While Finland’s cost per student for primary and secondary education is 40% less than ours, her students rank first internationally in math and science, ours 24th. 100% of Finland’s teachers come from the top third of their college graduating classes, while the U.S. number is 14%. Korea, just behind Finland in most rankings, pays teacher salaries (with 15 years experience) that are 221% of per capita G.D.P., the U.S. 96%. Finland stands just 1 point above the U.S on international I.Q. rankings, so native intelligence is no excuse for our ranking. Finland’s teacher turnover rate is 2%, ours 17% (2004-2005). Various studies reveal that high turnover rates are surprisingly costly and deplete the budgets of counties where they are highest.
Do any of these statistics point the way to resolving the U.S.’s educational crisis? Perhaps the clearest factors are compensation and society’s ranking of teachers. In the top countries Singapore, Korea, New Zealand, Finland, and Canada, teachers occupy the top rungs of the societal ladder. In the U.S., they fall well behind engineers, financiers, bankers, doctors, scientists, businessmen, manufacturers, and numerous others. Many of us look at teachers and think “if you’re so smart why did you go into teaching?” We have a trite old saw that goes: Those who can, do, those who can’t, teach. That is yet another way for the tax averse to belittle the most important job in America.
While Finland and other superstar countries may not provide us a silver bullet to fix our ailing school system, there can be no doubt that in their best practices we could find some helpful nuggets. If we do nothing more than boost teachers up the ladder of respect by a rung or two, and pay them in line with their responsibilities, we will begin to see progress.
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