School Leadership 2.0 Editor's Note:

 SL 2.0 members, Kimberly Licato (Westhampton Beach School District) and Jackie Ammirato (Longwood School District) recently toured Finland to see firsthand the school system that is arguably the best in the world.  They share their impressions in a series of blog posts that continue today.  Thanks Kimberley and Jackie for sharing your trip with us.

Diversity

Our visitations coincided with the mass exit of Syrians from their battle- torn country.  The news in Finland was filled with accounts of immigrants’ desperate stories as well as many European countries, including Finland, discussing plans to assist the overwhelming number of immigrants seeking a new place to call “home”.   The Headmaster of the lower-elementary school in Espoo discussed with us the potential future impact this wave of immigrants will have on the educational system.  The conversation revolved around discussing and anticipating the educational needs of this unique group of children and the planning that would be involved to be able to provide for their individual “needs” within the educational setting.  

Prior to our trip to Finland, both of us presented our dissertation proposals to our professors from St. John’s University for their review.  We were both questioned about the lack of diversity in Finland’s schools in comparison to New York State public schools.  This question was raised as a concern about the relevance of Finland’s educational accomplishments.  If the student populations were radically dissimilar in comparison to American public schools, what could educators in the United States learn or what could be replicated from Finland’s successful school reform?  Would this research be relevant?  While researching for our literary review, we found numerous articles touching upon the lack of diversity within Finland’s schools as a point of contention.  Arguments have been made which suggest that a primary factor to Finland’s success in school reform is a homogeneous student population.  A follow-up to this argument, is a general dismissal of all that could be learned from Finland citing the disparity between student populations.

It is true that many of the Finnish schools lack diversity.  However, since the beginning of this century Finland has experienced an increase of students who were not native to Finland.  In particular, schools surrounding Helsinki have reported a yearly increase of immigrant students with several schools stating that 50% of their population is “non-native”.  The government reported that in 2010 approximately 4.6 percent of Finnish residents were born in another country.  In the United States for the same year, 12.7 percent of the population was born in another country.   The current trend in Finland is a yearly increase in the number of foreign-born residents.  This trend has impacted the educational system in several areas such as foreign language instruction and being able to provide for the educational needs for this specific set of students.  Finland’s schools are not immune to the challenges of educating immigrant students comparable to what we experience in our public schools in New York.

Many attribute Finland’s school reform success to a homogenous student population.  However, the same homogenous population factor found in some public schools on Long Island has not yielded the same level of success.  Habitually, American students score well below Finnish students on the PISA exam in all areas of the exam.  Schools on Long Island with a similar homogenous population have not been able to obtain the notoriety nor renowned recognition of positive achievement in school reform that is pervasive throughout Finland.  In 2010, 18 states within the United States had an identical or significantly smaller percentage of foreign-born residents than Finland.  Size or homogeneity should not give Americans a reason to dismiss the Finnish example and what we can learn from their reform efforts. 

It is true that not all public schools in New York are diverse.  Long Island schools, many regarded as outstanding public schools, span the spectrum of diversity.  Very little diversity is represented in some districts while other districts consist of mixed groupings and some other districts are predominately ethnically and racially diverse.  According to a study conducted by the Civil Rights Project in 2014, New York has the most segregated schools in the nation. The research stated that despite increases in ethnic and racial groups during the past 10 years, increased diversity has not translated into increased integration.  

Regardless of family background, income, or geographic location every child in Finland is provided exactly the same opportunity to learn.  Education has been seen as a means to even out social inequality.  Producing star performers has never been an objective of school reform in Finland.  The goal of school reform has been and continues to be equity not excellence. In order for Finland to be competitive in a global economy educators recognized that the educational system had to prepare not just some of its population well, but rather all of its’ population well.  

Perhaps the most significant take away for American educators is as simple as the concept of preparing well all, not just some, of the student population in the United States.