Editor’s note: This was originally published in The Education Daly, a substack of the author.
In December 2004, Education Week reported on the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which was administered the previous year to 15-year-old students from dozens of countries.
While lamenting America’s “lackluster” performance, the article specifically focused on Finland’s No. 1 ranking in mathematics. Just three years ago, when the first PISA was conducted, Finland came out on top in reading comprehension. These two of her results suggested that something extraordinary was happening in the small Scandinavian country that most Americans couldn’t spot on a map.
Then two things happened. First, Finland quickly became the most widely admired and imitated education system in the world. The admiration soon turned into complete enthusiasm. Educationally speaking, Finland was Michael Jackson. Everyone wanted to do a moonwalk. There was a super fan screaming out of breath towards the limousine.
After that, Finland’s performance declined.performance has declined more than in other countries It was included in the evaluation program as of the 2022 exam, and its results were reported just a few months ago.
It’s a story whale. what happened?
In this article, we revisit the biggest hype bubble in international education history to understand why Finland attracted such intense fascination, what we can learn from it, and tackle two uncomfortable questions. Masu. First place? Or did real victory quickly give way to unprecedented failure?
What made Finland an educational supernova?
Finland was not the only country to perform well. Just look at the 2003 rankings to see that. For example, Japan and South Korea were almost the same. However, few people were interested in using those countries as a model. Finland stands out for several reasons.
compelling story. It was something like this: This small country, long dominated by its neighbors (Sweden and Russia) and lacking in abundant natural resources, decided to invest in its people a path to prosperity. Decades of wise decisions have resulted in a world-leading school system. message? Success in education is a choice in any country. It just requires the right priorities and trust in educators.
Distinctive features. Most reports pointed to the same few initiatives that are driving Finland’s performance. They were clear and easy to understand. Child poverty was kept low by strong social safety nets. Admissions to teacher preparation programs were highly selective and training was unusually thorough, resulting in teachers receiving high public esteem. There were no nationally mandated tests for students, only common standards that ensured similar rigor for children of all backgrounds.
european atmosphere. Americans were quick to dismiss comparisons with Asian countries. It’s too different. Competition is too fierce. It’s uncomfortable to admit this, but it’s the truth. Finland is home to easily professional and approachable brands, and there are plenty of English-speaking brand ambassadors who were happy to tell us all about it.
american domestic politics. This is the biggest point. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed in December 2001. This law would require approximately 20% of American schools to not only need more resources, but also more accountability, and that some of that accountability should come from the federal government. The bipartisan consensus that had been growing for years was interrupted.
There was an immediate backlash. Finland became the best rebuttal to NCLB. U.S. policy leaders were seen as technocrats bent on micromanaging schools from their cubicles in Washington, bent on punishing them for challenges beyond their control. Finland’s leaders were progressives who believed that educators would almost always make the right decisions if given the resources and minimal interference to do so.
The Finnish approach appeared to be the exact opposite of the US strategy. And they were the best in the world while the United States lagged behind the Slovak Republic. Therefore, we should reverse course and aim for the whole of Finland.
As just one example, when NCLB allowed Teach for America recruits to be considered “highly qualified” under federal law after a summer of training, opponents of TFA argued that Finland, like TFA, I was quick to point out that I would never allow such programs. It didn’t matter that multiple high-quality studies showed that TFA teachers performed better than teachers in other pathways.
This is how problems occurred one after another. Under test. Funding. Accountability. Finland became the answer sheet for comparison with NCLB-era strategies. For American media and policy officials, this was an attractive way to frame the debate.
How wild has it gotten?
If you’ve ever watched the great VH1 series “Behind the Music,” you know the formula. After an act achieves incredible fame, things get chaotic for a while. By 2008, we had reached that part of Finland’s story.
Delegation begins pilgrimage to Finland. A lot of them. Journalists, geeks, state supervisors, union leaders, federal employees, and philanthropists traveled to Finland and back on the carpet. They visited happy classrooms and teacher training programs. By 2012 Finland claimed to have acquired two groups per week. When the pilgrims returned, most spread the gospel of Finland as a country they finally understood.[1]
Little was said about the fact that many of these junkets were organized and paid for by the Finnish government. This was not a spontaneous explosion of educational travel. This was a formal, resource-intensive public relations campaign aimed at branding Finland as the world’s best school system. It was a great success.
Was it an advertisement? In creating this work, I connected with more than a dozen people who had visited Finland. Almost all of them were uncomfortable with the specific term “propaganda.” Because Finns wanted an exchange of ideas and felt that there was transparency about the system, warts and all. It wasn’t an exercise in deception. Foundations and organizations in the United States do similar things all the time to advance their own agendas. However, there was broad agreement that this was a more active and coordinated government effort than was acknowledged at the time.it was hype.
And hype tends to feed on itself. It was the same here.
Explanations of the Finnish system became more and more grandiose. In the early days of Finland’s rise, there was a veritable “Oh, damn it!” Who? we? ” The high quality of the public servant’s comments made it seem as if he was more surprised than anyone else that a modest country that is not obsessed with winning in academic competitions somehow came in first place.
Over time, that modesty has sounded increasingly false, contrasted with seminars with names like “Why Are Finnish Children So Smart?” hosted by the embassy in Washington, D.C. .and books with titles written by educators. Lessons from Finland: What the world can learn from Finland’s education reforms—Since then, two more editions have been updated.
Selling Finland to the United States became a cottage industry. In a 2012 interview, the Finnish education leader revealed his spending 1 week a month In the US. His insights consisted of platitudes such as: “Our ethics is that what we want for our own children, we want for other people’s children. If the other children fail, we have all failed.” As the repetition increases. , his message was more simplified.
It wasn’t just Finns who were selling it. American evangelists published books, recorded interviews with Dan Rather, and gave impassioned speeches at celebrity-led rallies. In 2012, the president of America’s largest teachers’ union declared outright that there was no need to fire weak teachers because Finland “didn’t accept them in the first place.” To him and many others, Finland had the smartest education strategy in the world, and the United States had the stupidest. For a while, the solution to every problem in American education was, “What would Finland do?”
Returning to the Michael Jackson analogy, this is a thriller that sold 32 million copies worldwide in 1983. Seven of his singles were in the top 10. Complete cultural conquest.
Behind the Music fans will be reminded that just when you’re on top of the world, disaster strikes.
In the second part, coming soon, we’ll look at how it happened in Finland and consider what it means for us.
[1] If that’s not enough for you, here are some old records of educational visits to Finland.