Finland

They say that comparisons are odious. Nevertheless, the educational achievements of Finland and the U. S. are frequently compared by Reformists (Politicians, Pundits, Polemicists, and all too many Professors who should know better and perhaps do), and the U. S. does not come off favorably in the comparison. So it is that an acquaintance who hails from France never fails to remind me that the U. S. has the worst schools in the world, with the stupidest, laziest, greediest teachers. I can’t fault the guy. If he reads the news or watches it on TV or listens to talk radio, that is what he gets, so he figures it must be true.

Indeed, on the Program for International Assessment (PISA) test http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/ Finland outscores us handily: in reading, Finland is third, internationally, and the US is fifteenth; in science, Finland is second, the US is twenty third; in math, Finland is down a little from the head of the pack at sixth, but the US places at an abysmal thirty-first. Little Finland runs at the head of the pack of nations, while the US lumps lamely along somewhere back in the middle, behind Finland, Korea, and Canada, but ahead of Chile, Mexico, and the Kyrgyz Republic.

But for all that the Reformists love to trumpet our inferiority, they have little to say about what the Finns actually do that we do not. What we might emulate to our benefit?  I am reminded of a friend’s experience in Drafting class. He got his first exercise back with an F. When he asked the instructor why the low grade, Mr. Close replied “It’s no damned good.” When he pressed for an explanation of what was wrong, he was dismissed with “Figure it out.”

What is it that Finnish schools do that we do not that makes the difference? “A+ for Finland” in the September, 2011 Smithsonian gives us a glimpse into Finnish schools. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html

Here are some points I gathered from this article.

• Finland has not always had an exemplary system. “The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellant of the country’s economic recovery plan. “Finland’s schools were not always a wonder. Until the late 1960s, Finns were still emerging from the cocoon of Soviet influence. Most children left public school after six years. (The rest went to private schools, academic grammar schools or folk schools, which tended to be less rigorous.) Only the privileged or lucky got a quality education.”
• “Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around.”
• Lagging students, whether dull, lazy, or with learning problems are seldom held back a grade, nor are they social-promoted. Instead, teachers go to great pains to see that each student is brought up to speed – team teaching, tutoring, alternative lesson plans – whatever works. “If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges. Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school.” “’We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.’”
• Finnish children come from much more economically homogeneous backgrounds than do American children. Few children come from really poor or really wealthy home. Finland seems not to have the gap between rich and poor that we have.
• “Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)”
• This fact alone may render much of the Finnish approach not applicable in America. “It’s almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless. Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing. In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 Euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17. Ninety-seven percent of 6-year-olds attend public preschool, where children begin some academics. Schools provide food, medical care, counseling and taxi service if needed. Stu­dent health care is free.” Clearly, American society will not accept much of the social premise upon which Finnish success is built.
• Finland is not the ethnically homogeneous nation it used to be. Finnish cities are getting their share of immigrant influx. Such students are mainstreamed as soon as possible and are then given such help as is needed to keep up with their studies while continuing to learn Finnish.
• Teachers are recruited from the top ten percent of their graduating classes. They are then admitted to a Master’s program. A Master’s degree is the entry degree into the teaching profession.
• Vouchers, charter schools, privatization, competition between teachers and schools, and other “reform” schemes so highly regarded in the US receive little regard in Finland. Finland remains firmly committed to its public schools. Finland’s schools are publicly funded and are run by public employees.
• “There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions.”
• “Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students.”
• The Finnish attitude toward testing, especially high-stakes testing is markedly different from ours. “Not until sixth grade will kids have the option to sit for a district-wide exam, and then only if the classroom teacher agrees to participate. Most do, out of curiosity. Results are not publicized. Finnish educators have a hard time understanding the United States’ fascination with standardized tests.
• “Neighboring Norway, a country of similar size, embraces education policies similar to those in the United States. It employs standardized exams and teachers without master’s degrees. And like America, Norway’s PISA scores have been stalled in the middle ranges for the better part of a decade.”
• “The school receives 47,000 Euros a year in positive discrimination money to hire aides and special education teachers, who are paid slightly higher salaries than classroom teachers because of their required sixth year of university training and the demands of their jobs. There is one teacher (or assistant) in Siilitie for every seven students.”  Reformists and other critics of American schools keep repeating that “You can’t solve a problem by throwing money at it.” This is only partly true. Spending “thrown” money on what we know does not work yields few results. But most improvements require an investment of funds, or they just won’t happen. It is necessary to throw money at problems. It’s what is done with the money we throw that matters.
• According to Finland’s Parliamentary acts of 1963 that created its public school system, “Public schools would be organized into one system of comprehensive schools, or peruskoulu, for ages 7 through 16. Teachers from all over the nation contributed to a national curriculum that provided guidelines, not prescriptions.” (Bold face mine.)
• “Sifting and sorting children into so-called ability groupings was eliminated. All children—clever or less so—were to be taught in the same classrooms, with lots of special teacher help available to make sure no child really would be left behind.”
• The Finnish attitude toward accountability seems markedly different from that of Americans in general and Reformists in particular: “…accountability and inspection [were turned] over to teachers and principals. “ ‘We have our own motivation to succeed because we love the work… Our incentives come from inside.’ ”
• One of the principals interviewed seemed to sum it up: “But we are always looking for ways to improve.”
• Oh, yes. Finland has a powerful teacher’s union.

Much of the Finnish attitude seems to be more like what we used to be than what we are becoming. The Reformists hold Finland up as the shining counter-example to our “failure.” But would our current political climate and political will allow us to emulate some of the things the Finns actually do so successfully? Color me skeptical.