בחינת יעילות התרומה של תוספת שעות הוראה באנגלית לשיפור הישגיהם של תלמידים בחטיבת הביניים

If the education system was given a tool that could predict which group of students would benefit the most from a given investment of resources, then principals, school staff, and students would also benefit, and valuable resources would be saved. The present study focuses on analyzing the effects of additional tutoring hours on the scholastic accomplishments of ninth-grade Hebrew-speaking students possessing varying English language abilities. The study included 150 ninth-graders attending a junior high school in northern Israel. The control group comprised 75 students who studied standard hours, while the experimental group – also consisting of 75 students – received an additional weekly English study hour for 12 weeks. Both groups were divided into three English achievement levels: high, intermediate, and low. It was found that while improved achievement scores characterized all levels in the experimental group, the greatest improvement was noted in the intermediate level students, followed by the low-level ones. These findings point to the importance of allocating resources in such a way as to augment the study of English among intermediate and low-level learners, because such investment results in improved student achievements. The finding that the greatest absolute improvement occurred at the intermediate level, may assist education system officials in reaching effective decisions regarding efficient allocation of additional instruction hours based on student ability levels.