teachingliteracy:

For starters, Finland has no standardized tests. The only exception is what’s called the National Matriculation Exam, which everyone takes at the end of a voluntary upper-secondary school, roughly the equivalent of American high school.

Instead, the public school system’s teachers are trained to assess children in classrooms using independent tests they create themselves. All children receive a report card at the end of each semester, but these reports are based on individualized grading by each teacher. Periodically, the Ministry of Education tracks national progress by testing a few sample groups across a range of different schools.

As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. “There’s no word for accountability in Finnish,” he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. “Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.”

For Sahlberg what matters is that in Finland all teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility. A master’s degree is required to enter the profession, and teacher training programs are among the most selective professional schools in the country. If a teacher is bad, it is the principal’s responsibility to notice and deal with it.

I believe very strongly in this system

(Source: world-shaker)

where I just really want to be surrounded by people, and somehow, everyone seems to be going to bed early tonight. they’re exhausted. their eyes are burning red. they look so tired with those purple lines. and so I want them to sleep, I want them to face tomorrow with shining skins and rested limbs. But also…I just need their presence so badly. I guess I should forgo this homework and take my pill and slip down down down into that deep place behind closed eyes