Meisharim – Turnaround Schools

About the Initiative

Meisharim is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, Yad Hanadiv and Matan – Investing in the Community. Launched in 2019, it aims to demonstrate how stable, lasting improvement can be achieved in underperforming primary schools serving students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Meisharim works with 36 primary schools from a range of sectors across the country over a five-year period. It supports accelerated, measurable and sustainable improvement led by Third Sector education organisations through comprehensive school-wide interventions. This includes developing leadership and organisational culture, strengthening education staff, and improving teaching, learning and assessment.

The emphasis is on outcomes-oriented thinking, data-informed practice and continuous learning, alongside systematic professional support to strengthen teachers’ capacity in language literacy. This work is intended to generate knowledge and tools that can be implemented more broadly across the education system.

Evaluations show significant and sustained improvements in student achievement and school culture, alongside stronger teaching practice. These include marked gains in reading ability and substantial progress in national assessment measures conducted by the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation (RAMA).

Following Meisharim’s success in advancing underperforming schools, the decision was made to launch Meisharim 2.0, in partnership with the Ministries of Education and Finance, the DELL Foundation, Yad Hanadiv and Matan – Investing in the Community. Meisharim 2.0 will work with 72 underperforming schools. As part of the initiative, the Ministry of Education will address systemic challenges to advance the lowest-performing decile of elementary schools in Israel.