What we can learn from Finland’s successful school reform.

[LWolf]

by Linda Darling Hammond.

This is a piece published in NEA Today, an excerpt from her book: The Flat World And Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future.

For those who remember, LDH was on Obama's shortlist for Sec of Ed. What a difference he could have made by listening to, appointing, and supporting her. :(

I strongly recommend reading the whole piece; it's impossible to snip a few paragraphs and get all this offers. Basically, she's pointing out the differences between Finland, the world leader in student achievement, and the U.S.. The big point? What they did to improve their education system and become the world's leader is in direct opposition to the direction U.S. education has taken.

Instead of trying to craft a "reform" that is "uniquely American" (read: corporate privatization,) looking at what puts Finland on top might be a good thing to do.

Leaders in Finland attribute the gains to their intensive investments in teacher education—all teachers receive three years of high-quality graduate level preparation completely at state expense—plus a bajor overhaul of the curriculum and assessment system designed to ensure access to a “thinking curriculum” for all students. A recent analysis of the Finnish system summarized its core principles as follows:

* Resources for those who need them most.
* High standards and supports for special needs.
* Qualified teachers.
* Evaluation of education.
* Balancing decentralization and centralization. (Laukkanen, 2008, p. 319)

The process of change has been almost the reverse of policies in the United States. Over the past 40 years, Finland has shifted from a highly centralized system emphasizing external testing to a more localized system in which highly trained teachers design curriculum around the very lean national standards. This new system is implemented through equitable funding and extensive preparation for all teachers. The logic of the system is that investments in the capacity of local teachers and schools to meet the needs of all students, coupled with thoughtful guidance about goals, can unleash the benefits of local creativity in the cause of common, equitable outcomes.

Meanwhile, the United States has been imposing more external testing—often exacerbating differential access to curriculum—while creating more inequitable conditions in local schools. Resources for children and schools, in the form of both overall funding and the presence of trained, experienced teachers, have become more disparate in many states, thus undermining the capacity of schools to meet the outcomes that are ostensibly sought. Sahlberg notes that Finland has taken a very different path. He observes:

"The Finns have worked systematically over 35 years to make sure that competent professionals who can craft the best learning conditions for all students are in all schools, rather than thinking that standardized instruction and related testing can be brought in at the last minute to improve student learning and turn around failing schools." (Sahlberg, 2009, p. 22)
Sahlberg identifies a set of global reforms, undertaken especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries, that Finland has not adopted, including standardization of curriculum enforced by frequent external tests; narrowing of the curriculum to basic skills in reading and mathematics; reduced use of innovative teaching strategies; adoption of educational ideas from external sources, rather than development of local internal capacity for innovation and problem-solving; and adoption of high-stakes accountability policies, featuring rewards and sanctions for students, teachers, and schools. By contrast, he suggests:

Read more:

http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm

While we watch the shuffling of personnel going on in the Obama administration, I'm thinking that if Obama REALLY wants to "reach out," he'll quit heaping praise on Duncan and on a policy of privatization and union-busting. It's not too late. He could bring Darling-Hammond in, do a one-eighty, and gain the enthusiastic support of public education and the public. Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the mayors and CEOs, and the charter movement might not like it much, but the nation's teachers and students would be grateful, and could begin to thrive.

[Orlandodem]

1. I knew Duncan was going to be a disaster for Obama when he appointed him.

He relies too much on his Chicago cabal. He should have appointed this woman but I would instantly forgive him if he dumped Duncan RIGHT NOW for Hammond.

[LWolf]

2. As would I. nt

[Orlandodem]

3. The new mayor of DC ought to appoint her chancellor. That would send a message

to the education deformers of the world.

[LWolf]

15. That it would. nt

[speppin]

23. and he teamed up with Newt!!

[LWolf]

26. Did he?

Tell more. This is one I hadn't heard, or don't remember, anyway. I think I would remember. ;)

[speppin]

32. Here is a link. many more....

links.

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2009/08/sharpton-gingrich-and-duncan-announce-education-tour/

[LWolf]

36. I DO remember that.

I was so upset with Sharpton for jumping on board I forgot about Gingrich.

Arne finds friends in interesting places. Too bad he can't find them in actual public schools.

[speppin]

39. I do not think Arne would find too many teacher friends in public

schools at this time in history.

