Learning Segregation in Junior High-Schools in Israel: Causes and Consequences

Implementation of educational integration policy in Israel creates heterogeneous student compositions in the schools. Principals and teachers who, as a result, confront instructional difficulties, and who are ambiguous about this policy and its expected efficacy, press to counter-balance this heterogeneity by resegregating students within the school in ability-based classes. In this paper we deal with three inter-related topics: (1) the degree of learning segregation within integrated junior high schools in Israel; (2) several factors which may explain the degree of learning segregation; (3) the effect of learning segregation on academic outcomes: achievement (in reading and science) and subsequent school career (student placement in high school track). In doing so, we clarify an aspect of the school principal's role and his or her indirect effect on students learning. Principals have a decisive power in the organization of learning frameworks (class structure, ability grouping etc.) within the school. Their ideas and convictions about the efficacy of integration affect the actual practices of class organization in the school. This, in turn, has an effect on learning processes within the class and evetually on students’ academic outcomes, especially on those from the weaker group.