Today began with a visit to Töölö Special Upper Secondary School that enrolls students 16 to 18 years of age. Language teacher Ann Edstrom was preparing her 11 students for a quiz the next day by reviewing a worksheet that was projected on the board. When asked why the class was all female, she responded, “Our boy is not ...
Delegates on the trip are becoming restless, or perhaps agitated provides a better descriptor. Decisions made in Finland in the 1970s and in the years following resulted in vast changes in the country’s public schools. My fellow travelers sense that partisanship and the politicization of public education in North Carolina have frustrated attempts to move from successful pilots of ...
I am blogging this week from Finland where I am traveling with a group of leaders from North Carolina to learn more about this country’s success in its public schools.
One theme that has already emerged is the prevalence of trust that schools and their faculties will do what is in the best interest of students. Dr. Kristina Volmari, Head ...
The delegation arrived in Helsinki after an overnight flight from the Triangle. Some of us took a brief walk along the waterfront and later joined Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish author of the newly released book Finnish Lessons, for dinner. He cautioned about generalizing observations of Helsinki to all of Finland as most of the country is ...
Beginning today, I join a team of leaders from North Carolina and travel to Finland to discover the drivers behind the dramatic rise of this country’s public schools to become arguably the best in the world. According to the most respected international comparison of student achievement, PISA (Programme of International Student Achievement), Finnish students ...