Goals:
To establish a comprehensive approach to learning for female students at risk in the ultra-Orthodox sector.
To develop holistic, school-based interventions to prevent at-risk female students from dropping out of school and to improve their academic, personal, social, and family functioning.
The Need:
A lack of school services to help at-risk girls facing problems of learning and fitting in exacerbates behavioral issues and prompts more students to drop out.
Target Population:
Female students in the ultra-Orthodox education system; schools in the ultra-Orthodox sector; principals, educators, and youth counselors.
Activities:
Schools: Evidence-based practices and academic training for ultra-Orthodox girls’ schools and alternative learning institutions to help identity, evaluate and treat at-risk girls and to help them meet their needs and succeed in all areas of school and life.
Professional development for educators: Programs and guidelines to train educators in girls’ schools are building on educational reform programs such as “Oz LaTmura” (Courage for Change) and “Ofek Hadash” (New Horizon), which focus on students at risk.
Academic training for training teachers for religious girls’ schools: Activities include teacher education programs to change the approach to working with at-risk girls; a program to certify teachers as “workers for the advancement of youth at risk” that has been approved by the Education Ministry; One religious girls’ school participated in a pilot program that became an important part of reform in academia.
