Academic Achievement as a Function of Integration in an Israeli Elementary School

A project in integration was initiated at the Gush Etzion Regional Elementary School in Israel at the beginning of the 1984/85 school year. Students of Oriental ethnic origin, from a lower achievement oriented environment and a lower SES level were placed in the first grade of the school together with higher achievement oriented and higher SES level students of Western ethnic background. Educational and integrational interventions thought to be conducive to the fostering of improved academic achievement were undertaken after which all participants in the study were administered the standardised Israel Reading Comprehension Test. The results of the lower SES students participating in the integration project were compared with those of a control group studying in the segregated Elah Valley Elementary School which serves a lower SES population, as well as with those of their higher SES peers in the Gush Etzion Regional Elementary School. Statistical analyses indicate that the lower level subjects who were placed in the integrative school achieved significantly higher scores on the Israel Reading Comprehension Test than their control group peers. However, the higher level students maintained a superior level of achievement on the research measure despite the efforts made to close the achievement gap between higher and lower level students participating in the integration project. 1988 British Educational Research Association