Projects
Feuerstein in Academia
Helping young adults from the socioeconomic periphery attain their goals in academia.
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The Feuerstein in Academia program assists Israelis from the socioeconomic periphery in pursuing their dreams of higher education. Since its inception in 2010, the program has aided over 650 young adults in gaining admission to the most prestigious departments at Israel’s finest universities, which have been inaccessible primarily to these populations. This is due to the inherent cultural bias built into the psychometric entrance test that serves as the primary admission criteria. Our program removes this barrier by replacing the psychometric score with Feuerstein’s dynamic assessment.
Once accepted into the program, the students participate in an intensive Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment course. They are then provided with ongoing cognitive, academic, financial, and social support throughout their university careers. These components help to ensure the successful completion of their studies.
Feuerstein in Academia has helped create a significant systematic change within Israeli academia, as well as society at large. It has increased the number of students from severely under-represented communities, ensures the successful completion of their studies, reduces dropout rates, and enables upward mobility of young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. It reduces societal gaps by allowing participants to achieve social and professional integration.
Feuerstein in Academia is evaluated annually by the following performance indicators:
The young men and women participating in this program have performed beautifully. Early on in the pilot, it became clear that these students were performing on par with their classmates admitted through traditional pathways and had a lower overall drop-out rate (9.4% compared to the national average of 22%).
Field of study: The universities and departments participants are accepted into.
Psychometric grades compared to their peers: Program participants scored significantly lower and would not have been accepted into these disciplines without the program’s aid.
Drop-out rate: Aim Higher boasts a lower dropout rate (7.8%) than both the general Ethiopian population (33%) and the national population (22%).
Timely Graduation: 78.8% of Aim Higher students graduate on time, compared to 58.5% nationally and 47.1% among students of Ethiopian origin.
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