In the twenty years since Elley’s study, the Finns have remained atop the international scoreboard for reading, math, and science as measured by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) every three years.27 It’s worth noting that one school system in the U.S. comes the closest to mimicking the Finnish environment for teacher assessments, student demographics, and testing regulations: U.S. military base schools—exempt from mandated testing and handily outscoring their public school counterparts who are awash in test mania.28
Wow, that is a surprise! I have recently seen the sustained silent reading lessons in a DoDEA school and loved that. Reading this makes me happy that my kids are in a military base school.
