Finnish Education: lessons for Detroit?

[Canadian Visitor]

An article in today's Globe and Mail focuses on the Finnish education system, which is typically ranked #1 or 2 in the world by PISA [[int'l ranking body for education systems in OECD countries).

It examines not only why academic outcomes are so good, but why social mobility [[roughly the ability for poor or lower-middle income kids to climb to a higher standard of living than their parents) is also best-in-class so to speak.

The article only briefly touches on comparisons with Canada, the U.S., Germany and Britain.

Its a radically different approach they are using, however, than any of those models.

What could be lifted from the Finnish model to work in Detroit and/or Michigan?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle29716845/

PISA rankings, 2015 - Reading and Math:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26249042

[Hermod]

Adopting the Finnish model:

Just prior to World War II, Douglas MacArthur was trying to build an army and a navy for the Philippine government so that they could protect themselves after their scheduled independence in 1946. He was having a rough time and then his partially trained army got steamrollered by the Japanese in 1941. About 1940, someone visited and looked over what MacArthur was doing and noted that he was "trying to build the Swiss Army without the Swiss".

Adopting the Finnish method here in Detroit Public Schools would be trying to build the Finnish school system without the Finns.

[Canadian Visitor]

Adopting the Finnish model:

Just prior to World War II, Douglas MacArthur was trying to build an army and a navy for the Philippine government so that they could protect themselves after their scheduled independence in 1946. He was having a rough time and then his partially trained army got steamrollered by the Japanese in 1941. About 1940, someone visited and looked over what MacArthur was doing and noted that he was "trying to build the Swiss Army without the Swiss".

Adopting the Finnish method here in Detroit Public Schools would be trying to build the Finnish school system without the Finns.

I'm not suggesting replication.

But I think there would be universal agreement that the system in Detroit and perhaps more broadly in the U.S. [[in reference to public education) under performs. It certainly has sub-par academic results.

I would gather DPS under performs those U.S. numbers on top.

So what to do?

Are there lessons from Finland [[or elsewhere) that could be adopted in order to produce a better result?

[Bham1982]

But I think there would be universal agreement that the system in Detroit and perhaps more broadly in the U.S. [[in reference to public education) under performs. It certainly has sub-par academic results.

In Detroit, certainly. In the U.S., probably no.

The PISA reports are generally garbage because they don't compare apples-to-apples. The U.S. is one of very few first-world countries where everyone tests, and everyone is on the college track, taking the college exam.

In most of Europe, and East Asia, only a select group of students are being compared to the general student body in the U.S. So the U.S. typically doesn't perform very well. If you go to school somewhere like Germany the college track is basically decided by the fourth grade, and students are separated into four different school types, only two of which may lead to higher education.

The U.S. has a pretty good educational system. It has huge equity issues, and massive legacy costs [[read: pensions) but is pretty good. As someone educated in Western Europe and the U.S. I would prefer my kids be educated here.

[Canadian Visitor]

In Detroit, certainly. In the U.S., probably no.

The PISA reports are generally garbage because they don't compare apples-to-apples. The U.S. is one of very few first-world countries where everyone tests, and everyone is on the college track, taking the college exam.

Several problems with this. First the PISA exams are global standard. They are not different in Germany or Canada in Math or Science and as close as possible in terms of what is tested for linguistically and how.

PISA sets a minimum # of students [[5,000) who must take the test, and they have to be no older than 16 yrs, 2mos. old, and no less old than 15.

So these are not SAT comparisons.

The samples are required to be representative across schools, districts etc; so they are typical to the age group.

*****

As to your assertion that the overall US system is good.

I think the High School attainment level in the U.S. belies that assumption.

Below are the rates of HS completion for various countries. Canada's number is actually much lower than expected [[for me) at 79%; because I know Ontario's rate is 84% and we're 40% of Canada by population.

1.	Portugal	96.00
2.	Slovenia	96.00
3.	Finland	95.00
4.	Japan	95.00
5.	United Kingdom	92.00
6.	Ireland	91.00
7.	Norway	91.00
8.	New Zealand	90.00
9.	Switzerland	90.00
10.	Iceland	89.00
11.	Israel	89.00
12.	Korea, South	89.00
13.	Hungary	87.00
14.	Denmark	85.00
15.	Poland	85.00
16.	Czech Republic	84.00
17.	Germany	84.00
18.	Italy	81.00
19.	Slovakia	81.00
20.	Canada	79.00
21.	United States	76.00
22.	Spain	74.00
23.	Sweden	74.00
24.	Luxembourg	69.00
25.	Chile	68.00

Post-Secondary attainment is respectable in the US. Though there remains room for improvement.

Country Age 25-64 [[%) Canada 54 Russia 54 Israel 49 Luxembourg 46 South Korea 45 United States 44 Australia 42 Finland 42 Norway 42 United Kingdom 42

[Canadian Visitor]

I should add, on the post-secondary front the US number is materially worse relative to other countries w/the younger generation [[25-34)

Where attainment levels put the U.S. at 11th. at 46 %

Compared with South Korea at 68 [[#1); and Canada at 58% [[#2)

[Bham1982]

Several problems with this. First the PISA exams are global standard. They are not different in Germany or Canada in Math or Science and as close as possible in terms of what is tested for linguistically and how.

PISA sets a minimum # of students [[5,000) who must take the test, and they have to be no older than 16 yrs, 2mos. old, and no less old than 15.

So these are not SAT comparisons.

The samples are required to be representative across schools, districts etc; so they are typical to the age group.

The problem with the PISA isn't any of these things. It's that the people taking the PISA aren't apples-to-apples across countries.

In the U.S., almost 100% of students are college-prep. Whether or not they attend college is irrelevant; they are in schools where college is an option, and where there's a required college prep curriculum.

In Germany, or Denmark, only about 30% of students are college-prep. The other students were segregated out of the college-prep track around 4th or 5th grade.

So the PISA is comparing 90% of American students with 30% of students in other countries. You're comparing the best in these other countries with the general U.S. student population [[and in the Chinese case it's only like 10% of student population that is in college prep education). This is the main reason the U.S. does so poorly at PISA.

And you see the same thing in Europe. The UK, which has a system closer to that of the U.S. than that of Western Europe, also scores poorly. It doesn't mean that the UK has worse schools than that of Germany or France; it means that they aren't segregating out the students into separate academic tracks.

I attended a top-tier public school in Germany and my education was much better in Bloomfield Hills schools. I would definitely put my kids in American public schools over public schools anywhere in Germany.

[swingline]

The Finns also do not impose 6-7 hours of daily classroom instruction and 2-3 additional hours of daily homework on elementary grade students either.