Education Commons^™

Charter Schools Or Progressive Education? Lessons From Finland, Christopher J. Poor

Christopher J Poor

New Zealand’s current government has embarked on a course of supporting private providers of education in the form of “partnership” schools with the claim that these charter schools can address the recalcitrant problem of disparity of achievement between students from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. This paper examines evidence from the research on charter schools and argues that attention should rather be paid to the Finnish example of high and equal educational achievement and to the landmark achievements of New Zealand’s own pioneers of progressive education as we prepare a new generation for the twenty-first century.