Over the last decade, Finland has created one of the leading school systems in the world when measuring 15-year-olds for math, reading, and science skills (Program for International Student Assessment). When compared to the United States, the overwhelming difference in intelligence of teenagers between the two countries begs to question if our learning styles work well. If the U.S. can learn and execute decisions in the Department of Education to make it similar to Finland, then public schools will excel.
Unfortunately, teachers create the largest obstacle currently stopping the U.S. from becoming like Finland because they do not obtain as much educational experience and skill. In America, public schools require teachers to gain a license
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Not having a great public school system might eventually lag us as a nation in terms of innovation and discovery. It’s important to keep education as a high priority because if it is ignored, then a large amount of the country’s population will slowly start lacking in intellectual skills. As a result, the U.S. will fall more and more behind. Statistics from PISA indicate that math performances from students consistently remained below average for the last ten years, with science and reading staying around average. The United States needs a kick start to renovate its educational fields, and soon.
One way that could create change for the better would require all teachers to obtain a master’s degree. Finland requires master’s degrees for teaching and it appears to help the students. As one can imagine, raising the bar for teachers would help students immensely, ensuring that every teacher becomes more skilled. If all teachers become more aware of effective teaching styles, child psychology, and more, they could better help every student succeed. Figuring out what to do with all current teachers that do not possess a master’s degree in education could create issues, as a shortage in teachers may appear. However, countermeasures could be implemented in order to keep this from happening. Giving any currently-employed teacher the ability to keep their jobs for at least five years would give a large enough period of time that most teachers could attend
Nowadays the United States is not known for their educational system. Countries like South Korea, Japan, and Singapore have surpassed the United States buy large margins, in terms of educational success. While other countries are constantly revolutionising their education system, the United States’ education system has not changed in decades, leaving the U.S. unsuccessful. The U.S. continues to fall behind these same countries that are thriving. Due to the fact that the U.S. education system not developing as time went on, leaving them now with a multitude of flaws. The gap between the educated and non-educated, along with the length of how long students are in elementary and high school, are two consequential problems in the United States’ educational system that need to be addressed.
Many people know that the U.S. does not rank very high in education. You hear about how they are always trying to improve education, but they still fall short of where they strive to be. In Anu Partanen’s “Finland’s School Success, What Americans Keep Ignoring” she addresses this issue. She points out what Americans are doing wrong, what Finland is doing right, and how the U.S. can improve the education system in many ways.
In the essay entitled "What the Best Education Systems Are Doing Right," Amy Choi, journalist, writer, and Editorial Director of a media and consulting company, provides a thoughtful estimation on Finland's accomplishments. Choi points out that within a few decades, Finland's educational system was transformed from struggling to thriving. One important feature of that transformation Choi highlighted was the prioritization of providing students with qualified teachers. In Finland, the standards are high to become a teacher and the annual continuing education requirement is extensive. On the other hand, the number of hours a teacher in Finland spends teaching in the classroom per year is almost half the hours required of a US teacher. Their investments are high and their educators are elevated. We can and should look to their example regarding our own educators. Putting the same high expectations and high economic rewards into the profession would be worth the
There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.
The United States is often referred to as the best country in the world in many areas. It may be, but far from it in education. Out of a total of thirty-four countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, it ranks just fourteenth in reading, seventeenth in science and twenty-fifth in math (Walker). Despite America's status as a country, America's education is failing because of the large emphasis on standardized education, and the flaws of the students, parents, and teachers. How to fix the education system remains to be a problem.
In Kelly Lynch’s report “A Comparison of the American Common Core State Standards with the Finnish Educational System,” Lynch examines the strengths and weaknesses of the Finnish and United States educational systems. She discusses the ways to incorporate Finnish practices to improve education in America. Lynch believes that “…incorporating some of Finland’s best practices into the American curriculum may
The United States used to be ranked higher amongst other countries when came to education. People came from all over the world to study here. Unfortunately, for the past years it have been ranked in the twenties amongst other countries based on standardized testing. Now its time to revamp our education system, but the question is where we should we look. Based on student performance, the only countries that have proven that most components of their system works is Finland and Korea; Finland being ranked one and Korea ranked two. In order for the U.S. education system to move in a positive direction we must make significant changes in the structure of our system. First we need to raise the qualifications for becoming a teacher because in some states you don’t even have to attend and educational school; all you have to do is pass a test. Secondly, we need to expand the time of school so that teachers have more time to teach the kids and the students can have more interaction with the teachers. Although this is where we need to look, we don’t need to adopt their entire system.
The education system has been the cornerstone of freedom and equity for economic success in The United States. However, the history of education has never been so crucial to the collective future of our nation and to the young people. The public schools must struggle to provide equality in educational system as never before. The demand for education has become necessary and growing to provide education for all students to comply with the rigorous academic standards on a global scale (Baker, B. D., Sciarra, D. G., Farrie, D. (2010, p. 1).
