Finnishing School?

There was an interesting article in last Friday's Wall Street Journal that looked at the reasons behind the startling success of Finnish teenagers on international tests (sub req):

High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don't start school until age 7.

Yet by one international measure, Finnish teenagers are among the smartest in the world. They earned some of the top scores by 15-year-old students who were tested in 57 countries. American teens finished among the world's C students even as U.S. educators piled on more homework, standards and rules. Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online. They dye their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal. But by ninth grade they're way ahead in math, science and reading--on track to keeping Finns among the world's most productive workers.

The Finns won attention with their performances in triennial tests sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group funded by 30 countries that monitors social and economic trends. In the most recent test, which focused on science, Finland's students placed first in science and near the top in math and reading, according to results released late last year. An unofficial tally of Finland's combined scores puts it in first place overall, says Andreas Schleicher, who directs the OECD's test, known as the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA. The U.S. placed in the middle of the pack in math and science; its reading scores were tossed because of a glitch. About 400,000 students around the world answered multiple-choice questions and essays on the test that measured critical thinking and the application of knowledge. A typical subject: Discuss the artistic value of graffiti.

The results are (or would be in anyone was paying attention) an acute embarrassment for the United States. We had our arses kicked by such notable education powerhouses as Liechtenstein, Estonia, Slovenia, and even...(gulp) Canada. It's probably lucky that there was a glitch in the reading scores as I don't imagine we would have fared well there either.

A few notable tidbits from the story that caught my eye:

Visitors and teacher trainees can peek at how it's done from a viewing balcony perched over a classroom at the Norssi School in Jyväskylä, a city in central Finland. What they see is a relaxed, back-to-basics approach. The school, which is a model campus, has no sports teams, marching bands or prom.

In other words, nothing to distract students from what should be the real purpose of school: education.

Fanny earns straight A's, and with no gifted classes she sometimes doodles in her journal while waiting for others to catch up. She often helps lagging classmates. "It's fun to have time to relax a little in the middle of class," Fanny says. Finnish educators believe they get better overall results by concentrating on weaker students rather than by pushing gifted students ahead of everyone else. The idea is that bright students can help average ones without harming their own progress.

This is an interesting approach. In the US, there seems to be more concern with not having the best and brightest becoming bored than with maintaining a common pace for all students. Intuitively, I would suspect that the US method is superior although the Finnish results do raise questions.

The Norssi School is run like a teaching hospital, with about 800 teacher trainees each year. Graduate students work with kids while instructors evaluate from the sidelines. Teachers must hold master's degrees, and the profession is highly competitive: More than 40 people may apply for a single job. Their salaries are similar to those of U.S. teachers, but they generally have more freedom.

Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape students to national standards. "In most countries, education feels like a car factory. In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs," says Mr. Schleicher, of the Paris-based OECD, which began the international student test in 2000.

In the US, education too often feels like a Soviet tractor factory trying to meet its five year plan.

One explanation for the Finns' success is their love of reading. Parents of newborns receive a government-paid gift pack that includes a picture book. Some libraries are attached to shopping malls, and a book bus travels to more remote neighborhoods like a Good Humor truck.

Far too many children and adults in the US view reading as a chore. If there's one thing parents can do to help their children down the right educational path, it's to instill in them a love of reading. I don't know how much of its is nature versus nurture (can you really teach kids to love reading?), but I do know that if you wait for the schools to do it for you, it's more than likely going to be too late.

Despite the apparent simplicity of Finnish education, it would be tough to replicate in the U.S. With a largely homogeneous population, teachers have few students who don't speak Finnish. In the U.S., about 8% of students are learning English, according to the Education Department. There are fewer disparities in education and income levels among Finns.

But I thought diversity was our strength?

Finland separates students for the last three years of high school based on grades; 53% go to high school and the rest enter vocational school. (All 15-year-old students took the PISA test.) Finland has a high-school dropout rate of about 4% -- or 10% at vocational schools -- compared with roughly 25% in the U.S., according to their respective education departments.

Another big problem in the US is that too many people go to college. I don't know if I'd be real keen on this two-track path that the Finns (and many other countries) use to direct their students, but there has to be a better way to prepare those kids who don't want (or shouldn't want) to go to college for their post-high school life.

Another difference is financial. Each school year, the U.S. spends an average of $8,700 per student, while the Finns spend $7,500. Finland's high-tax government provides roughly equal per-pupil funding, unlike the disparities between Beverly Hills public schools, for example, and schools in poorer districts. The gap between Finland's best- and worst-performing schools was the smallest of any country in the PISA testing. The U.S. ranks about average.

A mixed bag here. This is where trying to compare a country the size of the United States with Finland really starts to become difficult. A better comparison might be between Finland and a state of similar size. A state like Minnesota perhaps, which spends about $8,600 a year per student. Unfortunately, we don't have test results to directly compare Minnesota students with their Finnish peers. However there is this comment from a WSJ.com Forum on the topic:

Still, being a Finn myself, I don't think there is a wonder-drug for the US to take. Cultures are different, and having spent a year in Minnesota as a student, I regret to say that most Americans do not value education, only money.

Probably more than a grain of truth to that. It's true that there aren't many lessons from Finland's educational success that are easily applicable in the United States.

But there still may be a few things that we can take away from our Finnish friends.

Taking away the competition of getting into the "right schools" allows Finnish children to enjoy a less-pressured childhood. While many U.S. parents worry about enrolling their toddlers in academically oriented preschools, the Finns don't begin school until age 7, a year later than most U.S. first-graders.

Once school starts, the Finns are more self-reliant. While some U.S. parents fuss over accompanying their children to and from school, and arrange every play date and outing, young Finns do much more on their own. At the Ymmersta School in a nearby Helsinki suburb, some first-grade students trudge to school through a stand of evergreens in near darkness. At lunch, they pick out their own meals, which all schools give free, and carry the trays to lunch tables. There is no Internet filter in the school library. They can walk in their socks during class, but at home even the very young are expected to lace up their own skates or put on their own skis.

Or I imagine carry their own hockey bags.

Less pressure and more independence in childhood could not only help American children have better educational results, but better lives overall.