Leading The Way for High School Academic Abroad Programs in Israel
Over the past forty three years, Alexander Muss High School in Israel has been the leading high school academic abroad program in Israel. Twenty four thousand alumni have passed through our doors, the vast majority of whom consider our program the most transformative educational experience of their lifetime.
Since our merger with JNF-USA nearly two years ago, the school has been able to reflect and review our program to consider our strengths as well as our are areas of improvement. As a result, AMHSI is preparing to invest in significant upgrades to specific areas to ensure that AMHSI remains the best choice for a quality Israel experience.
This past spring, AMHSI turned to Kenneth Stein, Emory Professor of Middle Eastern History, Political Science and Israel Studies and President of the Center for Israel Education (CIE), to initiate a review of the AMHSI core curriculum with a focus on redesigning how modern Israel is taught.
Following three introductory sessions, Prof. Stein is prepared to design a proposal for AMHSI to introduce or augment the following areas:
Zionism’s mulitiple origins
The up-building of the state
Lobbying for the Jewish state cause
Diplomatic quest for recognition
Unfolding of the Arab-Israeli conflict’s evolution and in the 1970s the negotiating process
Segments on Israel’s relationships with its neighbors and international community (particularly the US)
The proposed curriculum will be supplemented with a unique booklet of sources, readings and additional material that will focus on the above areas.
In addition, Prof. Stein will be leading two Israel enrichment workshops with our educators on the selected topics, which will be held in early 2016. Prof. Stein has also suggested turning previously unseen archives sources about the JNF’s role in Jewish nation building into a reader that would be unique to JNF and AMHSI.
The school’s goal is to introduce the updated curriculum by the Spring of 2016.
In addition to assessing the core curriculum, AMHSI recognizes the need to review the school’s general studies department to best accomodate today’s high school students.
The proposed changes will create permanent departmental heads for each subject area who will be able to better work with our partners and our students to ensure that each student is receiving the best instruction possible. Additionally, AMHSI is planning on offering ongoing training in AP courses to ensure that the AP curriculum taught by teachers is current with what is taught in prestigious US schools.
AMHSI is dedicated to ensuring that the general studies department reflects the intensive, academic nature of our program.
Lastly, as part of our upcoming accreditation through the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in 2018, AMHSI has chosen four areas for improvement:
Better incorporating the instruction of Hebrew into the core curriculum and creating assessment tools to measure achievement
Developing a measurement system to assess the impact of the AMHSI program in fostering deep and lasting connections to the Jewish people and Israel
Increasing student enrollment, primarily of our AMHSI sessions
Creating professional development opportunities for our educators, administration and marketing
By continuing to raise our standards, AMHSI is ensuring that every student will have a phenomenal Israel experience both inside and outside of the classroom.