The United States spends more money on education each year than any other country in the world, yet the education system is not thriving. Three decades ago, America was the leader in the quality of high school diplomas, yet, students in the U.S. rate 31st in math literacy and 23rd in science in comparison to the rest of the world. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) The country that is famous for being the most advanced and innovative country in the world is yielding a generation that is falling behind in the global education race. Public K-12 education is worsening simultaneously with the growing competitiveness of universities. Part of the problem is that teachers are not being paid sufficiently, and many find themselves being laid off. College is getting exponentially more expensive each year. These are only a couple of the issues that the american education system faces today, but the list carries on.
Since the beginning of global standardized testing, American students have been less than impressive. Numerous other countries consistently score higher than students in the United States. While comparing the test scores from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), two major cross-national studies of students’ scholastic performance, it is true that the United States is nowhere near the top, and is instead merely mediocre. An exhaustive list of reasons could be compiled in attempting to explain this phenomenon, but at its core the problem is not that complicated. The prominent issues that cause American students to lag behind are a result of the nation’s multiple separate education systems, parenting, the curriculum or specifically how it is taught.
In an intelligence-based economy, education is important to national prosperity and individual success. Huge achievement gaps and opportunities must shrink to non-existence, and every student must receive a well education that prepares them for college and careers in the world as it is today. Comparing the United States education system to other countries shows that the United States scored lower than nineteen other counties and education systems in reading in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment. Germany and Poland in particular are two countries that have now surpassed the United States. During the same study, scores showed that twenty-nine nations outperformed the United States by a large amount in mathematics, and in science, there have been twenty-two education systems that scored higher than the United States (Heitin).
In a progressively more globalized world that necessitates more effective educational practices, the U.S., once the biggest global force in education, has seen its dominance slowly slip out, and its educational status fall even lower than that of several third-world countries. The decline experienced in American school system academic achievement is not as a result of lack of funding, but as a consequence of the overall educational system watering down. According to Gatto, educating children through the existing public school system of America is crippling rather than helping them. From his essay, ‘Against School,’ it is established that the goal of the whole public school system is to limit people’s intelligence in an attempt to create a society that is manageable. Gatto continues to state that action is needed to change this situation. He supports his assertions using current and historical information about the American school system and his personal experience. After reading his article, one realizes that most of Gatto’s arguments are true. It is true that the American education system is making the students comfort to the government and society norms, which is why they are easily bored. This essay’s goal will, therefore, be to support John Gatto’s beliefs.
Therefore, teacher certifications should be loosened. States do need to make it a bit more difficult to receive a teaching certification. Teachers need to be trained in the subject they are going to teach and have some experience with children. They also need to have significant mentoring, continuing assistance and support, and a variety of enticements to keep them in the profession. To address the teacher shortage issue, states need to do more than just produce a higher number of untrained teachers faster. Recruiting more teachers will not solve the teacher shortage issue. Policymakers need to find a way to keep teachers in the field (Ingersoll and Smith 32). They must invest in the teaching profession, provide high standards for teachers, and increase their salaries, and they also should improve working conditions that impact student achievement and teacher success. Our society needs to recognize teaching as an essential profession. “Those who recruit new teachers need to remember that they are not just responsible for the next generation of teachers, but also for the future of our schools” (Tell
Education is the essential foundation for the progressing of our nation as well as the stimulation for our children. Now, as some may or may-not know that learning gives forth children the accessibility to succeed in physical, intellectual, and even emotional endeavors. Education tends to incline us to widen the door towards attainment in the future. As individuals receive an education, they are more capable to obtain better employment. Views tend to be various to our educational system. Throughout America’s history, students, parents, educators, and government authority have discussed what changes must be made in America’s public school system. We agree changes need to be made to reach goals that will prepare our future for the future properly. However, the voices and cries for positive changes have yet to be heard. Sometimes, many of those changes are established far too quickly for results to be thoroughly examined. The most popular cries for education changes comes from Geoffrey Canada’s stating that “billions of dollars spent on testing, the data cannot be used, because the results come back too late (Canada, 2013). Now, the average person may not be too alarmed, but when companies, like Microsoft or Apple, has to hire computer programming engineers from other countries to fill positions since American’s are academically unqualified, which brings this education system to light on such topics (Moore, 34-36). In all, the public school system is
In the 1970’s Finland was not at the top of the education chain, in fact their education system was doing poorly (NEA). Finland has been changing their education system over the past 35 years to make their education system better. They have changed their education system to become very successful. When looking at the differences between the United States education system and Finland education system has obvious differences between the testing, the paths for the students to take, time management during school hours, and the environment of the classroom.