Can the USA adopt a Finnish education system?
As American lawmakers argue over what the best course of action to make the the US education system the best in the world, I wonder why we can't adopt what the best nations in the world are doing. There has been a lot of research on top performing countries and Linda Darling Hammond wrote in her book "The Flat World and Education" what top countries like Singapore, Finland and South Korean have done to improve their education systems and make them among the best in the world. To look at what factors they all have in common, the difficulty then arises of how to implement their change. What they all do is:
Fund Schools Equally-Despite even having private schools, much of what they do falls under the umbrella of public education. In the US, school funding is tied tightly to income tax revenue which means school districts with higher income residence have more tax dollars to purchase better resources and offer better teachers better salaries. Roughly half of US lawmakers send their children to private schools and the rest send theirs to public schools, but often in the most affluent communities. Although one does not need to have better resources to learn, more often than not, it swings the odds in their favor. In short, this keeps the rich kids smart and the poorer kids dumb. To fund schools equally gives every child regardless of family income the same access to opportunities as their peers.
National Standards and Curriculum-All three countries have a curriculum that is consistent across the country. Currently, the US constitution denies the federal government from imposing education standards on states, so states are in charge of developing their own curriculums. This is a shining ray of hope though, as some states have very competitive curriculums and have high test scores in particular disciplines such as reading, math and science. There was some effort to agendize a national curriculum a few year back starting in history, but it was shot down quickly as the question came: "Whose version of history are we teaching?" Some reform efforts have been done to include the work of minorities such as Cesar Chavez, but some conservatives are reluctant to recognize the achievements of Chavez and other notables. Inevitably, most history books have been white washed to be non-controversial, dull and teach US history through the lens of European settlers and the ruling aristocracy rather than minorities such as Native American Indians.
Eliminated Examination Systems-There is very few levels of external examinations and they are administered to give value to their school and also serve as a means to provide more funding to schools that have poor test scores. It would make sense that if a school has lower scores, they need to improve the quality of their teaching and that is what it is used for. Currently in the US, schools are penalized for low test scores, shut down or transformed into charter schools which have more stringent admissions policies. Teacher collegues of mine in the states spend months teaching students how the "pass the test" and forgo critical thinking and learning in real-world applications and scenarios. In short, the US education system is using a "factory productivity" model of churning out graduates like crates of bobble head dolls. Our lawmakers have digressed our learning outcomes to a series of bullet points which somehow translate into kilowatt hours.
Support Ongoing Teacher Learning-South Korea, Finland and Singapore all realize the importance of teachers to form learning communities. Teachers are encouraged to visit and observe colleges while teaching, use common time to develop integrated projects, improve the quality of assessment and deprivatize their practice. They also know that new teachers have much to learn and they have systems to expose staff to ongoing professional development, the best pedagogical practices research based instruction. Compare this to the US that has a "teacher ranking system" that they publish publicly. Poor rankings serve as an excuse to divert children out of a low performing teachers classroom and label them as failures. It's no wonder that 50% of US teachers leave the profession in the first five years.
Develop National Teaching Policies-There are things that teachers do to be successful in the classroom. Statistically, students do not learn well by lecture, yet lecturing is prevalent in US classroom. Most students learn well by inquiry based, knowledge building learning experiences and all teachers are trained to use them well.
There is no silver bullet in US education reform. The changes mentioned above such as nationalizing curriculum and funding schools equally would create a huge stink from the rich and priviledged. Furthermore, the checks and balances of the government have resulted in a bureaucracy which makes it impossible to implement any large, sweeping changes. I plead to US lawmakers: Ignore partisian politics. You are faced with one of the last chances and opportunities to reform education in a way that will benefit your children's children's children. If you don't, 100 years from now when the US is a second rate world power we'll look back and ask: "What were we thinking?"
Biblography
The Flat World And Education: Linda Darling Hamilton
Fund Schools Equally-Despite even having private schools, much of what they do falls under the umbrella of public education. In the US, school funding is tied tightly to income tax revenue which means school districts with higher income residence have more tax dollars to purchase better resources and offer better teachers better salaries. Roughly half of US lawmakers send their children to private schools and the rest send theirs to public schools, but often in the most affluent communities. Although one does not need to have better resources to learn, more often than not, it swings the odds in their favor. In short, this keeps the rich kids smart and the poorer kids dumb. To fund schools equally gives every child regardless of family income the same access to opportunities as their peers.
National Standards and Curriculum-All three countries have a curriculum that is consistent across the country. Currently, the US constitution denies the federal government from imposing education standards on states, so states are in charge of developing their own curriculums. This is a shining ray of hope though, as some states have very competitive curriculums and have high test scores in particular disciplines such as reading, math and science. There was some effort to agendize a national curriculum a few year back starting in history, but it was shot down quickly as the question came: "Whose version of history are we teaching?" Some reform efforts have been done to include the work of minorities such as Cesar Chavez, but some conservatives are reluctant to recognize the achievements of Chavez and other notables. Inevitably, most history books have been white washed to be non-controversial, dull and teach US history through the lens of European settlers and the ruling aristocracy rather than minorities such as Native American Indians.
Eliminated Examination Systems-There is very few levels of external examinations and they are administered to give value to their school and also serve as a means to provide more funding to schools that have poor test scores. It would make sense that if a school has lower scores, they need to improve the quality of their teaching and that is what it is used for. Currently in the US, schools are penalized for low test scores, shut down or transformed into charter schools which have more stringent admissions policies. Teacher collegues of mine in the states spend months teaching students how the "pass the test" and forgo critical thinking and learning in real-world applications and scenarios. In short, the US education system is using a "factory productivity" model of churning out graduates like crates of bobble head dolls. Our lawmakers have digressed our learning outcomes to a series of bullet points which somehow translate into kilowatt hours.
Support Ongoing Teacher Learning-South Korea, Finland and Singapore all realize the importance of teachers to form learning communities. Teachers are encouraged to visit and observe colleges while teaching, use common time to develop integrated projects, improve the quality of assessment and deprivatize their practice. They also know that new teachers have much to learn and they have systems to expose staff to ongoing professional development, the best pedagogical practices research based instruction. Compare this to the US that has a "teacher ranking system" that they publish publicly. Poor rankings serve as an excuse to divert children out of a low performing teachers classroom and label them as failures. It's no wonder that 50% of US teachers leave the profession in the first five years.
Develop National Teaching Policies-There are things that teachers do to be successful in the classroom. Statistically, students do not learn well by lecture, yet lecturing is prevalent in US classroom. Most students learn well by inquiry based, knowledge building learning experiences and all teachers are trained to use them well.
There is no silver bullet in US education reform. The changes mentioned above such as nationalizing curriculum and funding schools equally would create a huge stink from the rich and priviledged. Furthermore, the checks and balances of the government have resulted in a bureaucracy which makes it impossible to implement any large, sweeping changes. I plead to US lawmakers: Ignore partisian politics. You are faced with one of the last chances and opportunities to reform education in a way that will benefit your children's children's children. If you don't, 100 years from now when the US is a second rate world power we'll look back and ask: "What were we thinking?"
Biblography
The Flat World And Education: Linda Darling Hamilton
While discussing the adoption of the Finnish education system in the USA, it's crucial to recognize the unique aspects of both systems. However, as I'm currently focused on taking my online MBA class, exploring potential improvements in education systems is an interesting topic for future consideration.
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