Plans for the Future

From its modest beginnings in 1997 with two bilingual classrooms of just 45 students, Hand in Hand is steadily building toward its long-term vision: a nationwide network of integrated schools that fundamentally challenge and change the face of education in Israel.

With the help of parents, educators, community leaders, government officials, and friends in Israel and around the world, Hand in Hand plans to take a number of exciting steps in the coming years:

• Fully expand Hand in Hand schools from kindergarten through senior high school
  
• Build independent campuses for each school
  
• Open additional Hand in Hand schools
  
• Earn recognition and special funding from the Ministry of Education for Hand in Hand's model of bilingual, multicultural education. The Dovrat Commission, convened to revamp public education in Israel, has already noted in its report the importance of establishing regional bilingual schools in Israel as a test case for the wide-scale proliferation of such schools in the future.
  
• Continue developing a bilingual multicultural curriculum for grades K-12, to be made available to all schools in the country
  
• Establish a resource center serving all the schools, and researchers and educators from the community at large
  
• Strengthen and expand the cadre of bilingual educators to continue teaching in the schools and to serve as mentors for new, developing bilingual multicultural educational initiatives
  
• Increase activities to broaden the impact of Hand in Hand on the wider community
  
• Expand support networks in Europe, the United States and Israel 
  
• Ensure the procurement and maintenance of state-of-the-art educational equipment for the arts and sciences
  
• Promote bilingual education in Israel by gaining the support of academic institutions, the government and the public.