Report: A Picture of the Nation, 2015; Taub Center for Social Policy

The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel Presents:

A Picture of the Nation: Israel’s Society and Economy in Figures, one of the Center’s most popular publications, provides concise and thought-provoking information on Israel’s long-run economic and social trajectories.  Each page of this booklet contains a single graph and short, accompanying text that, when combined, provide the reader with a broad and comprehensive understanding of key socioeconomic issues in Israel today.  Policy makers, the media, the general public, and the global Jewish community look to the Picture of the Nation as an invaluable and highly accessible resource on topics ranging from the labor market to education, poverty and much more.

For the English page, including PDF and PPT versions of the report, as well as previous reports (2002-2014), click here.

For the Hebrew page, click here.

PDF version in English: Picture of the Nation, 2015.

PDF version in Hebrew: תמונת מצב המדינה, 2015.

New Article: Feniger, Jewish Ethnicity and Educational Opportunities in Israel

Feniger, Yariv. “Jewish Ethnicity and Educational Opportunities in Israel: Evidence from a Curricular Reform.” Race, Ethnicity, and Education 18.4 (2015): 567-88.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13613324.2012.759928

 

Abstract

Based on a 20% representative sample of all high school students in Israel in the mid-1990s, this study explores a reform implemented in low socio-economic status (SES) state religious high schools. Most of their students were from the disadvantaged Jewish ethnic group in Israel, Mizrachim. Perceived as unable to meet the requirements of academic programs, more than half these students studied on lower ranked vocational tracks. As part of the reform, these tracks were replaced by academic tracks aimed at awarding students a matriculation diploma. Comparable low SES secular high schools did not adopt the same curriculum change, so a comparison of these two types of school for learning opportunities became possible. Results revealed a significant improvement in matriculation eligibility rates in low SES religious schools while eligibility rates in comparable non-religious schools remained relatively stable.