Peer to Peer: Finland and the Smartest Kids in the World

Finland.

The first place Ripley visits is Finland. From Finland, she says that we could learn more about teacher recruitment and training. U.S. school systems spend a lot of time on high stakes testing to determine which schools and teachers are effective and devote a lot of resources implementing high stakes performance evaluation systems to determine which teachers are effective. One main goal of both of these systems is to identify the poorest performing teachers and either improve or eliminate them from the profession. In Finland, there is also an extreme focus on boosting teacher quality, but it comes much earlier in a teacher’s career: during their training.

Finland recruits the best and brightest to be their teachers. There are far fewer seats in college teacher-prep programs, so these programs are extremely selective--only 1 in 10 applicants are accepted. These programs have a rigorous academic component, a research component and an extended practicum. Merja Paksuniemi, a Finnish college professor, describes the process: “Individuals seeking to study at the teacher training colleges in Finland participated in an entrance test that lasted several days. Only the finest candidates were selected as prospective teachers. The test included medical examinations, interviews and exams on teaching.”

A few other PISA superpowers have similarly rigorous entrance requirements. In my 20s, I spent two years teaching in Japan. I was shocked when I asked my colleague Mr. Shimuzu about his teacher training. He said that elementary teachers had to pass tests of their pedagogical knowledge, handwriting, singing, English proficiency, and swimming as part of the teacher certification process.

In Finland, Kim finds that the school buildings themselves are not as nice as her Oklahoma school and there are few computers and no iPads or Smartboards. The major difference she sees is an increased motivation among the teachers and the students. In Oklahoma, many of Kim’s teachers were also busy coaching sports teams, but in Finland, “Teachers are busy teaching, not coaching.”

Students seem to inherit that same sense of focus from their teachers. When Kim asks two of her Finnish classmates, “Why do you guys care so much? I mean, what makes you work hard in school?” The girls simply say “It’s school. How else will I graduate and go to university and get a good job?”

Ripley attributes this rigor and motivation to two things. One is the Finnish concept of sisu, which is loosely translated as grit, stoic determination or heartiness. The second reason Finns seem to take school seriously is that they clearly see the connection between success in school and success in later careers. One educator quoted in the book says, “Wealth has made rigor optional in American education.”

Ripley tries to dispel the myth that the Finnish miracle is only possible with an extremely homogeneous population. She visits Tiistila School in suburban Helsinki. It’s one of the most culturally diverse schools in the country, where more than a third of the student body are recent immigrants who do not yet speak Finnish. Tiistila School has a much larger budget than schools in wealthier neighborhoods. This is because funding for Finnish schools is not tied to property taxes and property values. Instead, schools with additional needs get additional resources so they can provide additional services. The U.S. is one of only a handful of industrialized countries (along with Israel, Turkey and Slovenia) that spend more on their advantaged students than their disadvantaged students.

Another big difference between U.S. and Finland is special education. In Finland, “special education” is seen as a temporary condition. A temporary deficit that is met with increased resources until the deficit is corrected. Because this isn’t a permanent diagnosis, there is less stigma for seeking special education services. Ripley uses the metaphor of a “pit crew” to describe the intense short-term interventions model. In a typical year, about 24 percent of Finnish students receive special education services. In the U.S., about 13 percent of students receive special ed services.

South Korea

The second system that is profiled is the South Korean school system. South Korea also does quite well on PISA, but their school system looks very different from the schools in the U.S. or Finland. Ripley describes two parallel education systems in South Korea: students attend their public schools during the day and then go to private “cram schools” for additional tutoring each evening.

The stakes are high in South Korea: their version of the SAT test is administered only once a year to every senior across the country at the same time. And the resulting score is the only factor in determining who gets into the most selective colleges. You want high-stakes tests? The college entrance exam in South Korea is so important that the whole country seems to shut down on the day of the test. Airlines divert flight paths so they won’t disrupt test-takers and taxi drivers offer free rides to seniors on the big day.

This level of intensity and intense competition has created the market for the cram schools. One benefit of cram schools is that the free market recognizes quality teachers: the best cram school teachers can make salaries in the millions. But these cram schools also help to create culture where many students are so exhausted (from staying at school until 10 p.m.) that they spend their school day asleep in classes. Police even patrol neighborhoods at night to make sure that all the cram schools shut down by the 10 p.m. curfew time.

Another interesting difference in South Korea is the role of parent involvement. Ripley says that “In South Korea, parents are coaches, not cheerleaders.” Parents aren’t overly visible at school or at Parent Council meetings, but do take an active role in making sure that their kids are staying on top of their studies. Ripley sites research that says the three actions that parents can take that have the biggest impact on student achievement are 1) reading to their kids 2) coaching and showing an intense interest in the work they’re doing for school and 3) reading in front of their kids.

Poland

Another change instituted in Poland was to increase both accountability and autonomy for schools. Accountability came in the form of a single test that determines graduation at the end of high school. Polish officials decided to also give schools increased autonomy over how they teach the curriculum, as well as control over hiring and budget.

2015 PISA Results