<p>This article caught my attention while I was eating lunch today. No bashing of the American schools, just a fascinating inside look at a different educational system:</p>
<p>[What</a> Makes Finnish Kids So Smart? - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120425355065601997.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_weekendjournal]What”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120425355065601997.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_weekendjournal)</p>
<p>My kids are 1/4 Finnish - maybe that’s why they test well.</p>
<p>It’s nice to see the WSJ reporting something that some of us have known for a long time. There are more countries worth … checking out for better performance on the PISA and TIMMS test, including countries that are not so homogeneous.</p>
<p>The key parts of the article are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What they find is simple but not easy: well-trained teachers and responsible children. Early on, kids do a lot without adults hovering. And teachers create lessons to fit their students. “We don’t have oil or other riches. Knowledge is the thing Finnish people have,” says Hannele Frantsi, a school principal.</p></li>
<li><p>Despite the apparent simplicity of Finnish education, it would be tough to replicate in the U.S. With a largely homogeneous population, teachers have few students who don’t speak Finnish. In the U.S., about 8% of students are learning English, according to the Education Department. There are fewer disparities in education and income levels among Finns. </p></li>
<li><p>Finland separates students for the last three years of high school based on grades; 53% go to high school and the rest enter vocational school. (All 15-year-old students took the PISA test.) Finland has a high-school dropout rate of about 4% – or 10% at vocational schools – compared with roughly 25% in the U.S., according to their respective education departments.</p></li>
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<p>It is important to understand the impact of having almost no disparity in income: it makes teaching a VERY attractive profession even for people who have obtaining training as a lawyer or a physician. Teaching is also a WELL RESPECTED profession and it attracts the best of the best, especially for the smaller grades. A similar phenomenom has happened in Korea (although with a few differences.)</p>
<p>I have a sister who lived in Sweden for 20 years and constantly criticized the American system of education and…everything. I just rolled my eyes. HOMOGENOUS POPULATION is the key here.</p>
<p>Maybe they’re better at finnishing their tests.</p>
<p>xiggi, excellent points.</p>
<p>Maybe they eat more fish (brains)?</p>
<p>Oops, Just because I find fish brains a delicacy doesn,t make me no sarmter.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/health/03real.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/health/03real.html</a>
Feast on the body and not the brains.</p>
<p>The WSJ article doesn’t openly bash U.S. schools, but if you dig into the OECD’s website, you’ll see that U.S. (public) schools are bashed to smithereens. </p>
<p>Take a look at the OECD’s Economic Department Working Paper #585, Primary and Secondary Education in the United States by Peter Tulip and Gregory Wurzburg (ECO/WKP(2007)45, 06-Dec-2007). Tulip and Wurzburg openly advocate the reauthorization and expansion of NCLB. (You can browse through this and other OECD Economcs Department working papers at oecd.org/eco/Working_Papers.) </p>
<p>The OECD is a low-profile but highly controversial organization dedicated (in part) to furthering economic globalization. The PISA is essentially a pro-globalization tool. For years, the PISA has been under fire from various governments citing PISA research design inadequacies yielding statistically insignificant–and misleading–results. Again, visit the OECD’s website, and browse by topic to Society/Education. You can dig through the PISA information there. </p>
<p>For a real eye-opener, do a Google search on the OECD and PISA.</p>
<p>Here is a slightly older article (2004) from the BBC:</p>
<p>[BBC</a> NEWS | UK | Education | Finland tops global school table](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4073753.stm]BBC”>BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Finland tops global school table)</p>
<p>From here in the Great White North, I see this as a rather complex phenomenon. In many ways we are much more like the US than Finland. We have a large land mass, a multicultural population, and disparity in income.</p>
<p>I don’t see lawyers and CEOs becoming teachers, but teaching is quite respectable and admission to teachers’ college is rather competitive. At present, only about one third of teaching grads managed to find permanent positions in Ontario, so the quality of those getting jobs are very good or well-connected. Compensation is also not too bad.</p>
<p>Despite strong performance on PISA, however, we are still unable to close the gap among ethnic groups, professionals vs non-professionals, urban vs. rural, single parent households vs traditional families etc.</p>
<p>I guess “culture”, in all its manifestations, are far more important than we are willing to admit. Belgium is a good example. The Flemish do as well as South Korea and Finland in math, but the French drag the overall score down.</p>
<p>Canuckguy, I think the income disparity between the Flemish and the French is huge in Belgium, that is why the educational levels are different for the two groups.</p>
<p>I watched this on the news (I think BBC) a couple of months ago, one of the best schools in Brussels (Flemish school) was operating on a first come first serve bases, and some parents started queuing the day before to get their kids into that school.</p>
<p>I know a lot of the parents on CC will probably do the same. </p>
<p>In Finland there are few private schools, almost all grade to high schools are public, and funding is centralized, so one region does not get more money than other regions.</p>
