The only time students take a standardized test is when they are high school seniors and want to go on to college. Students aren't grouped by ability or "tracked" until they are high school sophomores.
Finland is a small nation with only 4 percent of it’s population foreign born, so why would we think the United States, a nation founded on diversity, could implement these kind of changes successfully? Norway is Finland’s neighbor and is similar to Finland in size and demographics. Norway also has an education system very similar to ours. Overcrowded classrooms, teachers who aren’t required to have advanced degrees, the schools are under funded and teachers are paid much less than fellow professional. Norway even has a program similar to our own “Teach America” and consistently receives mediocre rankings in the survey.
If we look at Norway as the control and Finland as the variable here, it’s pretty clear that success isn’t really as dependant upon the country's size and a homogeneous population as it us upon the practices and educational policies put in place.
My initial take away from "Race to Nowhere" is something has to be done about our dismal education system. I don’t want someone who is just memorizing something just to forget it two weeks later after the test is over operating on me because I don't give a damn about their GPA. I want their knowledge and experience if they are cutting into me.
I’ve heard a lot of talk from the workmom’s network about making sure the teachers and administrators see this film and get the message, but the onus can’t be just on the administrators. We need a political system willing to do something other than more of the same, and we as a society have to adjust our measures for success. We can complain all we want about the level of homework our children have but we are the ones demanding they take all AP classes and have the appropriate extracurricular activities to build their resume for college. We have to step up take responsibility for our part in perpetuating this ‘driven’ culture of our kids lives and let go a little bit.
Not every student belongs at an Ivy League school; they belong at a school that is the right fit for them. As the film points out, most CEOs in this nation came from state schools. And many were C students to boot. When my daughter was an infant, parents were discussing the preschools they had been on waiting lists at since they were pregnant. I laughed when someone mentioned thinking they were overexaggerating for effect. I was met with stares that said they were serious as a heart attack.