Education Next – Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Brandon L. Wright
“Finland has been lauded for years as this planet’s grand K-12 education success story, deserving of study and emulation by other nations. The buzz began with its impressive Program for International Student Assessment results in 2000, which stayed strong through 2006. Educators hastened to Helsinki from far and wide to sample the secret sauce, hoping they might recreate it back home. And most of them loved the taste, as Finland’s recipe contained many ingredients that educators generally like and shunned those they typically find repugnant. It was all about teachers, professionalism, and equity, rather than jarring notions like standards, choice, assessments, and accountability. Gradually, however, the sauna cooled a bit. Finland’s PISA scores and rankings slipped in 2009, and again in 2012, followed by a scathing report from the University of Helsinki that led the program’s uber-advocate Pasi Sahlberg to warn that the time had come for Finns “to concede that the signals of change have been discernible already for a while and to open up a national discussion regarding the state and future of the Finnish comprehensive school that rose to international acclaim due to our students’ success in the PISA studies.” He was right. There had, indeed, been earlier signals: evidence of weak achievement by the country’s small but growing immigrant and minority populations, as well as boys lagging way behind girls.”(more)