Money alone is not enough to improve a country's education system. But without adequate funding for school buildings, technical equipment, teaching materials and teacher training, education reform is doomed to failure from the very outset. The Peruvian Government is well aware of this: for its planned reform of the education system, it has put a new distribution key for budgetary funds at the top of the agenda.
As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs.
"There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience
at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something
that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."
The main
driver of education policy is not competition between teachers and between
schools, but cooperation.
Decades ago, when the Finnish school system was badly in need of reform, the
goal of the program that Finland instituted, resulting in so much success
today, was never excellence. It was equity.
Finland -- unlike, say, very similar
countries such as Norway -- was producing academic excellence through its
particular policy focus on equity.
the number of foreign-born residents in Finland doubled during the decade leading up to 2010, and the country didn't lose its edge in education. Immigrants tended to concentrate in certain areas, causing some schools to become much more mixed than others, yet there has not been much change in the remarkable lack of variation between Finnish schools in the PISA surveys across the same period.
Educational policy, Abrams suggests, is probably more important to the success of a country's school system than the nation's size or ethnic makeup.
When Finnish policymakers decided to reform the country's education system in the 1970s, they did so because they realized that to be competitive, Finland couldn't rely on manufacturing or its scant natural resources and instead had to invest in a knowledge-based economy.
It is possible to create equality. And perhaps even more important -- as a challenge to the American way of thinking about education reform -- Finland's experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on cooperation, and not on choice, but on equity.
Personalisation in education has been discussed in research and policy papers for approximately ten years. Personalised learning, as a concept, first appeared in the United States and was subsequently expanded and deepened through work in the United Kingdom as it became embedded in a wider argument for the reform of all public services. This reform aimed to create services that responded more directly to the diverse needs of individuals rather than imposing uniform solutions on all people.
Education Recovery and Reinvestment Center
The new search tools on our Education Recovery and Reinvestment Center help you find the resources you need or take you directly to the pages that meet your needs.
* Fund Finder: Identifies total distribution of funds to your state.
* State Resources page contains state-specific information.
* The LPA Resource page contains specially developed tools and resources.
* The calendar of events is updated regularly.
District and School Administrators
* The School Reform and Improvement Database contains research on school finance models, optimal resource allocation for school improvement, whole district reform, and teacher retention strategies.
Education Recovery and Reinvestment Center
The new search tools on our Education Recovery and Reinvestment Center help you find the resources you need or take you directly to the pages that meet your needs. Here is a sample of what you will find:
Equip 4 Pilates is an online store that specialise in Pilates Props and Pilates Accessories. We sell all the props which can be used both in mat Pilates classes and Pilates reformer classes.
Equip 4 Pilates is an online store that specialise in Pilates Props and Pilates Accessories. We sell all the props which can be used both in mat Pilates classes and Pilates reformer classes.
Reformers have largely worked within, rather than on, the system of education. Working within the system has resulted in status-quo preservation, even when reformists felt they were being radical. Illich failed to account for how educational institutions are integrated into society. Freire spoke with a humanity and hope that was largely overlooked by a comfortable developed world incapable of seeing the structure and impact of its system. To create and nurture change, a message must not only be true for an era, but it must also resonate with the needs, passions, interests, realities, and hopes of the audience to whom the message is directed.
In an era marked by innovations and reformative individuals, sculpting an identity for oneself with chisels of creativity, determination and leadership, has been deemed essential.
In an era marked by innovations and reformative individuals, sculpting an identity for oneself with chisels of creativity, determination and leadership, has been deemed essential.
In this article, Jay C. Percell outlined "issues at stake, address[ed] ... common hesitancies ..., and offer[ed] ... tips for success ... gleaned ... [from] 15 years of alternative grading" (¶2).
"There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience
at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something
that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."
Wow did this ever strike a chord! Give us more responsibility, and let us show what we can do. When you reduce it to "accountability" you've taken away our power.
The problem facing education in America isn't the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed. More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad
Finland's experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on cooperation, and not on choice, but on equity
Decades ago, when the Finnish school system was badly in need of reform, the
goal of the program that Finland instituted, resulting in so much success
today, was never excellence. It was equity.
Real winners do not compete
cooperation
instrument to even out social inequality
Finland offers all pupils free school meals, easy access to health
care, psychological counseling, and individualized student guidance
Ideas for progress toward reforming public education, innovative uses of technology in the classroom and making school an authentic and meaningful experience.
The most iconic and recognized of all Pilates Equipment is the reformer; this is usually used in the presence of a professional practitioner and consists of a padded bench with pulleys attached.
With $5 Billion Fund, Duncan Seeks to Fuel Innovation in Schools
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 26, 2009; Page A19
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday that he will leverage a $5 billion fund to shape school reform, rewarding states that push for classroom innovation with federal stimulus dollars and denying extra aid to those that do not.