The ORT Melton High School and College in Bat Yam, a small town on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, aims to provide its students with improved cognitive and learning skills, and develop the teaching methods of the staff. The way? Continuing to help each of its 549 students reach his or her educational and social potential. The means? This project, which improves ORT Melton students' prospects of good matriculation grades upon graduation.

ORT Melton's population requires special attention—and out-of-the-box thinking—to help students obtain a matriculation diploma within a technological discipline of their choice. Today, the school's resources are not sufficient to meet the demand, and its success rate in the matriculation process is below average. The majority of students come from low socio-economic families, and most of the 11th and 12th-grade students work after school to support their families.

This project will train teachers in-house using ORT's Learning Skills Center. On their part, students will learn a variety of subjects, including time management, information analysis and revision techniques, with a greater emphasis placed on use of computers and the Internet. The benefit to students is that their remedial work will be under the guidance of their own familiar teachers rather than outside specialists.

Contributions to this project will allow ORT to:

• Identify students who will benefit from the program;
• Offer diagnositc testing for those students identified as being in need;
• Provide targeted training sessions for both students and teachers to teach the specific skills identified as lacking; and
• Develop material for independent, on-line study and practice in at least three subjects.