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SES has long been known to have a huge impact on educational outcomes. Findland has almost no poverty. That in itself would predict great educational outcomes.
SES has long been known to have a huge impact on educational outcomes. Findland has almost no poverty. That in itself would predict great educational outcomes.
Finland does take care of its poor because of its social programs. However, the great educational outcomes were not happening until they changed their schools. The US does have the highest rate of poverty in the first world, although Italy and the UK are close and Canada is only slightly lower. Interestingly, the social mobility in the US is fairly low.
The poverty rate in Finland was increasing in 2010 (unfortunately). There are high rates of immigration from countries like Iraq and Bosnia.
Social mobility is the most constrained in the United States: “American children are less likely to move out of the bottom of the income distribution than children elsewhere, something which challenges common perceptions about mobility and opportunity in the US.” The report found that of the poorest fifth of children living in the US, about 70 percent will remain in the poorest fifth for two years, 45 percent for five years, and 30 percent for ten years. Recent government initiatives, such as the welfare “reform” implemented by the Clinton administration, can only serve to exacerbate these conditions of child poverty and inequality.
The success is partly cultural, but it also has to do with the attitude of the government toward education
Prior to 2000 Finland rarely appeared on anyone’s list of the world’s most outstanding education systems. This is partly explained by the fact that while Finland has always done well on international tests of literacy, its performance in five different international mathematics or science assessments between 1962 and 1999 never rose above average. But it was also because Finland’s path to education reform and improvement has been slow and steady, proceeding gradually over the past four decades. Its current success is due to this steady progress, rather than as a consequence of highly visible innovations launched by a particular political leader or party.
Why is it that everyone in the US has excuses for why things won't work here when they do work in other countries. No, we are not like other first world countries, but that is no excuse for doing things the way we do them when what we do actually makes things worse, not better.
Why is it that everyone in the US has excuses for why things won't work here when they do work in other countries. No, we are not like other first world countries, but that is no excuse for doing things the way we do them when what we do actually makes things worse, not better.
Our nation is completely dysfunctional and will collapse and/or transform into a third world country in the future. We cannot even design a proper health care system in spite of other nations providing numerous concrete examples of far superior (and much less expensive) working health care systems. Our educational system is broken. Our higher educational system is churning out indentured educated servants, etc. It seems like almost every aspect of our nation is dysfunctional.
From what I read fattened up Finland elites really, really like neo liberal American model rewarding success with little or no social responsibility, Finland slides the way of USA fast.
Our nation is completely dysfunctional and will collapse and/or transform into a third world country in the future. We cannot even design a proper health care system in spite of other nations providing numerous concrete examples of far superior (and much less expensive) working health care systems. Our educational system is broken. Our higher educational system is churning out indentured educated servants, etc. It seems like almost every aspect of our nation is dysfunctional.
Our nation is a top dog nevertherless. Entire world makes stuff for us, gives their resources to us and ships their best brains and backs to us. Just look at USA as a feudal baron generously accepting rent from his global peasants. You don't have to be functional at everything to become a top dog.
Finland has some obvious advantages when it comes to education: Relatively homogeneous society; high standard of living; great government programs; and so on.
I think the school system itself has two aspects which benefits it greatly: 1) Every teacher (or nearly every?) has a master's degree; and 2) Students tend to stay with the same teacher throughout their schooling, which fosters an almost parent/child relationship. Of course, some might argue that one or both of those aspects have little to do with educational success. However, they seem to be working for Finland!
Some key points about Finland's educational system:
-Teaching is a prestigious profession in Finland and teachers are compensated as such. This attracts better candidates to the profession.
-Standardized tests play almost no role.
-Students are not tracked by ability, but there are in-class intervention specialists.
-Teachers stay with students for multiple years (looping).
-Students stay in the same school for their entire career.
-Students spend less hours in school, but while there they focus on the basics.
Many of the things going on in Finland would never fly in the United States simply for the fact that they defy the conceptions of education reform that have been pushed in the past few decades here.
All I can say is good luck changing any of this. Most of it seems to be rooted in the culture of Finland. People have been trying to rescue the culture of the U.S. for decades to no avail.
If teachers in Finland are culturally members of a prestigious profession, they are considered laborers in the U.S. and they treat themselves as such (consider the recent Chiacgo strike where they marched in the streets, banging on garbage cans, chanting and looking like buffoons). Teachers in the U.S. were originally young single women, and by and large they still are. Make the college courses tougher for prospective teachers, with the promise of higher pay at the end, and you're going to start getting young males interested. Young males who are entering a prestigious profession will obviously not consider themselves laborers and will not be inclined to join the NEA or the AFT. For that reason, this will never get off the ground.
All I can say is good luck changing any of this. Most of it seems to be rooted in the culture of Finland. People have been trying to rescue the culture of the U.S. for decades to no avail.
If teachers in Finland are culturally members of a prestigious profession, they are considered laborers in the U.S. and they treat themselves as such (consider the recent Chiacgo strike where they marched in the streets, banging on garbage cans, chanting and looking like buffoons). Teachers in the U.S. were originally young single women, and by and large they still are. Make the college courses tougher for prospective teachers, with the promise of higher pay at the end, and you're going to start getting young males interested. Young males who are entering a prestigious profession will obviously not consider themselves laborers and will not be inclined to join the NEA or the AFT. For that reason, this will never get off the ground.
If you eliminated the NEA and AFT tomorrow, teacher's salaries nationwide would drop by probably 50% and teachers would become little more than Wal-Mart employees, with no say in how the system works, and fired at-will for any old reason. It's a chicken/egg argument. You say that teachers can't be considered professionals because they belong to unions, but if you take away the unions the teachers WILL lose what shred of professional standing they have. There is very little public or political will in this country to treat teachers as the true professionals that they are.
I hate to say it, but if you want teachers to be considered professionals, AND you want to get rid of the unions, then there have to be certain teacher rights and responsibilities essentially written in stone on the state or Federal level. I'm talking about guaranteed levels of compensation and job security, guaranteed say on important educational issues and academic freedoms. If you don't somehow ensure that teachers are treated as professionals, and you eliminate the unions, the quality of candidates you attract will become even worse than it supposedly is now.
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