MALEH Alternative Learning Space

Maleh is a collaborative effort of Ashalim (a partnership between JDC, the Government of Israel and UJA-Federation of New York); the Ministry of Education; and local municipalities.   

MALEH Alternative Learning Space is a program geared towards combating school dropout among  youth at-risk  in Israel. MALEH helps elementary and junior high schools deal with students at risk of drop out, by creating an attractive and nurturing environment – an Alternative Learning Space – to engage these students.

This is a  physical space  in the school, designed to be a “cool” place to be, without the stigma of a special needs classroom, where staff work with students according to individually customized reintegration plans.

By targeting the most at-risk students in the school, the program has the dual effect of helping the actual at-risk students, while also fostering a more conducive atmosphere in the school in the long-term enabling all the students to progress with their studies in an improved school climate.

The labyrinth impact 

These students desperately need focused attention and support in order to prevent their ultimate drop out from school.

Such assistance is often not feasible in the regular classroom where students' behaviors and irregular presence habitually have highly detrimental effects on their peers.

However, removal from the classroom often exacerbates the situation leading to students' non-cooperation and further deteriorated attendance.  Additionally, teachers, who often lack specific training for working with such students, find themselves frustrated in their inability to reach these young people.

The solution - MALEH Program

MALEH works in 3 aspects in parallel for a combined joint effort:

1. Students- Operating both on a one-to-one and small group basis, MALEH activities offer students educational and social reinforcement during school and after school hours until eventually, they are ready to return to their classroom as fully involved students.
2. School Mngt & staff - MALEH works with teachers, the principal, and other school staff to help them understand these students and assimilate an approach in schools that addresses the issues they face and thus prevent dropout.
3. Parents & Community - MALEH works to create a wide support network comprising students' families and community members with connections to the student.

Program Goals:

The MALEH program has the following goals for each school that it enters:

• To reverse the process of dropping out among students who were identified   as latent or actual dropouts
• To formulate a unique response for each student, based on his/her needs, in order for him/her to function as a regular student in his class
• To work with the school staff on focusing its professionalism and attention on preventing their students from dropping out and instead maintaining them in the school without the need to segregate them permanently in a ‘small class’.

MALEH Accomplishments:

• MALEH is currently operating in over 68 schools across Israel
• Further 50 requesting the program be implemented
• Currently 1,000 children are benefiting from the project
• Demonstrated success in decreasing violence and increasing school attendance amongst these children
• The program's success is evaluated by ongoing internal assessments made by school principals and teachers

In addition, in 2007-2008, Israel's Ministry of Education will be conducting its own external evaluation of the program.

In the coming 2008-9 school year, the program will operate in over 65 schools, including entry to the Israeli-Arab sector.

Certain local authorities are themselves finding new resources with which to expand the MALEH program in their jurisdictions, in some cases also adapting the program to the needs of their local elementary or high schools. For example, the Yokne’am-Megiddo region is undertaking a 3-year MALEH program in two new schools with the support of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis and the Jewish Federation of Atlanta.

Alongside MALEH's rapid expansion, seven veteran schools have reached the point where they can operate the program independently, enabling Ashalim to phase-out and invest its energies in new schools.

 In order to ensure MALEH's successful internalization by the many new schools implementing the program, the steering committee seeks to expand the budget for ongoing staff training.