<p>From the article: "Teachers must hold master’s degrees, and the profession is highly competitive: More than 40 people may apply for a single job. Their salaries are similar to those of U.S. teachers, but they generally have more freedom.</p>
<p>Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape students to national standards. “In most countries, education feels like a car factory. In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs,” says Mr. Schleicher, of the Paris-based OECD, which began the international student test in 2000."</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see how much money is spent per student.</p>
<p>It is mentioned that Finland promotes small class size which makes such a difference. My son benefited from this all through his schooling with no more than 15 to a class and his upper level IB classes had 5 for the most part per class. In first grade he was in a class of 11.</p>
<p>It is mentioned that professional development is a requirement for teachers. This means they may be sent to another country as part of some classwork, all expense paid trips. It happens where I teach in the EU. Professional development monies are deducted from my paycheck each month and can be accessed with matching funds provided by the government for my being able to travel for instance to Switzerland for a conference. Not bad and it may give teachers a better sense of being part of a professional class.</p>
<p>I can say that our American parents are the most disrespectful group towards the school in general as they see the school in a negative light and tend to think they know more than the professional teaching staff that represents multiple countries. We have Finns as well as other europeans and they have for the most part a very respectful relationship with teachers and administration.</p>
<p>I really do believe you can close the class gap by cutting down the numbers of children in a class setting. But that means putting your money where your mouth is so to speak.</p>
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<p>That’s the first thing I thought – seriously. Seriously. </p>
<p>Xiggi teases out some really important points above. They are all important, but one thing jumps out at me is the quality of teachers and pay. There are several countries where being a teacher is a respected and reasonably remunerated job. These are countries where experience matters too. Heck, you’d never have a Teach for America kind of situation where they were sending inexperienced teachers into classrooms. But more importantly you wouldn’t have teaching being a fall-back profession for people who, frankly speaking, aren’t all that well educated as a rule. I know there are exceptions, but let’s face it, we get what we pay for.</p>
<p>My husband drew my attention to this article, and I told him it was genetic. (I’m half Finnish. 
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<p>Seriously, though, he wanted to become a math teacher. He has an undergraduate degree in Econ, an MBA in finance, and is a CFA. He’s had various investment licenses over the years. He had worked in the financial sector for several decades with well known organizations such as major rating agencies. When he had a provisional certificate, he was contacted after applying for several jobs, although he didn’t get any of them due to the red tape involved. (NCLB requires that any district that hires someone who is not fully certified send a letter to the parents of every child in their classes, stating that they will be taught by an uncertified teacher. The district also has to prove that they tried to hire a certified teacher and could not.) Now that he has completed the certification requirements (and I think has an MA in Ed as a result, or close to it), not a single nibble. Not so much as an interview. Why? Obviously they don’t want to pay for someone with a master’s degree, and the pay scale would require it.</p>
<p>Decreasing class size does not necessary improve scores, and studies support that.</p>
<p>If a schools have lots of resources, then sure you can have small class size. However most school has limited resource. In Korea, the teachers are paid well relative to the per capita GPA, but part of the reason they can afford that is that they have large class size.</p>
<p>It is a matter of quantity vs quality. Unless it is a rich private school, decreasing class size means hiring more inexperienced teachers. In the area where I live, the weak school districts actually have more funding, lower class size, but the average teacher salary is lower. The strong districts use the resource for more experienced teacher at the expense of a larger class size.</p>
<p>I think the “Homogenous population” (as in homogenous, from well-educated, well-fed families with stability and strong social support and good health-care) is the key. Most of the kids in my kinder class come to school in the morning unwashed, without having had breakfast or having brushed their teeth (and too late for the free breakfast offered, since their households are too disorganized to have a caregiver get the kids up in time to get to school for breakfast). They have parents in jail, or just out of jail. They have mothers who work housekeeping jobs from 3 until midnight, and dads who are unemployed, or they are without dads (though sometimes they call their mom’s boyfriend “dad”). They live with their 7 siblings and their first cousins in their grandmother’s house - when they are not living with their mother’s sister in her apartment with her boyfriend, or staying with mom’s boyfriend’s mother. They have had no books read to them before starting school, and have very small vocabularies since no one actually converses with them. Language is one-way. “Sit down. Eat your food. Come here, baby, and give Momma a hug. Don’t do that. You do that again, I’m going to whop you.”
