The Supportive Educational Environment (SEE) is a program designed to promote low-achievers and children at risk in elementary and junior high schools. It has its roots in the New Educational Environment program, which encourages fundamental change in the approach of secondary schools in working with at-risk students. Both programs were developed by JDC-Ashalim through long-term collaboration with the Ministry of Education and participating schools. This revised edition is being published at a time when the education system is showing great interest in in developing policy and methods to promote at-risk students. This report concludes with an afterword describing the developments in implementation of the program principles in the education system.
The program provides intensive, long-term (3-4 years) training for school staff by expert psychologists. The training promotes professional and personal growth and broadens the teachers’ perception of their role to include more attention to the students’ social and emotional needs through individual work with each student and meaningful teamwork. These changes are intended to improve teachers’ ability to identify children at risk and provide them with appropriate support. The evaluation focuses on program implementation and outcomes in four elementary schools over the 4-year pilot.
Teachers who took part in the study reported a high level of satisfaction with the program, which gave them the opportunity to reflect with their colleagues and receive emotional support, as well as to develop an “inner dialogue,” through which they could reflect on their work with children at risk. The teachers reported that the program contributed significantly to their work, chiefly by enhancing their knowledge about coping with the socio-emotional needs of children at risk and strengthening organizational support mechanisms. The study findings also underline the complexity of the training process, as it entailed changes in the staff’s approach and adoption of new tools. Most of the students at risk advanced in areas such as attendance and school behavior, and exhibited fewer emotional and social problems.
The study findings were discussed with key decision makers in the educational system and have served as the basis for further development of training programs and organizational mechanisms for meeting the needs of students at risk. The current challenge is the effective assimilation of the strategies developed to strengthen the staff’s work with at-risk students. In recent years, the New Horizon and Oz Letmura (Courage to Change) school reforms have made significant funds available to the schools so that they can increase their individual work with students and parents, which is highly compatible with the methods used in SEE. The program contributes significantly to structuring training and practice order to achieve the maximum benefit from these important resources. The findings will enable decision makers and professionals to learn from the experience acquired in implementing the program and strengthen efforts to promote assimilation of these strategies in the future.
The study was commissioned by JDC-Ashalim and funded with its assistance.