Reforms make universities more accessible, education minister says

Under new reforms, unprecedented numbers of Israeli students will be accepted to Israel’s universities without submitting results from a controversial standardized test, Education Minister Shai Piron said Tuesday.

“One in three students will be accepted to university without psychometric [results],” he said at a press conference, adding that students will be eligible as soon as next year for acceptance based solely on their high school grades, even if they graduated before the new reforms came into effect.

Previously, universities used the average of students’ matriculation and psychometric scores in considering their admission applications. Under reformed system, students are only required to submit one score or the other, presumably the higher.

“The psychometric exam has no legal standing,” Piron said. “It burst into our lives without public discussion.”

The psychometric tests have come under fire numerous times for being culturally biased in favor of Israeli students, putting Israeli-Arab students at a distinct disadvantage. Some have also criticized them for the time and money drain they put on prospective students, many of whom spend spend up to a year and sometimes thousands of dollars taking courses to prepare for the exam, which is equivalent to the SATs in the United States.

As part of the reforms, universities will also be expected to work with the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education to write new material for the matriculation exams in order to ensure that the tests are consistent, reliable and meet university academic standards.

Students will also take fewer matriculation exams and start taking them later — only in grades 11 and 12 — in order to accommodate alternative assessments, such as research projects, that will account for 30 percent of students’ matriculation scores. The move is also presumably geared to address concerns that teachers are forced to spend a disproportionate amount of time teaching specifically for the tests.

Council for Higher Education chief Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg praised the reforms, calling them a “brave, right and essential move” that will close the gap between students and higher education.

Giving more weight to matriculation scores will be a “significant contribution to the common goal of providing education, knowledge” to young Israelis.