Let's throw a cold splash of reality onto the treasured fairy tale about Finland's "stellar schools." What do the data say? One place to look is at the standa

Let's throw a cold splash of reality onto the treasured fairy tale about Finland's "stellar schools." What do the data say? One place to look is at the standardized assessment tests designed to (among other things) make international comparisons. The National Center for Education Statistics relies largely on three: the Program for International Assessment (PISA), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). For brevity, let's pick math using PIRLS, which is also nice because it breaks out some U.S. states separately. Cherry-picking the data, consider these scores for 8th-grade math students in 2011. Finland: 514 U.S. White, not Hispanic: 530 Massachusetts: 561 Massachusetts Black, not Hispanic: 516 Massachusetts Hispanic: 507 "Stellar" Finland's 8th graders are bested in math by America's white 8th graders overall, by Massachusetts 8th graders overall by a wide margin, and by Massachusetts black 8th graders, and Massachusetts's Hispanic 8th graders come close. Why choose Massachusetts? Partly, because I'm cherry-picking one of our best-performing states. But I think that's defensible because it also closely matches Finland demographically. The U.S. has 300+ million people, Finland only 5+ million; Massachusetts has 6+ million, and it approaches Finland in terms of racial homogeneity. Now, before anyone gets excited, I am NOT making a racial argument, saying that white kids are somehow "better." However, it is an unfortunate, incontrovertible fact that in the U.S., white and Asian kids outperform Black and Hispanic kids currently. We can argue about why that might be and long for the day when it's no longer true, but while we've made great strides and hope to make more in the future, we're not there yet. Given that, comparing tiny Finland with its greater ethnic and socioeconomic homogeneity to enormous and diverse America (with, by the way, 400+ years of institutionalized racism) is intellectually dishonest. I am also not claiming these few data points to be definitive. There are other tests (PISA and PIRLS), other subjects (language and science), other grades, a patchwork of yearly coverage, and other measures. Certainly, on some Finland does come out on top. On others, the U.S. does. I am also not criticizing Finland or saying we have nothing to learn from them. No doubt, they have some wonderful teachers, delightful kids, and some important lessons for the rest of the world. But we also have some wonderful teachers, delightful kids, and given our unique challenges we're actually doing quite well (though we can and will do better). What I am claiming is that there is a myth about Finland's educational prowess that gets told and retold, that is much too simplistic, that evaporates when confronted with actual data, that probably serves the interests of certain "educational reformers", and that is not a helpful part of an informed, rational debate about education policy in the U.S.