There has been much criticism of education in the United States, not least in recent weeks. People have suggested our problems of low achievement are the result of bad teachers, tenure laws, and now poor teacher education programs. In fact both the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press ran the same column about the wonderful success of Finland and implied we need to have educational preparation programs similar to Finland's to move U.S. education back to high quality ("What Americans have yet to learn about teacher training," June 22).
No question Finland has done well. It now typically ranks high on international tests, on the quality of teacher preparation (teachers are required to have a master's degree), and on the respect Finnish people have for educators. Finnish culture reveres teachers, does not seek to denigrate them, and pays them relatively well. Finnish teacher education programs are harder to get into (they only take the top 10 percent of applicants) and their programs are both rigorous and long term (two years). Poor teachers in Finland are not punished; they are supported so they can improve and become better.
But while making the comparison, we need to remember that Finland is not the United States.
Finland has 5.3 million people; the United States has 318 million. Finland is quite homogeneous, with most people of Finnish heritage. The U.S. has a wide variety of people, with more than 60 percent white and sizable minorities of African Americans (12.5 percent), Hispanics (12.1 percent), Asians (3.6 percent), and others.
Three languages are spoken in Finland; the U.S. has more than 300, with almost 17 million people speaking a language other than English in the home.
In fact, as of 2010, four American states were minority-majority: California, Texas, New Mexico and Hawaii. Almost 48 percent of the growth among young people belongs to Hispanic families. And more than 50 percent of children under 1 in the U.S. are minority members. Most notably, the U.S. public school population will have a nonwhite majority starting next year for the first time ever.
On recent PISA tests (international tests of knowledge in science and related areas) Finland scored near the top, next to Singapore and cities in China. The overall U.S. scores were below that.
However, U.S. data also indicated that when only U.S. schools with poverty rates of 10 percent or less were counted, U.S. scores were the best in the world. It's time to perhaps acknowledge these facts and stop suggesting that U.S. schools and educational training programs are not doing well. When poverty is not a factor, they are the best.