EDUCATION IN THE U.S. AND FINLAND
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level, 9 (9.8%) students who transferred from a two-year college at the sophomore level, and 5 (5.4%) students who transferred from a four-year college at the junior level. When participants were asked to choose the most important factors in determining a quality education, the following options were chosen as the number one most important factor: internet access was chosen one time, money spent on each student was chosen 6 times, diversity of student body was chosen 1 time, access to computers was chosen 1 time, class size was chosen 11 times, updated classroom materials was chosen 11 times, teaching methods was chosen 60 times, location was a factor that was added and chosen as number 1 by one student, and none of the participants chose teacher salary as the number one factor in determining a quality education. When looking at the factors that were chosen as either the most important, second most important, or third most important factor in providing a quality high school education, teacher salary was chosen a total of 3 times, money spent on each student was chosen a total of 12 times, access to computers was chosen a total of 14 times, internet access was chosen a total of 19 times, diversity of student body was chosen a total of 31 times, updated classroom materials was chosen a total of 50 times, class size was chosen a total of 64 times, and teaching methods was chosen a total of 81 times. When participants were asked to rate the extent to which their high school provided them with a quality education, the average rating on a scale from 3-21 was 14.65, where 3 is considered to be poor quality, 12 is considered to be neutral, and 21 is considered to be high quality. The rating occurring the most often was 15 (14/92 participants), and the frequency of ratings is shown in the chart below. Participant H.S. Quality