Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

[kickysnana]

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. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. 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). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html?c=y&page=1

[kickysnana]

1. Somebody please send this to the White House we are not speaking. n/t

[denverbill]

2. +1

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[joeybee12]

4. KNR

[LiberalEsto]

5. The Finnish language is phonetic

and letters are always pronounced the same way. A is pronounced like in car, but never like in cat, for example. This makes it very easy to learn to read and write because you're not dealing with silent letters or trying to guess which is a long a/short a, etc. The reason I know this is because I learned to speak, read and write in Estonian (which is related to Finnish) before learning English starting in kindergarten.

Also, Finnish kids don't start school until age 7, which ensures that children are ready to master certain skills that younger kids can't.

Also, it's a fairly homogeneous nation, meaning there aren't many kids from other cultures or language backgrounds in the Finnish schools.

And the equality in education is something we have yet to learn in the U.S., where we compare kids from struggling families in poorly-funded schools on the same standardized tests as kids from wealthy school districts.

These are just a few of many factors, I'd guess.

[FSogol]

6. Because their country is full of Liberals?

:shrug:

[Gregorian]

8. Hahaha. I love it.

[elfin]

7. Didn't read the whole article BUT

I suspect the ingredients for success include respect and appropriate pay for teachers, along with excellent training. More ingredients -- a fairly homogeneous population with agreed upon standards and watchful and encouraging home support.

I have a relative who married a Finn and their daughter (12) speaks both Finnish and English and is learning Mandarin in Toronto. She spends part of each year in Finland. If she is any example of that nation, they are winners in growing youngsters with a wide ranging quest for learning, a paucity of TV time, yet intimately familiar with technology that connects them with friends around the world, and then turning it off to make a watercolor. Impressive and delightful.

[txlibdem]

9. Could the number of vacation days and holidays have anything to do with it

Finland, where workers must get a minimum of 30 days paid vacation plus up to 14 paid holidays a year. That makes it the country with the most generous paid time off laws out of 49 nations surveyed by human resource consulting firm Mercer. (See how the countries rank in the table below.)

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/12/pf/vacation_days_worldwide/

That plus the fact that teachers or someone works individually with the students who are falling behind and helps that child boost themselves back up. Here in America, teachers just pass the failing kid onto the next grade... not my problem anymore.

[roody]

11. Schools in the US don't have enough staff to

give many kids the time and attention they need to master the academics.

[txlibdem]

13. Thus the importance of 44 paid off days for parents to reinforce, teach, give encouragement, etc.

I agree that the US is following a preset path straight down to 3rd world status and part of the reason is our lack of emphasis on quality education.

[Anser]

10. Love it..

I recently wrote a scholarly article on this subject. My conclusions about the basis for their success were more focused on the fact that Finland has an intact social safety net in place. (Unlike our tattered mess comprised solely of fictional bootstraps).

But their more realistic view of testing and standards is another great bonus.

[elias7]

12. Population 5.4 million, same as Minnesota

Low population density, near total homogeneity racially and religiously. Should have good education system. Can't really fairly make any comparisons to US though.

[txlibdem]

14. There have been studies that show boys do better in an all-boys school, girls too

That's about as far as I'd take it. Racial homogeneity is never going to be a part of America's future so there is no point in even bringing it up.

[Name removed]

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