of accusations.
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