The federal government of Finland does not dictate to its schools how they should educate their students, Superintendent Beth Schwarz told the ISD 166 school board at its October 25 meeting, held in Grand Portage.
The country’s educational system, she said, is based on trust—between communities and their schools, between the adults in each school, and between those adults and their students.
Superintendent Schwarz was reporting on a Minnesota Department of Education meeting she had attended in the Twin Cities in which Minnesota’s educational model was compared with that of Finland.
According to a 2011 Smithsonian magazine article entitled Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful?, Finland’s math, science, and reading scores have been among the highest in the world in recent years. The article talks about Finland’s attempts to do whatever it takes to reach all students. It compares Finland’s approach with the struggles the U.S. has had and the way the U.S. has tried to deal with them.
The article states, “In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on competition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland.
“‘I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,’ said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience. ‘If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.’”
According to the article, Finland spends 30 percent less per student than the U.S., yet its high school graduation rate is much higher. No standardized tests are required until students finish high school.
“Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers,” the article states. “Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. ‘We have no hurry,’ said [Kari] Louhivuori [a teacher and principal]. ‘Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?’”
Superintendent Schwarz said that Finland’s teachers spend about half their day on professional development and preparation, and students have 15-minute breaks every hour. She said Finland’s educational system seems to be creating “innovators.” Minnesota needs to start “acting out of the box,” she said. “We need to start being creative thinkers.”
Industrial technology area
Along the lines of meeting the needs of all students, Principal Carman said she had met with Community Education Director Diane Booth, Cook County Higher Education Director Paul Sundet, and Blandin Foundation representatives about the possibility of grant funding for renovation of the industrial technology area.
“We are planning to do a comprehensive planning process to assess our long-term needs in the areas of career preparation (all areas – students and adults) and alternative high school programming,” she wrote in her report.
In other business:
. In light of declining enrollment, the school has reduced its annual budget by about $1 million since she came three years ago, Schwarz reported. “I think we’re getting close to being right-sized,” she said.
The district currently has 466 students enrolled and Schwarz expects that number to be down to 432 by the 2015-16 school year.
. The board authorized Superintendent Schwarz to make purchases up to $10,000 without prior approval so that problems that come up suddenly, such as snow removal equipment breaking down, can be taken care of. “Just make sure the necessity is there,” said school board member Leonard Sobanja.
. The board approved hiring Deon Brady-Morgan as a half-time early childhood special education teacher and School Counselor Bryan Hackbarth as the credit recovery coordinator (six hours per week at $20/hour) and paying an extra $500 a year to the Quality Oversight Committee (funded by the state’s new Q-Comp quality assurance program the district applied to be part of ). Members of that committee are Beth Schwarz, Gwen Carman, Dorie Carlson, Betsy Jorgenson, and Bryan Hackbarth.
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