The recent history of the Israeli educational system, particularly its trend toward decentralization, is used to test some common assumptions about the need for centralization to achieve control in times of fiscal constraint, need for improvement, and non-implementation of central policies. (MSE)

Jewish schools, before statehood in 1948, were run by political parties. The "General Stream" (1913), formed by the General Zionist and Revisionist parties, agreed to have secular subjects taught in European-like schools, and to forego formal religious instruction. The "Religious Stream" (1920), formed by Zionist religious…

This book examines how boarding schools have influenced their societal contexts. It shows that the view of boarding schools as agencies stabilizing or conserving social status and cultural traditions is not always valid. On the contrary, boarding schools may be educationally integrative and socially innovative, breaking up social structures by…

Education in Israel before and after the passage of the State Education Law of 1953 is discussed. Prior to 1953, Israeli political parties operated and had total control over their own schools. Before statehood in 1948, a growing desire for national unity led some major parties to give up their separate schools and merge them into a school system…

The Palestinian Jewish educational system grew out of urban schools established in the 1800s through the philanthropic efforts of the European Jewish communities and out of rural schools established at Kibbutzim from the turn of the century. Standards were set first by a Teachers' Association, then by the worldwide Zionist Organization, and…