Educators
Is there nothing that the top-ranking countries have in common? Is there
no lesson we can learn from these countries? Well, actually, there is. The
quality of teachers seems to be important to student success. In Singapore,Korea, and Finland, teachers have high status, or social position.For this
reason, the teaching profession attracts the best and the brightest. In Korea,
people call them “nation builders.” In Finland, getting into a teacher-training
program is very competitive; only 10% of Finnish college graduates
are accepted into teacher-training programs. All teachers must have master’s
degrees, which also gives them status. This is in contrast to many countries,
such as the United States, where teachers generally do not have high status.
The United States is not among the top PISA countries.