International Journal of Education, Culture and Society

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Equality of Opportunity and Achievement Gaps in the Israeli Education System

Received: 19 August 2016    Accepted: 02 September 2016    Published: 18 October 2016
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Abstract

The Israeli government regularly uses the Educational Needs Index (ENI) to determine the resources needed to educate children growing up in less affluent environments. This paper investigates some results of this practice. By using data from children who were tested in nationwide exams at grades 5 and 8 we find that in Mathematics, at the school level, the negative correlation between the average test scores and the ENI is about 2.2 times higher in grade 8 than in grade 5 and that children from low index schools are more likely to improve their scores. OLS and quantile regressions of a value-added model on a subsample of the data emphasize the importance of parental education to children's educational attainment. It also shows a negative effect of the ENI on test scores. Our final conclusion is that the Israeli education policy fails to fully guarantee equality of opportunity to its students.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijecs.20160102.15
Published in International Journal of Education, Culture and Society (Volume 1, Issue 2, October 2016)
Page(s) 58-65
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Equality of Opportunity in Education, Achievement Gaps, Value-Added Model

References
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Author Information
  • Department of Applied Economics and Management, Sapir Academic College, Sderot, Israel

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    Yaakov Gilboa. (2016). Equality of Opportunity and Achievement Gaps in the Israeli Education System. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 1(2), 58-65. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20160102.15

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    Yaakov Gilboa. Equality of Opportunity and Achievement Gaps in the Israeli Education System. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2016, 1(2), 58-65. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20160102.15

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    AMA Style

    Yaakov Gilboa. Equality of Opportunity and Achievement Gaps in the Israeli Education System. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2016;1(2):58-65. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20160102.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20160102.15,
      author = {Yaakov Gilboa},
      title = {Equality of Opportunity and Achievement Gaps in the Israeli Education System},
      journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
      volume = {1},
      number = {2},
      pages = {58-65},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20160102.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20160102.15},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20160102.15},
      abstract = {The Israeli government regularly uses the Educational Needs Index (ENI) to determine the resources needed to educate children growing up in less affluent environments. This paper investigates some results of this practice. By using data from children who were tested in nationwide exams at grades 5 and 8 we find that in Mathematics, at the school level, the negative correlation between the average test scores and the ENI is about 2.2 times higher in grade 8 than in grade 5 and that children from low index schools are more likely to improve their scores. OLS and quantile regressions of a value-added model on a subsample of the data emphasize the importance of parental education to children's educational attainment. It also shows a negative effect of the ENI on test scores. Our final conclusion is that the Israeli education policy fails to fully guarantee equality of opportunity to its students.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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    AB  - The Israeli government regularly uses the Educational Needs Index (ENI) to determine the resources needed to educate children growing up in less affluent environments. This paper investigates some results of this practice. By using data from children who were tested in nationwide exams at grades 5 and 8 we find that in Mathematics, at the school level, the negative correlation between the average test scores and the ENI is about 2.2 times higher in grade 8 than in grade 5 and that children from low index schools are more likely to improve their scores. OLS and quantile regressions of a value-added model on a subsample of the data emphasize the importance of parental education to children's educational attainment. It also shows a negative effect of the ENI on test scores. Our final conclusion is that the Israeli education policy fails to fully guarantee equality of opportunity to its students.
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    IS  - 2
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