I attended a national teachers' conference on Friday. There were numerous vendors represented and a variety of sessions for teachers to attend. There was even an "international strand" of sessions in English. One of the interesting sessions I attended was lead by Susan Hopgood, President of Education International.
Ms. Hopgood listed many industrialized nations' primary policies to address the concerns of education through privatization (voucher systems, charter schools, and the shift of funds from public schools to private schools). As she added, Finland probably has not heard of performance management, standardized testing, school ranking, ranking of students, incentivizing teachers with bonus (merit) pay, competition between schools, and restricting entry to some schools. This raised a red flag for me because Chicago has tried most of the strategies on her list. For those that do not know reading this...Finland has been deliberate, transparent, and successful implementing a system with policies to ensure quality education for all and thus, has not done the aforementioned policies.
Ironically, as Ms. Hopgood stated, the data shows internationally these referenced policies have actually resulted in the narrowing of the curriculum and less student learning. Countries need to take a closer look at how Finland has been able to provide a quality education for all and lift both the preparation and the prestige of teachers.
It seems to me that nations, including the U.S., choose these policies for either their perceived expediency or less use of public funds or both. We keep choosing these quick, sometimes radical approaches, that are not building the capacity of teachers nor the learning of kids.
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