What Makes Finland’s Students Excel?

Finnish students score tops in the world in reading, mathematics, and science even though the schools include many immigrant children who come to Finland not knowing the language. Why are the students doing so well when we in the U.S. don’t seem to be making progress? According to Finnish teachers, they do whatever it takes to make their students successful. This might mean having boys read Captain Underpants to encourage them to get going with reading or “park” a student who needs private instruction next to the teacher’s desk. LynNell Hancock’s “Why Are Finland’s School’s Successful” (Smithsonian Magazine, September 2011) explains that: Finnish teachers are “selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education”; about 30 percent of students are given additional help; each school has the same broad national goals; students learn how to learn instead of how to take a test (only one test is required and that is in the senior year); students begin school at age 7, but most children attend a public preschool at 5 or 6; there is an emphasis upon physical activity between studies; students do not have much homework; there are no Internet filters, and very few students are pulled out for special classes (mostly for Finnish language instruction). Teachers have the same status in the country as doctors and lawyers, usually have aides or learning specialists to help them, and the student to teacher ratio is low—about 7-1 in one school. Towns guide school policies and accountability is determined by the teachers and principals in the schools. Medical care, food, and other forms of help are provided in the schools for students who need it.  Whatever the ingredients that go into Finland’s success with its students, “teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around.”