Students, schools, and enrollment in science and humanity courses in Israeli secondary education

This article examines the deteriorating status of the humanities and social sciences versus mathematics and the sciences in the curriculum of Israeli high schools. We examine this tendency by conducting a multi-level analysis of the effect of school and individual characteristics on inequality in curriculum specialization on a sample of academic-track 12th-graders in 1989. The main findings are (a) more able students, males, and members of the privileged Jewish ethnic group in Israel tend to specialize in mathematics and the sciences, and (b) students' characteristics are the major determinant of course-taking in mathematics and the sciences, whereas school policy is central regarding the humanities and social sciences. The article discusses social implications of the findings.