Skip to main content
News

The Global Search for Education: United States and Finland - Why Are They So Great?

This story originally appeared in The Huffington Post.

A little over 4 decades ago, Finland transformed its education system as part of the country's economic recovery plan. Finnish students had become the best young readers by the time the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment (a global standardized test for 15-year-olds) results were published. Three years later, Finnish students led global students in Math, and by 2006 they were doing it again in science. Perhaps more important than their PISA results, however, was the take home that the Finnish school system is one of the most equitable in the world, i.e. performance variation among students in schools remains small. 

The United States is perceived to have the best higher education system in the world. US universities continue to dominate the lists of the world's top higher education institutions, with 46 US institutions ranked in the global top 100 (according to Times Higher Education). 

Why are these Finnish and US education systems so great?...

Read more. 

News

The latest research, perspectives, and highlights from the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Related Articles