From a Business Insider article on Finland (first link below):
"Since it implemented huge education reforms 40 years ago, Finland's school system has consistently come at the top for the international rankings for education systems.
So how do they do it?
It's simple — by going against the evaluation-driven, centralized model that much of the Western world uses."
Then check this out--it's not due to money because, as the article below will tell you, Finland spends around 30 percent less per student than the United States.
We need to learn, folks, clearly. It's not only not about money, it's not about testing incessantly, either, if these people and their results are any indication, as they should be.
Links: http://www.businessinsider.com/finland-education-school-2011-12?op=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/from-finland-an-intriguing-school-reform-model.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0
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There are a lot of good ideas in that article. I've seen a bunch of studies that kids who start school later catch up within a couple of years--I think we've argued about it here in the context of Head Start. I think the majority of schoolwork should be done in school.
Not sure I agree with 'no testing'--there should be something to determine if a school or program is successful. However the testing should be vastly different than we do it, much more flexible--A relatively small core of 'mandatory must know', along with something like 'should know 3 of these 47 subjects, 5 of these 112..., be familiar with 40 of these 2500 literary works...'. I really dislike 'no child left behind' and the current form of mandatory testing--it gives Government the defacto power to censor by merely not making certain knowledge mandatory.
Not sure about 'all children in the same classrooms' either--It is a nice democratic goal...but I suspect that it is likely to inhibit progress at all levels. How much should 20 children be held up to let 1 participate? How bored should a gifted child be before he can move on? Can a very slow child keep up enough to benefit from standard classroms? I'm also thinking of Project Discovery, a gifted program my Daughter was in where she spent half a day a week in advanced classes. As an adult, she now says that looking forward to those classes made the rest of school tolerable, and remaining elegible was a prime motivator for doing regular, boring schoolwork.
Per capita spending is largely irrelevant without comparing other aspects of the respective economies.
A low difference between weakest and strongest isn't a good thing--we should promote genius far more than equality.
Having science classes with a high teacher/student ratio is a fantastic idea--we need much more hands-on learning. It isn't a bad thing in other classes either if we can afford it.
Master's degree is likely excessive, although again if we can afford it...
Having 10 applicants for each available job is fantastic, and likely one of the major keys to their success. I strongly suspect there are some deliberately misleading stats here--starting salaries in dollars, experienced salaries in % of college grad (shouldn't that be % of average master's degree salary?)
Merit pay isn't necessary if you've got the option of only hiring the best 10%.
Teachers are effectively given the same status as doctors and lawyers
Great feedback loop going here (and I mean that sincerely)--Only the best are able to get jobs as teachers, so teachers get lots of respect, so there is lots of competition for teaching jobs, so only the best get hired...
We can't duplicate this while teachers’ unions have their current level of power. I had some pretty bad teachers. I also had some good ones, and some good ones that I didn't get along with, and could recognize the difference (or at least can in retrospect). None of the bad ones were fired. The one teacher who taught us that more adventurous people were the ones who migrated out of Africa and that's why whites are smarter than blacks didn't have her contract renewed...but continued teaching us for the rest of the year. Racism like that should have been grounds for immediate termination with the cause going on her permanent record for future teaching jobs--especially in a mixed-race classroom.
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