Finland's low pressure, high performance schools

I like this recent article in Time on Finnish schools.
  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2062419,00.html 
The gist of it is that the Finnish schools are very non competitive, very relaxed about testing, homework, etc., and yet turn out superior results.  They do very little testing and measuring results.

In the latest PISA survey, in 2009, Finland placed second in science literacy, third in mathematics and second in reading. The U.S. came in 15th in reading, close to the OECD average, which is where most of the U.S.'s results fell.

There's less homework too.

"An hour a day is good enough to be a successful student," says Katja Tuori, who is in charge of student counseling at Kallahti Comprehensive, which educates kids up to age 16. "These kids have a life.

The key ingredient appears to be treating the teachers as true professionals.  Every teacher must complete five years of training - our Master's degree.  They are highly selective on who can get into the profession - only 10% of applicants are accepted.  The quality of the teachers seem to be the key to their success.  A teacher stays with students from first grade through sixth grade.  And once they are there, they leave them alone.

"You don't buy a dog and bark for it," says Dan MacIsaac, a specialist in physics-teacher education at the State University of New York at Buffalo who visited Finland for two months. "In the U.S., they treat teachers like pizza delivery boys and then do efficiency studies on how well they deliver the pizza."  

 But this approach may not work everywhere.  The Finnish non competitive culture is behind it - and it won't port well to some place where that doesn't fit.  Just another example of the tremendous influence of the local culture on the way we work.