About the project
The Kedma (Progress) Schools in Israel are secular public high schools that seek to provide low-income, academically at-risk students with high-quality education. The Jerusalem Kedma School school serves approximately 150 junior and senior high school students from the Katamonim and Patt neighborhoods. The school emphasizes academic preparation to enable students to pass the matriculation exams that are the basic requirement for university entry, values education and pride in hertiage and neighborhood in classes with high teacher-student ratios. The school has been located since 2002 in the the former Patt Elementary School, where it shares a facility with the ORT Spanien Technological High School. The Jerusalem Foundation has purchased books and supported activities at the school since 1995, including remedial classes, enrichment programs and support groups to prevent violence operated by the Kassell Center. It also renovated the Josefowitz Library, which was part of the former Patt Elementary School to serve Kedma students in 2003.
