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About 30 educators and policymakers spent a spring day at the WEAC building (April 22, 2008) examining an emerging model for high performance education systems across Europe, with Finland in the vanguard.
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The group explored the possibilities for applying aspects of the European model and Finnish reform to education in Wisconsin.
Pasi Sahlberg, a researcher and official with EU European Training Foundation in Torino, Italy, led the discussion of Finnish education reform and the principles that have led to Finland being perhaps the highest performing school system in the world.
There are many societal and governmental factors that contribute to successful education in Finland, Sahlberg said, but there is no doubt that education is valued and educators are respected, he said.
“To be a teacher in American society is not so highly appreciated as it is in Finland,” he said. “If you are a primary, elementary school teacher or a high school teacher (in Finland), your social status in your society, in your community is very high. You are as highly regarded as lawyers or business people or doctors. Being a teacher is a great thing.”
Sahlberg served as a researcher with the World Bank where he co-authored the World Bank report titled “Policy Development and Reform Principles of Basic and Secondary Education in Finland since 1968.” He has been an official in the Ministry of Education in Finland and a principal in the nation’s educational reform movement. His work focuses on the Finnish education reform model that is increasingly studied and adapted in western Europe, including Ireland.
The model is based on principles of equal opportunity, decentralization to regional and local authorities, equity of funding, professional responsibility, abandonment of high-stakes testing, and sustained, cross-party political consensus.
His visit was sponsored by WEAC and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. Participants came from WEAC, the UW, the Legislature and professional organizations.
Posted April 18, 2008; updated April 28, 2008