Finland: What Will Translate?
From January 15–22, a diverse group of professionals from fields in education advocacy, communications, leadership, and research travels to Finland to study the education system firsthand. Study group participants will occasionally post reflections on this blog.
For several months, our group of 13 has been preparing for a January week in Helsinki. ASCD is taking us to Finland to examine the policies and education practices that have produced what is arguably the world's best national system of schools.
This path is well travelled; Finland's system has been visited and studied thoroughly. But, although we have read scholarly reports and popular articles, Finland is new to us. We go there with a heady mixture of enthusiasm and a heavy wardrobe of winter gear—Helsinki just had its snowiest December ever.
We are a mix of state and local education leaders, policymakers, researchers, teachers, consultants, and journalists. We