Finland is an exotic, far-away country in the eyes of Americans; a nation we erroneously classify as Scandinavian and imagine as bedecked with reindeer. Beyond this, we know two things about the Finns: they invented Nokia, and they have the world’s best schools. Well, you know, except for the Asians, but they’re in their own class. Best not to muddy the waters. Finland is exotic, but still, you know, European. So it’s approachable when it comes to the topic of education. Articles and internet posts circulate with some regularity touting their schools as a paragon of excellence. A simple Google search for “Finland education” will corroborate this.
The reason Finland is put on this pedestal is because of its test scores on something called PISA, the Programme for International Student Assessment, and the fact that people who do education theory and commentary are apparently absolutely terrible at data analysis.
Scroll down to the results section, and you can see how the countries stack up. Major Asian cities, Japan, and Finland are doing well, Americans are doing… well, I would say “fine”, but not as well as the Asians, and a smidgen worse than Western European nations.
Education practices may play a role in these scores. I’ll even allow that it does factor into these scores. But what also plays an incredibly significant role is socio-economics. America is a massive, socioeconomically heterogeneous nation. Singapore, Macau, Shanghai, and Finland are the exact opposite of that. Finland’s closest US approximate is probably Minnesota, with rather comparable populations and GDP (and even religious makeup). Notice how we don’t have a PISA score for MN. It’s an apples to oranges comparison. So what happens when we look at how individual US states perform?
When you compare Massachusetts or Connecticut to Finland, they’re pretty much dead even.
Compare those states to Florida, and Florida does comparatively weak. Not that there aren’t regional differences in schooling in the US, but each state is still beholden to a structure heavily influenced by the federal government, and American schools operate under broadly similar cultural principles. So why does Florida suck? My friend Zach speculates that there is an opening to Hell concealed somewhere in the Everglades, making Florida an American Avernus. But as to its limitations in educational achievement, I’m happy to speculate.
Florida has the nation’s 4th highest immigration rate, with about 20% of its population being foreign-born. Not that the New England states are far behind. (Here’s a good resource for state immigration data). But the type of immigrants is going to matter in education scores. Over half of Florida’s immigrants are Hispanic, and fewer than 10% are Asian. Massachusetts has over a quarter of its immigrants being Asian but only about a fifth of them being Hispanic. The rates of immigrant children living in poverty is comparable, around a third of that population for both states, fwiw. In native populations, Florida has black population close to 16%, whereas MA’s is around 6%. Why does racial makeup of a state matter? Good question. I can speculate on the why too, but there’s plenty of stuff out there. What’s important for my argument here is merely that it’s a factor in predicting academic success here in the US. Compared to white students, black and Hispanic students perform worse, while Asian students perform better.
Florida also has a higher poverty rate (although they have a Gini coefficient nearly identical to Mass.)
Florida has a less educated population overall. The number of educated retirees who move to the state is probably bumping their numbers way, way up as it is.
Florida and Massachusetts may be unique states in their own right, but the massive PISA score disparity between the two is undoubtedly influenced substantially by these socioeconomic disparities. Both Florida and Massachusetts have a litany of standardized tests, and both states are aiming their curricula to those tests (and vice versa), so I find it incredibly hard to believe that structure of the education system is responsible for the bulk of that score gap. Having taught in the midwest and south, I couldn’t tell you anything done substantially differently in schooling statewide.
Yet when we talk about how great Finland is with their PISA test scores, none of these factors get brought up. And when you start looking at the difference between Americans and Europeans, let alone the Finnish in particular from a sociology standpoint, you’re going to find plenty of salient factors. Racial disparity, relative poverty, and the cultural value of education are not insubstantial factors on educational achievement. And again we’re glossing over the Asians (myself included). Singapore, Macau, and Hong Kong are all formerly European-run cities, very economically strong, and have (obviously) an Asian cultural ethos built on literally 2 millennia of standardized testing. Add the fact that PISA tests by age, not grade, and it shouldn’t be too surprising to see them edge out the rest of the world.
So we can complain about standardized tests (and we should, because they’re just awful), but Massachusetts has idiotic standardized tests, and to reiterate, they hold their own against the Finns. Could the Finns teach us something about education? Sure, probably. But the idea that just because some idea in education is different means that it’s some obvious key to success is complete nonsense. Philosopher and teacher John Dewey did an eloquent job of elaborating on that in his book Experience and Education, which I recommend. He was talking about progressive education, but it also holds up as a critique of any reactionary pedagogical theories. Beyond pedagogy, there’s also a fairly frequent clamor for something to the effect of, “Oh, we should adopt Scandinavian-style social democracy in our government”, citing Finland’s education success as a justification, as if that is practical and not contingent on a ton of cultural and economic factors as well.
I’m not saying we can’t learn from the Finns, just that we seems to be doing an apples to Nokias comparison.