The introduction of the six-year comprehensive school in ORT schools in Israel : overcoming problems of integration

Changes in the Israeli educational system, since 1968, have led to the conversion of 46% of High Schools to six-year Comprehensive Schools which incorporate two sections, junior-high and high school, each with its own principal.;The research is concerned with the problems of integration faced by these six-year schools from the perceptions of principals, teachers and a selection of pupils. The research deals with three central, conceptual and empirical areas: the arguments for and against integration, the management style of the principal and the school culture.;This research project is in two parts: a survey of all the integrated schools belonging to the ORT Network in Israel, and case studies of three of the integrated six-year schools. There are 70 schools and colleges within the ORT Network, of which 23 are six-year comprehensives. The total number of pupils enrolled in the ORT six-year schools is approximately 30,000.;The research is concerned with the impact of the management and leadership style of the principal on the integration process. Therefore, questions about leadership and management style, derived from a number of theorists (Sergiovanni, 1983, Blake and Mouton, 1985, Bush, 1995) were used to allow the researcher to evaluate the perceived optimal and desirable form of school management for six-year comprehensive schools. The impact of different types of school culture on integration in junior-high schools and high schools is measured through questions based on the Hargreaves (1995) and Friedman (1987) models of school culture. A particular area of school culture is the extent of social interaction amongst teachers, and the interaction of teachers between the two sections of the case study schools. This is measured through a specifically adapted tool (Fershtman, 1993), based on social network theory.