The Third International Congress for School Effectiveness, held at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, was an additional link in the chain of efforts, forged in the late 1960's, to improve schools. Reports on reform efforts are received from every quarter. An impressive body of knowledge has accumulated concerning processes of change and improvement in the schools. This raises many questions in the area of policy and research as regards the implementation, dissemination, and sustainability of effect of the various projects, as well as the evaluation criteria of the intervention programs. These were the questions under discussion at the Congress for School Effectiveness in 1990. They will continue to concern educators and researchers in the field for years to come. The contributors in this volume rank among the leading authorities and practitioners in the field.

This book presents a comprehensive evaluation study of elementary education in Israel. The study concentrates on Jewish schools, but some data are presented from parallel studies in Arab schools. A notable feature of the study is its unusually large scope both in size and content. It sampled nearly ten percent of Jewish schools and fifteen percent of Arab schools. The content includes a variety of areas: cultural origins, home conditions and socialization patterns of pupils, conditions and practices in schools, teachers' and principals' backgrounds and their attitudes toward central issues in education, pupil's personality characteristics and motivation related to school experience, their learning abilities and achievements in five major school subjects. Special emphasis is given to the disadvantaged pupils and an examination of the problem of equality of educational opportunity.