In recent years, the United States has fallen behind in their education. In 2014, Finland had one of the top five educational systems in the world while the United States was only considered as “average” (Lepi). Research proves that in Finland, the gap is the smallest in the world between the top students and the bottom students (Dalporto). The United States has large gaps between top and bottom students (Achievement Gap). The significant difference between the educational results of these two countries show that the United States needs to change the way their school system operates similar to the one in Finland.
Education starts with the teacher, so the selection process and teacher treatment should be changed in the United States. Finnish teachers are held in a high regard because of the training and selection process they are required to go through (NCEE). Teachers are selected from the top 10% of university graduates and a free ride scholarship is given to them to earn a master's degree, which is a stipulation for all teachers to have. These education programs are also very emulous and admit only one in every ten who apply (Dalporto). The National
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This however is not true because an American teenage student goes to school for roughly 7 hours with an average of 3.5 hours of homework each night (Klein). A student in Finland goes to school 5 hours, but that includes 75 minutes of recess outside and the 15-minute breaks in between each lesson. The students get little homework to do each day, which takes less than an hour to complete (Dalporto). These countries’ educational ranks show that more school hours and homework does not equal better test results. Less school hours give students the time to get the proper hours of sleep needed so that they can come to school awake and alert and it gives them the chance to take part in more extracurricular