impact
2012
MODEL SCHOOLS NETWORK PROGRAM LEADERSHIP AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
AMIDEAST partnered with local, regional, and international organizations in Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen to support 10 projects that improved the delivery of basic and higher education, expanded opportunities for youth, and strengthened the functioning of legal systems.
IMPROVING BASIC EDUCATION IN PALESTINE Strong school leadership, quality teaching, appropriate educational technology, and community engagement are basic elements of a learning environment that enables children to thrive. These dimensions were at the heart of two major reform projects that addressed basic education needs in the West Bank and Gaza. During 2012, AMIDEAST oversaw the final phase of the Model Schools Network (MSN) Program, a USAID-funded initiative that supported 69 public and private schools in the West Bank and Gaza, creating a network of model schools for improving basic education throughout Palestine. Capping this five-year effort, the project produced a final report, Improving Schools and Futures in Palestine; convened four thematic conferences; and held a closing policy summit in order to foster discussion within the Palestinian educational community of the program’s core recommendations. The measures introduced over the MSN Program’s lifespan produced improvements that validated its comprehensive approach. Chief among them were the qualitative strengthening of school leadership and teaching practices arising out of its emphasis on in-service professional development of school principals, administrators and teachers; enhanced teacher effectiveness as a result of the introduction of innovative approaches to the use of educational technology; and
improvements in learning due to the strengthening of the role of community engagement and extracurricular activities in the learning process. The lessons learned under the MSN Program led USAID and the Ministry of Education (MoE) to embark upon a nationally scaled effort to integrate many of the MSN Program’s educational approaches and policies. Launched in May 2012, the Leadership and Teacher Development (LTD) Program seeks to improve the quality of K–12 education by introducing an evidence-based approach to leadership and teacher development in 300 schools in the West Bank, as well as improve the quality of teacher development in Gaza. Over the coming four years, this USAID-funded initiative will support the MoE’s comprehensive reform strategy by strengthening the capacity of the selected schools to enable school principals, supervisors, and teachers to work together to improve classroom instruction. It will also assist the National Institute for Educational Training in the establishment of a national cadre of teacher and leadership educators that meet MoE standards for instruction and supervision. Lastly, the LTD Program will work towards strengthening the ministry’s capabilities to undertake policy development and systemic reform, particularly in the area of teacher performance assessment.
ANNUAL REPORT 17