[LWolf]

42. I know he won't. I'm a teacher. nt

[Gabi Hayes]

4. ya think poverty might be having an effect on educational acheivment levels:

http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/ExclusiveCommentary.aspx?id=7e5e73f6-7891-4046-a5b9-41bd3aa2275a

The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) has enabled us to put American poverty in perspective by comparing the U.S. poverty rate with the rates in other rich countries. In a recent study using LIS data that compared U.S. rates with those in Canada and nine European countries, we found that poverty in the United States was the highest of all, at 17 percent, prior to the recession. Poverty rates in Canada are substantially lower, at 11.4 percent, and they are especially low in the Scandinavian countries, 5.4 percent in Finland and 6.5 percent in Sweden.

Worse still, the U.S. poverty rate for households with children is very high, at 19 percent, in contrast with rates of 3 percent in Finland and 4 percent in Sweden. And UK poverty rates for children have fallen below United States child poverty rates as well.

[Orlandodem]

5. Duncan thinks it's the teachers' fault.

In Arne's world, everyone sends their child to school with perfectly coiffed hair, full bellies, and a good night's sleep. Somehow during the day the knuckle-dragging, mouth breathing, troglodytes who teach do bad things to the kids so they won't learn.

[LWolf]

6. Of course, poverty effects educational achievement.

As a matter of fact, we've known that since long before the high-stakes testing movement trying to blame and punish the education system, instead of economic inequities, for the achievement gap.

As LDH points out:

"Finnish education policies are a result of four decades of systematic, mostly intentional, development that has created a culture of diversity, trust, and respect within Finnish society in general, and within its education system in particular.. Education sector development has been grounded on equal opportunities for all, equitable distribution of resources rather than competition, intensive early interventions for prevention, and building gradual trust among education practitioners, especially teachers." (Sahberg, p. 10)

Equity in opportunity to learn is supported in many ways in addition to basic funding.

Finnish schools are generally small (fewer than 300 pupils) with relatively small class sizes (in the 20s), and are uniformly well equipped. The notion of caring for students educationally and personally is a central principle in the schools. All students receive a free meal daily, as well as free health care, transportation, learning materials, and counseling in their schools, so that the foundations for learning are in place. Beyond that, access to quality curriculum and teachers has become a central aspect of Finnish educational policy.

In a related article from the same edition of NEA Today, Steven Barnett points out:

The Nordic countries have some of the most extensive public supports for early care and education. Finland provides an unconditional right to full-day, full-year childcare from the end of paid parental leave through entry to elementary school. Finnish parents pay fees that cover about 15 percent of the cost. Fees are paid on a sliding scale with income, with the maximum payment for the highest income families at about $250 per month. Sweden has a similarly extensive system.

Other countries also recognize the importance of a child’s life outside school. In Finland, for example, social welfare programs reduce the child poverty rate from nearly 20 percent to just three percent. Government policies in the United States reduce child poverty much less, from about 26 percent to 22 percent.

More:

http://www.nea.org/home/41135.htm

If the U.S. quit trying to use the education system as a scapegoat, and directly addressed economic inequalities, as well as supporting what benefits students, teachers, and schools instead of what benefits the privatizers and union-busters, we'd see big improvements as well.

[Gabi Hayes]

22. I work in a large chicago suburban district. my school is in a poverty pocket, in which

there's an abundance of section 8 housing, single family parents, with all the problems attendant therein.

add to that the damage NCLB, with the Obama admin's willing extension of most/all its worst aspects, admirably documented (many thanks to madfloridian and others) at DU, has done to public education, and the formula is clearly leading in the direction TPTB are currently pushing

nice how the corpcreeps here are lying their asses off about how the finns have acheived their apparent successes

god forbid an actually empowered teacher's union participates meaningfully

[LWolf]

24. I hear you.

I teach in a pocket of poverty, as well. Rural poverty, which comes with it's own challenges. A whole different world than an urban school, but both are damaged by the current direction "reform" is taking.

[Desertrose]

7. Equity in opportunity to learn is supported....

... in many ways in addition to basic funding."

This would be a big step in the right direction to start with.

"Meanwhile, the United States has been imposing more external testing—often exacerbating differential access to curriculum—while creating more inequitable conditions in local schools. Resources for children and schools, in the form of both overall funding and the presence of trained, experienced teachers, have become more disparate in many states, thus undermining the capacity of schools to meet the outcomes that are ostensibly sought."

Not surprisingly, the US does things ass backwards. Gee, maybe throwing money or taking it away is not always the solution, is it?


