The Finland Success Story: Great SchoolsThe Finland Success Story: Great Schools

Patrick F. Bassett, NAIS Presidentbassett@nais.org www.nais.org

Finland’s Educational Success

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Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

PFB’s Visit Observations: Unique Factors in Play in Finland.

– Finland is a small, homogenous country of five million, with a common value of valuing education.

– Literacy and fluency are a national priority, contributing to good results in literacy examinations.

– Children see adults reading all the time, since Finns check out on average 18 books per year. (It’s minus forty degrees for long spells in the winter, so indoor activities like reading are popular.)

– The Finns by policy are committed to fluency in foreign language, as there are two national languages, Finnish and Swedish, taught throughout school.

– Everyone I met also spoke English, in part because Finnish TV uses no dubbing—only subtitles, so children hear English all the time.

Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

PFB’s Visit Observations: Unique Factors in Play in Finland.– Children feel safe and supported in Finnish schools: the

environment is colorful, filled with light and the children have a single teacher in multi-age learning groups “where differences are taken for granted,” and no grading is used in assessments.

– Few textbooks are used, the Finns preferring project- and problem-based approaches integrated with learning in the larger community, and tempered with lots of practical education elements, and daily chores at the school.

– ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is integrated at all levels, including media literacy.

– The Finns are naturalists and the eco-system important to them, so field trips focus on nature & produce a country of environmentalists.

– Play is important. There is universal support for high-quality pre-schools which most students attend, but whose emphasis is play, not early-prep. In schools, 30-minute recess for unstructured play every day, including all winter long.

– After school, students walk to nearby recreation centers for more sports and play.

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

Perennial top scores on OECD’s annual PISA testing. What’s NOT Driving Finland’s Success:

It’s not high pay for teachers, since Finn teachers are not paid that well, and the countries that do pay their teachers the most (Spain, Switzerland, and Germany) do not perform as well.

It’s not more years of schooling, since compulsory school education starts at grade 1 (age 7) and ends in grade 9 (age 16). 95% go on to secondary school, academic or vocational.

It’s not small class sizes, since Finn classes are often thirty students with only one teacher (and few specialists, the teachers expected to teach all skills and subjects).

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

What’s NOT Driving Finland’s Success:

It’s not a longer school day or longer school year, since school runs from 8:00 am – noon or 2:00 pm, depending on the age of students, and the school season is no longer than in the US.

It’s not nationally centralized control (like that of the French) but rather national curriculum standards with local implementation. Little “supervision”; lots of improvisation.

It’s not accreditation. There is none in Finland, the federal ministry trusting the local authorities to meet the national standards. Russian proverb in play: “Trust…but check.”

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

What’s NOT Driving Finland’s Success:

It’s definitely notIt’s definitely not high stakes testing. high stakes testing. Periodic sampling testing by the government of students to make Periodic sampling testing by the government of students to make

certain the students, their schools and the system continue to certain the students, their schools and the system continue to perform highly.perform highly.

Aggressive intervention if a school falls behind.Aggressive intervention if a school falls behind. Government refuses to publish the test results for the press or Government refuses to publish the test results for the press or

public, eschewing the mania of League Tables in Great Britain and public, eschewing the mania of League Tables in Great Britain and school rankings in the US based on test scores.school rankings in the US based on test scores.

Most of the testing that occurs is formative, not summative.Most of the testing that occurs is formative, not summative. Someone from another culture observed about American Someone from another culture observed about American

preoccupation with testing: “When we want the elephant to grow, preoccupation with testing: “When we want the elephant to grow, we don’t keep weighing it…we don’t keep weighing it…

……we feed it.”we feed it.”

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

What IS Driving Finland’s Success (and that of other high-performing countries?)

McKinsey Report Principle #1: Get the Best Teachers

Most important factor for student and school success is “high quality faculty”:

– The U.S. public system identifies “high quality” as “highly qualified,” meaning “certified” NB: Touch Choices or Tough Times reports that American public schools typically recruits teachers from the bottom third of college graduates.

– Independent schools in the U.S. identifies “high quality” teachers as those who have a degree in the subject they love and teach (i.e., math and physics majors teaching math and physics, not education majors), preferably from selective colleges and universities.

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

Most important factor for student and school success is “high quality faculty” (cont.):

– Also the strategy of Teach for America, which attracts the top echelon of graduates from America’s most selective universities to teach in public schools.

– South Korean official notes that, “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers”

– The Economist cites studies in Tennessee and Dallas: pupils of average ability and give them to teachers deemed in the top fifth of the profession, they end up in the top 10% of student performers; if you give them to teachers from the bottom fifth, they end up at the bottom.

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland)

Most important factor for student and school success is “high quality faculty” (cont.):

– South Korea which recruits primary-school teachers from the top 5% of graduates and Singapore and Hong Kong from the top 30%, and the top 10% in Finland (which also requires a master’s degree for all teachers).

– All restrict access to teaching to the most talented: the attraction increases.

