Surpassing America

Have you ever wondered if other countries get the same amount of education as you? In Finland they have many differences in schooling than the USA. Finland has many colleges and universities as well as the USA. Even though Finland and the USA spend different amounts on students they both still get good education.

Many people know that the U.S. does not rank very high in education. You hear about how they are always trying to improve education, but they still fall short of where they strive to be. In Anu Partanen’s “Finland’s School Success, What Americans Keep Ignoring” she addresses this issue. She points out what Americans are doing wrong, what Finland is doing right, and how the U.S. can improve the education system in many ways.

In Anu Partanen’s article “Finland’s school success, what Americans keep ignoring,” she talks about how Finland transformed its education system to one of the top education systems in the world. First Finland’s success comes from engaging student’s creative imaginations, and demanding less in homework. In addition since the 1970’s, the education policy in Finland is that no child would be left behind. Regardless of background, every child will have the same opportunity to obtain an education.

For roughly thirty years, international test scores have shown that the United States is falling behind in the education rankings. Many Asian and European countries have much higher test scores. Professionals have argued for years that these rankings are “Threatening the country’s economic growth”(Carnoy). One test in one year compared to all these countries is very inaccurate and should not be taken so literal. Being that the US is so large, each state is in charge of their own education systems. Many different rules and the way exams are graded could be a variable that is being overlooked year after year. Another variable being overlooked is social class(Carnoy). In many countries, only those who come from middle to upper classes may go to school(Carnoy). Along with that, many there are various regulations that are much

Although the United States is one of the most highly industrialized nations in the world, students in many other industrialized nations are outperforming U.S. students in various academic areas. As a result, the U.S. has implemented standard-based reform, and its educational costs have soared. No longer are American graduates competing with each other for jobs, in the present global economy, they also are competing with graduates from other industrialized nations, many of whom are preforming at higher academic levels in reading, math, science, and problem solving as measured by their performance on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (“FactSheet”1-2). The PISA is an assessment that is administered every three years to fifteen year old students in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) countries. The OECD consists of the world’s highly industrialized nations that comprise more than 85% of the world’s economy. (West 2) The PISA was first administered in 2000, and it has been administered every three years since that time. This assessment measures student performance in the areas of reading, mathematics and science. The 2003 and 2012 administrations of the PISA also measured students’ problem solving. On the 2009 administration of the PISA, U.S. students preformed below average in the academic areas of math and science compared to students in other OECD countries (West 2). In math, the U.S. trailed seventeen OECD countries and

Finland and america both have good education but both don’t spend the same proportion of the money on the schools because Finland spends 7% of the money on it but America only spends about 6% of the money on

American students aren’t developing as many science, math or language skills as students in other countries. When American students took a two hour test it showed how they did compared to their peers from around the world and the results were disappointing. While U.S. schools struggled to reach even an average score on a key international exam for 15 year olds in 2012, BASIS Tucson North, an economically modest, ethnically diverse charter school in Arizona, outperformed every country in the world, and left even Shanghai, China’s academic gem in the dust (Kronholz). The problem isn’t the students because they’re as smart as those students in different countries but the problem is our public school system. Our students need the skills and

Just as each country’s culture differs from the rest, each country’s educational system is different. Many organizations rank each country’s educational system by the students’ scores on standardized math and science testing or overall academic performance in order to compare them and evaluate each country’s success in the world of education. This data is incredibly useful in comparing literacy rates, many statistical pursuits, and in finding places where the systems need improvement. However, while comparing educational systems based solely on academic achievement provides vital information to the aforementioned areas, it overlooks other important factors; including student ability, life skills, and cultural factors. These things greatly impact

“How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! “The finish school system is an essential educational system in Finland which consists of a nine-year comprehensive school from 1st to 9th grade, from the ages of 7 to 16 in which attendance is mandatory. According to (Hammond, 2010) Finland built a robust educational system, nearly from the ground up, Finland was fading educationally in the 1970s, when the United States was the undisputed educational leader in the world. Thus far Finland country created a creative teaching and learning system by intensifying access while investing firmly in ambitious educational goals using a calculated approach to be building the

Show up. Sit down. Keep Quiet. Do your homework. Repeat. If you’ve ever attended a k-12 school in the United States, you’re more than likely familiar with this routine. You are told what to think and how to think with absolutely no exceptions of anything otherwise, and because of this, you are unmotivated to attend school or do any school work, which leads to low grades. However, across the Atlantic Ocean in Finland, students are doing exceptionally well in school and are placing number one in subjects such as math and science (Gardner 1). The main reasons why the education system in Finland is significantly more successful than the education system in the U.S. is because the teachers require more education, there is more freedom and room for trial-and-error, and because the schools do not allow big corporations and politics to control their curriculums and spendings.

Education can be taught in many different ways, but the most important thing is that everyone gets a chance. United States has one of the least successful education systems in the world and is ranked below average in science and math . Finland on the other hand has one of the best educational systems that have been number one for many years. Finland from the start has taught the importance of education to its students and being a teacher is one of the hardest profession to get into. From a devastated country they unified and starting focusing on educating their youth because of their effect on the future. Finland focuses on the success level of both the teachers educating the students and that none of the students are ever left behind. United States on the other hand believe a test based system can achieve success which has shown no result.Finland has kept its high position in education for many years and the United States has been falling behind because it is unwilling to learn from Finland 's success.

Did you know that in Finland the students normally spend a total of seventy-five minutes outside? When it comes to academics Finland has got the U.S beat. Not only do they care about students, but the teachers too. There in Finland, they realize how crucial it is to start at an early age. So if you want to give your kid a good education send them to Finland.

Before we begin explaining the Finnish system of schooling, it is important to understand that they are not only one of the top performing countries, but also how far they have come. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which began testing in 2000, rated Finland as one of the top 5 countries, as it has since its inception. In 2009 they ranked sixth in math, second in science and third in reading, comparison, U.S. students ranked 30th, 23rd and 17th, respectively, of the 65 tested countries (1). By 2012, the gap between the

From a close analysis of statistics, America long lost its educational standards and status to other nations whose policies and educational terrain appear polished. Supporting this reasoning, one could argue that economic challenges are pushing nations to invest much on education as a means of realizing solutions to the same economic woes. The implication is that other nations with better educational models have better opportunities for finding effective solutions more than the U.S. One significant question to pose could be the level of education of the future generations and the manner in which they could be able to compete at

Following the second World War, America was considered a leader in education, which helped fuel a booming middle working class. Today that’s anything but the case no matter the source, while the country isn’t at the at the very bottom, American is usually lead by many other developed nations. As much as this may seem like a bad thing, it has caused many to take a closer look at our educational system and how students are taught.