Don’t get me started on my soapbox! :(</p>
<p>There are a couple of concerns I have however. </p>
<p>1st; Just like in Holland when I live there, they pre-determine your future by the time you are done with what we call Junior High. At that point, the country determines if you will go to a high school that leads to continuing education; e.g. college; or if you will go the Vocational School route. There are plenty of reasons for a child to be a “Late Bloomer” academically. To be told that you CAN’T go a certain direction academically and that you are going vocational school, sucks. Of course, if your family has the money, you can go to any school you want. Doesn’t matter what the state says. Anyway, I don’t like the country saying my kid CAN’T go to college or be on that track in high school.</p>
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<li><p>Between income tax (9%-32.5); municipal tax (16% - 21%), and church tax, . Combined, this could be up to paying 60% in taxes. Also, unemployment, while going down some, is still over 8%. Now, if paying such high taxes isn’t a problem for some people, and because of the socialized programs and education you think it’s worth the high taxes and unemployment, then I guess it’s good. Me personally, I wouldn’t want it. I’ve live in that environment before. </p></li>
<li><p>The size of Finland is also only about that twice the size of Missouri. In other words, it’s a lot easier to manage. Now, if the United States was allowed to have each state run their educational system without any influence from Washington D.C., I believe our education system would be better.</p></li>
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<p>I will give Finland credit however for their educational system. They pay less per student than the USA. But, they have the much higher tax base to take care of the other social and family issues. Thus, that not being as big an issue. Finland however doesn’t have as large of an immigration problem as the U.S. It doesn’t have as big of a language issue among students as the US. It’s physically easier to manage their programs. Their society is more rooted in history and culture and isn’t dealing with as much political correctness as the U.S. </p>
<p>No, comparing them to the USA is too much apples and oranges. I personally don’t want to pay 60% in taxes. INCLUDING a church tax. I definitely don’t want the state/country limiting my child’s education by telling them when they are 12-13 what direction they will be going educationally. (That definitely will help in math/science scores when you’ve determined which kids are allowed to learn calculus.). Anyway; if it’s a choice, I’d rather stay with our system; for our type of culture and society. This way each child at least has a chance. It seems like in Finland/Holland and some others, if you have the opportunity to further your education in High School, you will do great. If you aren’t allowed to, then you get vocational type training and must be satisfied with that. Our culture promotes you can do anything if you try hard enough. If the parents would get more involved and promote this dream with their kids when they are young, that can have a big impact on our children’s education. Instead of the idea that living in poverty and on society is acceptable.</p>
<p>Anyway, good for Finland. I applaud them. It’s just not practical in our society.</p>
<p>Anxiousmom, I have a friend who works at a pre-school such as the one you describe. She tells us some rather shocking stories of her typical workdays.
This fall, there was an issue with headlice and the parent’s not properly treating the kids…the cycle just keep repeating itself and when she called a parent of a girl that had a major infestation, she got called every name in the book. Seems it was just too inconvenient to pick up her kid and take her home to treat her…security had to be called…to a preschool !</p>
<p>Yep. Some of my kids have chronic lice. The problem is that not only do you have to wash the kid’s hair, you have to wash all the linens, then comb out all the nits. It’s expensive and time-consuming, and most parents don’t have the time, the money, or the persistence to do so. The school can only ban the kids for live infestations, so the problem continues all year as the nits hatch. (Sorry, I’m sure this is too much information for some of you!!!)</p>
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<p>While there is an income and wealth disparity in Belgium, the importance of the school funding is not relevant at all. All schools are free to citizens, including the very large percentage of private schools. All education is public; the difference is only if the schools are governmental or private. Flemish Belgium has a majority of private (Catholic Schools) while the Walloon side had more government (and more liberal schools.) </p>
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<p>Belgium and the Netherlands have TRUE school freedom and school choice. Private schools are still funded by the government (with the exception of a few marginal schools that operate outside the educational system.) Private schools in Belgium cannot be compared with ours. All schools compete for students since school choice is part of the Belgian constitution. School freedom means that individuals can start schools that will be part of the public system. </p>
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<p>Vocational schools are not a ticket to the unemployment line. Students are taught skills they’ll be able to use as soon as they graduate. Our main option for students who do not perform well is … dropping out without ANY marketable skills. The REAL dropout rate in the United States is nothing short of alarming, especially among minorities. </p>
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<p>Very few countries in the world spend more than the Unites States; Luxemburg is one. The biggest differences in spending per pupil stem from a much smaller percentage of expenses going to administrative costs, not to mention the waste.</p>