IAE Blog

I have been reading about Finland’s public school system for a number of years. Year after year, it is ranked near the top of school systems throughout the world (Schwab, 2016). Many people have asked, “Why?” and what can we (educational leaders in my country) do in order to emulate or exceed this success. See the video, Finland’s Formula for School Success (Edutopia, 1/25/2012).

If it were easy to emulate Finland’s successful approach, I believe it would have been done in many different school districts and school systems. My conclusion is that we can learn from Finland’s school system, but that its core reasons for success are not easily replicated.

IAE Guest Blog
Racquel Biem
Chinook Cyber School, Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Recently it occurred to me to ask, “When did K-12 schools start using the grades A, B, C, D, and F to record and disseminate student achievement?” I asked a friend of mine whose first teaching experience was in a one-room school about 65 years ago where he had about 30 students spread over grades 1-8.

He told me that each term he was required to provide a brief written report about a student’s academic progress, deportment, and other relevant topics. This “report card” did not contain letter grades.

What’s your Intelligence Quotient (IQ)? Has knowing—or not knowing—this number made any difference in your life?

Likely you have taken several IQ tests during your lifetime. Perhaps you have not made any particular decisions based on your IQ, but maybe others have. For example, maybe your IQ was measured while you were in elementary school and the resulting number was used to decide whether you were eligible to be in a Talented and Gifted program or a Special Education program.

Recently I was browsing some of my “older” writings and I came across a paper, Me–A Course of Study, that I wrote nearly 12 years ago (Moursund, November, 2004). It represented some of my guesses and hopes for what our educational system would look like in 2014.

The paper is a scenario—a view of education as seen through the eyes of a student just about to graduate from high school in 2014. The scenario presents a number of potential educational improvements that I thought would be well integrated into our educational system over the coming decade (2004-2014). The student intends to go to college and become a teacher.