Decision-making in Jerusalem high schools

Abstract

This treatise examines the policy- and decision-making process in the secondary school system in Israel. The study considers the functioning of schools in a centralized system, and attempts to determine the leading elements in the decision-making process as well as the role played by these processes in the individual schools investigated.;The following procedure was employed: Five schools were selected: two secular high schools belonging integrally to the centralized system; two other secular high schools of an experimental nature, and a fifth school, a state religious, coeducational institution, which is also integral to the centralized system. The following role-holders were interviewed about changes made by the Ministry of Education and by the five schools: inspectors, principals, teachers, parents and students. These responses were compared.;It was found that there is some tension between the centralized system and each particular school. On the one hand, the schools tended towards curricular equivalence, which is consistent with the centralized system. On the other hand, however, each school, developed its own style. In the religious school studied, it was found that because of the common "religious language" there was less tension between the school and the Ministry.;Furthermore, the hierarchy within each school was found to be similar and all the principals had similar educational goals. However, differences in the individual make up of each school caused differing social and educational values to be stressed in the particular schools.;The main differences between the three "conventional" schools and the two "experimental" schools were found to be that both parents and students play a greater role in the administration of educational processes in the "experimental" schools; and that although the "experimental" schools are now tending towards "conventionality", with the introduction of matriculation exams, they retain the significantly unique final project.;Some suggestions for improving the current centralized system, in terms of better and more widely distributed channels of communication and feedback, are made.