Tag Archives: teachers

There are no private schools in Finland: the opposite of Atlanta-imposed charter schools

Privatizing isn’t the answer, rote tests are irrelevant, and competition doesn’t help win. Those are a few of the lessons Finland learned that made its schools world leaders in education. So why would we consider letting Atlanta force privatized charter schools on us?

Anu Partanen wrote for the Atlantic 29 December 2011, What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success

“Oh,” he mentioned at one point, “and there are no private schools in Finland.”

Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education’s Center for International Mobility and author of the new book Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland, said that offhand while talking at a private school in New York. Nobody seemed to pay much attention. Maybe we should.

He also noted Finland has no standardized tests until the equivalent of high school graduation, and they don’t have any particular system for accountability for teachers or administrators.

“Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.”

So why do teachers and administrators in Finland so successfully take that responsibility?

Continue reading →

Copy charter schools or something else that works?

Instead of copying failed experiments like Hamilton County, Tennessee, how about copying some of the charter schools that do work? Or some other model that actually does work to improve education?

Sam Dillon wrote for the NYTimes today, Troubled Schools Try Mimicking the Charters

Classrooms are festooned with college pennants. Hallway placards proclaim: “No Excuses!” Students win prizes for attendance. They start classes earlier and end later than their neighbors; some return to school on Saturdays. And they get to pore over math problems one-on-one with newly hired tutors, many of them former accountants and engineers.

If these new mores at Lee High School, long one of Houston’s most troubled campuses, make it seem like one of those intense charter schools, that is no accident.

In the first experiment of its kind in the country, the Houston public schools are testing whether techniques proven successful in high-performing urban charters can also help raise achievement in regular public schools. Working with Roland G. Fryer, a researcher at Harvard who studies the racial achievement gap, Houston officials last year embraced five key tenets of such charters at nine district secondary schools; this fall, they are expanding the program to 11 elementary schools. A similar effort is beginning in Denver.

Charter schools were supposed to be pilot projects, so why not adopt what works there in public schools?

However, this still seems to be all about test scores. Maybe some public schools could look farther afield, Continue reading →

Why is Finland at the top of the world in education?

Attention to weak students. Status and autonomy for teachers. Educators running the show, not business people. All this creates a real educated workforce.

Lynnell Hancock wrote for Smithsonian Magazine September 2011, Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful? Here’s a clue:

“Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.”
So what do they do? Drill the weak students on test questions? Nope: Continue reading →

STPP: Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline Symposium

Did you know that:
Children are far more likely to be arrested at school than they were a generation ago.

The vast majority of these arrests are for non-violent offenses such as “disruptive conduct” or “disturbance of the peace.” Five year olds are being led out of classrooms in handcuffs for acting out or throwing temper tantrums. Students have been arrested for throwing an eraser at a teacher, breaking a pencil, and having rap lyrics in a locker. These children do not belong in jail.

Why do we pay more to incarcerate people than it would cost to educate them?
Why is this happening? “Zero tolerance” policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules and high-stakes testing programs encourage educators to push out low-performing students to improve their schools’ overall test scores. Students of color are especially vulnerable to the discriminatory application of discipline and push-out trends.
Here’s a chance to do something about it.
The School To Prison Pipeline (STPP) refers to a disturbing national trend in which students are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Most of these kids are children of color, and many have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead they are punished and isolated.
The Valdosta Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline Symposium is one of a series throughout the state of Georgia. It’s 9:30AM – 4PM 30 Oct 2010.

-jsq