Great article about Finland's education system.
For starters, Finland has no standardized tests. The only exception is what's called the National Matriculation Exam, which everyone takes at the end of a voluntary upper-secondary school, roughly the equivalent of American high school.Instead, the public school system's teachers are trained to assess children in classrooms using independent tests they create themselves. All children receive a report card at the end of each semester, but these reports are based on individualized grading by each teacher. Periodically, the Ministry of Education tracks national progress by testing a few sample groups across a range of different schools.
As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. "There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."
Interesting read!
Having been to Finland recently, I can say that my impression was very favorable, as far as general interactions with people. Intelligent, friendly, and very proud to show off their country to foreigners. Definitely did seem to have a very high quality of life, other than the cold.
I write music and stuff. | RoughneckGeek: I stop reading a thread when Q-Stone becomes the voice of reason.
Contrast the bolded part to our country, where statistically the bottom third of college students end up majoring in education.
Finland's average veteran teacher salary is 13% lower than the average salary for college graduates. The average US veteran teacher salary is 40% lower than the average salary for college graduates.
Additionally, Finland gives teachers more autonomy and works to increase the status of the teaching profession.
I don't find it surprising that an employer (in this case, the Finnish government) is able to attract better candidates when offering better pay and status.
You are comparing apples to cardboard boxes
MattDaddy wrote:Dimmer is mostly correct
Plus it is easier to make something work in a country of 5 million people like Finland than a country of 312 million like the US.
Not to mention a far more homogenous population.
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I'd think that decentralized approach would work even better in a bigger country.
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I hear that excuse a lot, but being 312 million people doesn't prevent us from taking steps that work. What does prevent us is the sense of economic entitlement. Folks believe that being rich means that they can deny basic and adequate education for nearly half of American school age children. I see it here even in progressive Howard County. Folks here don't want to give a dime to improve Prince Georges County schools because they're desperately afraid that their pampered kids won't have a leg up on some unknown ghetto genius.
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The article does note that they compared to Norway as well, which is similarly homogenous, but their schools have performance much more like America, with a school system closer to ours...
I write music and stuff. | RoughneckGeek: I stop reading a thread when Q-Stone becomes the voice of reason.
Don't know if folks are reading the article or not, but here's one relevant excerpt.
You are comparing apples to cardboard boxes
MattDaddy wrote:Dimmer is mostly correct
This would require huge reform including the breaking up of the teachers union.
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Finnish schools have actually come up before in P&C:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...
I don't think the problem is lack of money. I don't think most people vote against school taxes because they want their private school kid to have an advantage, it is more about the schools have already gotten increases of millions with no corresponding scholastic improvement and they are tired of giving and yet still being asked for more. I read something a year or two back that American public school per student spending is the highest or near highest in the world. Also comparing state education budgets does not have much correlation to the states that have the highest education quality/test results.
When your school system has more administrators than teachers you have a problem and the problem is not that you need more money.
I was going to say, you are aware that we spend more per student than most places in the world. The problem is we waste most of it.
I certainly agree that there a lot of waste, but much of that has to do with the fact that our system (or lack of one) intrinsically ties education quality to real estate values. This goes back to what I said above in the quoted section.
Go to school in Korea, for instance, and your access to a school appropriate to your academic ability is limited only to your ability to express your potential on national exams. Go to school in Finland and your access doesn't seem to be limited much at all. Go to school in the United States, however, and your access to a quality education is limited by your choice of parentage and their ability to afford to move to places like Howard or Montgomery County.
That, to me, represents a gigantic atrocity perpetrated on American children and, consequently, America's future.
I think Paleocon is right about pretty much everything. -- Mex
Paleocon is entirely right --DanB
I've made my case, Paleocon... and now I am abandoning it, because yours is far more persuasive. --detriot20
Paleocon is a wise man --Taer