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In Finland, teachers are selected from the top 10% of college graduates.[1] In the US, nearly half of all new teachers come from the bottom third of college gr

by cs702 13y ago

In Finland, teachers are selected from the top 10% of college graduates.[1] In the US, nearly half of all new teachers come from the bottom third of college graduates.[2] Homework or no homework, Finnish students are learning directly from -- and personally interacting with -- some of the brightest minds in their country, every day. -- [1] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands... [2] http://www.mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Closing_the_talent_gap.pdf http://www.mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education...

wklauss 13y ago
My guess is that you cannot replicate that model in US because salary differences between private companies and universities are abysmal. In finland being selected to have the opportunity to become a teacher is an honor and you quality of life will not be much different than the one you'll get if you choose the private sector. In the US being on the top 10% of your college puts you in a really advantageous position for a much better paid job in the private sector.
mathattack 13y ago
When you combine the top 10% with a 12 to 1 student to teacher ratio, great things can happen. This seems more like the US private school model. I'm surprised they didn't mention that Finnish students start school at 7 years old. [1] I would be interested to find out about the dispersion of the Finnish results. Do they huddle around the mean, or are there very positive outliers? I don't have any personal data points, and haven't seen anything published on this. [1] http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-finland-phenomenon-inside-the-worlds-most-surprising-school-system-588.php http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-finland-phenomenon-...
sampo 13y ago
> In Finland, teachers are selected from the top 10% of college graduates. I'm a Finn and I have three issues with that: (A) I think high school would be a better translation for the upper secondary school, or gymnasium (1), in Finland. People usually graduate at age 19, and then apply to universities and other places. (B) Well yes, the acceptance rates for B.Sc. and M.Sc. in education (to become a schoolteacher) are 5%–10%, but a lot of people, if not accepted, will reapply the next years, so this inflates the statistics. (C) People who apply to study education, may not have been in the top 10% of their high school to begin with. (Some may have been, but a majority, no.) (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(school) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(school)
tomarr 13y ago
What I don't understand is how they don't run out of talent? If you assume students are at school for 10 years (always), teachers for 30 (some dropout), this puts the staff:student ratio to 1:36, or 6% of the top graduates (if as stated, top 10%) a year. This is pretty much the lower bound of staff:student in a stable population, it can only get worse with factors such as college drop-outs and top graduates choosing other career paths. So either the demographics are rapidly changing , the numbers or fudged or the majority of top graduates in Finland choose teaching.

by cs702 13y ago

wklauss 13y ago

My guess is that you cannot replicate that model in US because salary differences between private companies and universities are abysmal. In finland being selected to have the opportunity to become a teacher is an honor and you quality of life will not be much different than the one you'll get if you choose the private sector. In the US being on the top 10% of your college puts you in a really advantageous position for a much better paid job in the private sector.

mathattack 13y ago

When you combine the top 10% with a 12 to 1 student to teacher ratio, great things can happen. This seems more like the US private school model. I'm surprised they didn't mention that Finnish students start school at 7 years old. [1] I would be interested to find out about the dispersion of the Finnish results. Do they huddle around the mean, or are there very positive outliers? I don't have any personal data points, and haven't seen anything published on this. [1] http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-finland-phenomenon-inside-the-worlds-most-surprising-school-system-588.php http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-finland-phenomenon-...

sampo 13y ago

> In Finland, teachers are selected from the top 10% of college graduates. I'm a Finn and I have three issues with that: (A) I think high school would be a better translation for the upper secondary school, or gymnasium (1), in Finland. People usually graduate at age 19, and then apply to universities and other places. (B) Well yes, the acceptance rates for B.Sc. and M.Sc. in education (to become a schoolteacher) are 5%–10%, but a lot of people, if not accepted, will reapply the next years, so this inflates the statistics. (C) People who apply to study education, may not have been in the top 10% of their high school to begin with. (Some may have been, but a majority, no.) (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(school) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(school)

tomarr 13y ago

What I don't understand is how they don't run out of talent? If you assume students are at school for 10 years (always), teachers for 30 (some dropout), this puts the staff:student ratio to 1:36, or 6% of the top graduates (if as stated, top 10%) a year. This is pretty much the lower bound of staff:student in a stable population, it can only get worse with factors such as college drop-outs and top graduates choosing other career paths. So either the demographics are rapidly changing , the numbers or fudged or the majority of top graduates in Finland choose teaching.