– In Finland, it’s not the money but the status and prestige of teaching that attracts the best and brightest into the profession.

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

McKinsey Report Principle #1: Get the Best Teachers (cont.)– Ditto for Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where teachers are

also revered– True as well for independent schools in the US, where faculty

status, power, and influence are high and unionization virtually non-existent.

Takeaway #1: Develop a strategy for winning the war for talent. – For cultures that don’t give high status to teaching, more money

will have to do. – We have an opportunity to front-end load higher starting salaries as

our more highly paid veteran boomer teachers are about to retire. – Recruit on the campuses of the 250 or so colleges and universities

in the US with highly selective admissions standards for the undergraduate academic and leadership elite who “want to give back.”

– Pay college loan principal & interest while teachers stay at your school.

NAIS Advocacy: Recruiting Teachers from TFA

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki Finland & PFB school visit)

What IS Driving Finland’s Success (and that of other high-performing countries?)

McKinsey Report Principle #2: Get the Best Out of Teachers

“Professionalizing the profession.”

– “Professional learning communities” (PLCs) common outside of the US.

– Singapore provides teachers with 100 hours of training a year and appoints senior teachers to oversee professional development in each school.

– In Japan and Finland, groups of teachers visit each others' classrooms and plan lessons together, in a system call “lesson studies” that include “rounds” just like the medical profession.

– In Finland, they get an afternoon off a week for professional development (including for school substitutes).

– PLC could be virtual: e.g., the online journal www.IndependentTeacher.org or the online book club http://teacherplacesbookclubs.com/tiki-index.php

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

McKinsey Report Principle #2: Get the Best Out of Teachers

Takeaway #2: American schools are way too underinvested in professional training.

– We could benefit immensely from creating true PLCs focused on peer learning, peer observations, and collaborative lesson-planning.

– Improvement in professionalizing the profession would occurs if teacher evaluations were linked to engagement in PLCs and demonstrations of what is learned.

– Example: The Irish initiative for ePortfolios.

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

What IS Driving Finland’s Success (and that of other high-performing countries?)

Principle #3: Step in When Pupils Start To Lag Behind

Frequent diagnostic testing (“formative testing”) at early stages (like M.A.P., Measurement of Academic Progress and the new generation of ERB tests)

Early and powerful intervention when a student begins to fall behind: one special needs teacher for every seven special needs students in some schools. In Finland, about a third of students receive remediation, a fifth in Singapore.

In Finland, education spending is weighted in the middle school years, when in the US and other countries, kids begin to fail and drop out. In Finland, there are no dead end streets down the education highway.

The Finland’s Success ModelSources: The Economist, July 18, 2007 “How To Be Top” (based on the McKinsey Report) & October 30, 2007 Microsoft School of the Future Summit presentation by Finnish officials, Helsinki, Finland & PFB school visit)

McKinsey Report Principle #3: Step in When Pupils Start To Lag Behind (cont.)

Takeaway #3:

– It turns out truly that all kids can learn, given good teachers, early and intensive intervention, and a supportive school and peer culture.

– What has to happen in US schools is to move from a medical model (learning disabilities) to a diversity model (learning differences), with a re-orientation to identifying, valuing, and using a student’s strengths as “workarounds” and palliatives to weaknesses.

– Teachers and students with “growth mindset” rather than “fixed mindset” makes success for all a given. (Cf. Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.)

Mixed Weather Forecast for Teachers

General Indicators of Well-Being: Sunshine with a… a Good Chance of Rain (and related strategic issues)

Climate for Public School Teacher is Stormy: NCLB a disaster for kids and the profession. Teacher autonomy disappearing. Great teachers leaving the profession or jumping ship.

What teacher shortage? Prospects for hiring excellent: Independent schools offer security, decent pay, great benefits, data-driven vs. opinion-driven leadership; meaningful work. College grads with amazing credentials living at home—looking for work. Cf. Dan Pink’s new YouTube on science of motivation: autonomy, mastery, purpose.

The End of Retirement: Whoops—your pension has shrunk, and you can’t retire: Cf Encore.

Trends in Happiness: Men tracking up; women tracking down, in both absolute and relative terms.

The EndThe End

Strategic Issue: Professionalizing the ProfessionSource: Katherine Boles, HGSE/NAIS Seminar, Nov. 2006

Characteristic Not a Profession A Profession

Career Path Egalitarianism — no career ladder

Recognition for achievement — clearly defined career path

Professional Relationships Isolation — practice is a freelance craft

Teaming — practices characterized by teamwork and collaboration

Entry and Training Poor preparation — "anyone can do it"

Rigor — High entry requirements: standards, skills, testing

Induction Little or no mentoring Mentoring is the expectation & the norm

Professional Development Weak or nonexistent Integral to the career

Research Practice unrelated to research Research informs practice

Accountability Student outcomes unrelated to promotion and salary

Accountability across the board

Power Structure Little impact on institutional decisions

Shared decision making