By Bonnie K. Goodman, BA, MLIS

The Real Israel Exposed, Part V

Author’s note: This essay is part of The Real Israel Exposed, a series looking at where power, policy, and lived experience collide in Israeli public institutions.

Public education only works when authority operates within accountability. Principals lead, but they do not own the system. Teachers are evaluated through process rather than personal discretion. Students are assessed through standards that are meant to be transparent, evidence based, and fair. Without these foundations, education loses its public purpose and becomes something arbitrary.

In practice, however, credibility does not always follow evidence. In hierarchical systems, particularly those under strain, it often follows power. Voices with the least institutional standing are the easiest to dismiss, not because they are wrong, but because they carry less weight. When that happens, evaluation can quietly turn into erasure.

I felt compelled to write because what I experienced in my recent evaluation was not merely disappointing. It raised deeper questions about how authority is exercised and how judgment is formed when oversight weakens.

While teaching English in a government elementary school this past year, I encountered an evaluation process that did not feel like assessment at all. It felt like a narrative shaped in advance, one that overlooked context, discounted evidence, and substituted personal authority for professional standards.

This is not an essay against evaluation. I believe in feedback, in learning, and in professional growth. Teaching improves through clarity and specificity, not through fear or silence. Growth requires a willingness to engage with complexity rather than flatten it.

In a public school system, especially one shaped by the realities of Israeli life, including war, trauma, and early mandatory service, the way we evaluate educators reveals what we truly value. Not only achievement, but dignity, inclusion, and accountability.

English classrooms are among the hardest to teach in Israel. Students’ proficiency can vary dramatically. In........

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