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In the US everywhere? Using what international money scale? Compared to what school system in the US? Compared to which state in the US?
Compared to what what what? There's no comparisons to any numbers or anything. Its a fluff article. Are you suggesting that someone in the USA pay for free preschool and free college for everyone? Finland is a socialist state. To make that happen here we would have to do as I said.
Z
p.s: My district spends way less per pupil than Finland does, and has some of the best schools in the state. Maybey we should have an article about the miracle of my school district.
I wouldn't call it a miracle so much as showing it isn't always an issue of money. Hence my comment that Finland spends less than the US on the whole yet seemingly performs better in several categories.
Nobody would say we could reduce the cost of the military but improve its effectiveness with less tanks, guns, and bullets. What a stupid thing to say.
Actually, this is sort of what Rumsfeld's approach was as SECDEF .. I agree; it's stupid.
Actually, this is sort of what Rumsfeld's approach was as SECDEF .. I agree; it's stupid.
Its very difficult to improve anything without throwing money at it. If I want to do home improvement, I have to spend money. It is the away it is. Once in a while you can do it in the public areas by cutting fat, but in most places in a recession, there is little fat left.
Its very difficult to improve anything without throwing money at it. If I want to do home improvement, I have to spend money. It is the away it is.
Z, did you read the article on the Finns though? They actually spend less than we do on education. I agree that it takes money to get results, but culture and other intangibles play a part too.
Its very difficult to improve anything without throwing money at it. If I want to do home improvement, I have to spend money. It is the away it is. Once in a while you can do it in the public areas by cutting fat, but in most places in a recession, there is little fat left.
Money is certainly an issue, no doubt. But I disagree with the whole premise of, "If we spent less money on x and put it toward education, our education would be better!" There's a line where money isn't the central problem anymore.
Money is certainly an issue, no doubt. But I disagree with the whole premise of, "If we spent less money on x and put it toward education, our education would be better!" There's a line where money isn't the central problem anymore.
Unfortunately, politicians and people who don't work in education, don't have a clue where that line is.
If we fail to make AYP on the NCLB scores, then do we get more money freed up to work with children? Nope. We have to use more money on staff development. In my district, we have the most cohesive, goal directed staff development programs which are geared to match the accomplishment of the state standards, and which are geared directly to teacher skills based on all the most recent educational research into how children learn most effectively---that I have ever seen or ever heard about. But soon we will not make AYP because the performance targets for a normal population are impossible. You cannot disregard the normal curve. You can raise an average(IQ 100) child's score on an IQ test to 1 standard deviation above the mean through incredible effort(a 115 or an 84th %ile). There is no known way to raise it above that as long as you are dealing with a normal population of human beings.
Do we need more staff development? NOPE. We need more staff. Can we use money for more staff? NOPE. We have to take money away from staff and do staff development.
I also heard another thing they do in Europe is get children prepped for a career track from the time they start going to school.
This way by the time they get done with high school, they'll know what path to take once they head to college, tech-school and such.
I think it puts a strain on many universities/colleges when you've got so many students consistently switching majors every couple of years.
Better to stick to one track and kick the indecisiveness to the curb.
I think it's awful to herd kids into career choices at 6 years old. Many people change careers several times in life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyers29
I wouldn't call it a miracle so much as showing it isn't always an issue of money. Hence my comment that Finland spends less than the US on the whole yet seemingly performs better in several categories.
The lowered level of spending is probably due to the shorter teaching hours of the teachers, hence less pay. Also, according to the article, there are no extracurricular activities or sports, which also cost money.
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