:hi:LWolf

[G_j]

8. +1

:hi:

[LWolf]

13. That's what it's all about, imo.

There is anger from private industry that so much of education funding is out of their reach, and a determination to restructure things to give them access to and control of those funds.

Hope you are doing well in AZ, friend.

:hi:

[alsame]

19. Yep. Education, Social Security, Medicare - can't have

all that money out there for the good of society when there's profit to be made.

[Desertrose]

27. or wars to be "won".

[LWolf]

28. Sad, isn't it?

Our priorities are toxic to the well-being of our own people, as well as the planet.

:(

[Desertrose]

35. Yes..it is very sad....

humans are toxic...give me a good horse anyday. ;)

How ya doin? :hug:

[LWolf]

38. I'm hanging in there.

Right now I'm worried about how to feed those horses this winter; constant pay cuts leave me with no resources to shell out for a year's worth of hay.

If I have to buy it from the feed store month to month, it'll cost me about 25% more, which means I won't be saving for next year, which means I'll be facing the same problem when the local hay is being cut and baled next year.

Other than that, I'm doing pretty well.

You?

:hug:

[MadHound]

9. One other thing that Finland does to get high quality teachers

Namely it pays for them. Rather than trying to do education on the cheap, Finland and the other leading education nations in the world pay their teachers quite well, and give them the respect and and standing in the community that they deserve.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. And most of them are union

[LWolf]

25. Not a coincidence.

A system that truly supports their professionals includes the support and protection of a union.

[LWolf]

18. They pay them well, and they pay to educate them.

The cost of becoming a teacher in the U.S., relative to lifetime earnings, is enough to turn many potentially great teachers away.

[Brickbat]

10. There is much we can learn from the Finnish education system,

but these kind of changes are much more easily implemented in a small, homogeneous country. However, the U.S. used to pride itself on its can-do attitude.

[LWolf]

14. Small, yes, and more homogeneous than the U.S.

However:

The overall variation in achievement among Finnish students is also smaller than that of nearly all the other OECD countries. This is true despite the fact that immigration from nations with lower levels of education has increased sharply in recent years, and there is more linguistic and cultural diversity for schools to contend with. One recent analysis notes that in some urban schools the number of immigrant children or those whose mother tongue is not Finnish approaches 50 percent.

Although most immigrants are still from places like Sweden, the most rapidly growing newcomer groups since 1990 have been from Afghanistan, Bosnia, India, Iran, Iraq, Serbia, Somalia, Turkey, Thailand, and Vietnam. These new immigrants speak more than 60 languages. Yet achievement has been climbing in Finland and growing more equitable.

[Brickbat]

16. I was thinking more along class lines, actually.

[LWolf]

17. Economic class?

Obviously, a country that provides better public support systems will have a narrow economic gap between classes.

That's the point. Education reform, in Finland, has been ONE PART of a broad, systemic effort to provide a public support system that narrows those gaps. As indicated by the statistics: The Finland child poverty rate is reduced 17% by social welfare programs, while the U.S.' programs reduce child poverty by about 4%.

The U.S. should connect school achievement to the REAL sources of poor performance and invest in closing those gaps, instead of adopting failed corporate school "reform" policies.

[DirkGently]

11. We seem to dumb down our collective approach to any problem here.

[LWolf]

30. I don't know. I think it may be more about

the few controlling the many. Who really has a voice when it comes to a national conversation of ideas, a collective approach? A collection of those in power.

[DirkGently]

33. No doubt about that. It's just disappointing that we buy "ideas" like "More standardized tests!"

[Starry Messenger]

20. k & r

[Hannah Bell]

21. they have teachers unions too.

[LWolf]

29. And somehow the system, and the students, are still thriving.

Amazing how that works, isn't it?

[mistertrickster]

31. Yeah, but if our kids get a "thinking curriculum," who'll ever vote Republican again, nt?

[LWolf]

37. A point too often overlooked. nt

[olegramps]

34. Unfortunately you can't do it when you are fighting two costly wars.

But to hell with reality. The military-industrial complex must be feed like a voracious monster while putting into effect the biggest transfer of wealth to the top 1% in recent history.

[LWolf]

43. Why is this not obvious to the rest of the nation?

How can so many totally ignore what we're being smacked in the face with on a daily basis?

[xchrom]

40. Kick

[Overseas]

41. Recommended. //nt

[PVnRT]

44. "bajor overhaul" - is this Finland or DS9?

Bad joke, sorry. Good article.