A Sad Day for Baseball, a Happy Day for Education

It may be obvious to some of my blog readers, but I'm a big Wisconsin sports fan.  Today, Ryan Braun was suspended for the remainder of the season for what seems to be juicing.  A pity.

In other news, it's a bright day for the field of education because - of all sources - CNN.  From the creator of the expose on McDonald's documentary Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock has a new show on CNN that piqued my interest this week.  For his latest Inside Man documentary, he compares the American education system to that of Finland - one of the highest performing systems according to international student testing data.  

If you've read my blog post Why Does Finland Have Better Schools, you may have an edge on the highlights of the CNN show.  In short, Finland has virtually no standardized testing, very high educational requirements for teachers (only 1 out of 10 teacher applicants gains entry to teacher programs), and very equitable income and social services distributions.

After reading Pasi Sahlberg's book Finnish Lessons and watching Spurlock's expose, it does make one wonder why American educational policy is what it is.  As a school leader, I often reflect on how I can use my knowledge of best practices to influence my own work environment.

Highly recommend DVRing the CNN Inside Man Episode on comparing America's Education system to Finland's.