26 Amazing Facts About Finland's Unorthodox Education System

[eridani]

http://www.businessinsider.com/finland-education-school-2011-12?op=1#ixzz2EF21yHNu

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?

--66 percent of students go to college--the highest rate in Europe.

--It's simple — by going against the evaluation-driven, centralized model that much of the Western world uses.

--Finland spends around 30 percent less per student than the United States.

--The difference between weakest and strongest students is the smallest in the World.

--Teachers are effectively given the same status as doctors and lawyers

[Reader Rabbit]

1. This will never work in the U.S., because there's no profit in it.

Our system is designed so that hucksters can convince educators to buy new crap for the latest educational fad every 3-5 years. Each new educational fad requires the purchase of new teaching tools. Teachers use them for a few years, then a new "best practices" fad comes down the pike, and they have to buy materials to fit *that*.

Public education in the U.S. is The Sneetches, writ large.

[Igel]

2. More amazing facts.

You don't have to go to school after 9th grade.

The last few years you choose, based on GPA and possible tests, whether to be vocational or academic. You can go to college if you do the vocational track, but it's less common and a bit harder. If you want college, you do the academic track.

And guess what? Vocational schools don't count for most surveys dealing with "high schools." So try this in the US, as a thought experiment: Let all the kids who want to drop out at age 15 drop out; let those who remain choose to be vocational or academic students.

What would happen? Well, the majority of (academic) high school students would go to college. You'd find that the difference between the lowest and highest achieving (academic) high school students would greatly diminish. You'd have to fight far less to get students to be motivated--most SpEd, most assistants, most if the instructional specialists would suddenly vanish.

Since most students would easily pass the standardized tests, there'd be little use for them. There'd be fewer demands for making sure that even the weakest students meet all the Common Core standards at a sufficient level of rigor past 9th grade. That's the data-driven craze, trying to find out what works with the bottom 25% or bottom 40% of students. We look at "low SES" and "at risk" students, those with "LEP indicators" or racial/ethnic minorities--and we only look at those categories because they're low achieving with high drop-out rates.

[GMR Transcription]

3. 26 Amazing Facts About Finland's Unorthodox Education System

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