For more than a decade, LCE has maintained Professional Development School (PDS) partnerships with schools and local authorities in collaboration with pedagogues and administrators of the Ministry of Education. All told, 58 kindergartens and schools in 13 cities across Israel are partnered with us. Every week, some 500 students and more than 50 teaching instructors work directly alongside local teaching staff to improve educational outcomes. For example:
In Lod: More than 110 students and 20 instructors are partnered with 9 primary schools (regular and special education, as well as music education), working together with about 50 teacher trainers.
In Netanya: 26 kindergartens participate in a cooperative early childhood education program with LCE, the Netanya Municipality and the Ministry of Education. Some 30 early childhood education trainees and 50 pedagogy students and instructors are involved with the program.
In Jerusalem: LCE has since 2005 led a music education program for Ultra-Orthodox teachers at the Ron-Shulamit Music Conservatory. Some 40 have graduated to date in this expanding program which in 2013 had 40 students enrolled.
In Safed: A joint music education program with Safed College opened in 2013, offering teaching certificates in music education to musicology students drawn largely from Israel's Arab population.