North Carolina received an $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve high school education. Called the New Schools Project, it has launched an unprecedented effort to create at least 100 academically rigorous, focused and flexible new and redesigned high schools over the next five years called High School Innovation Projects (HSIP). (See criteria for HSIPs below)
Part of this project involved delegations visiting Japan, Great Britain, the Netherlands, South Korea and Denmark. Study planners selected Denmark because it offers high school students an array of choices in different focus areas, provides students with guidance on which path would be best for the needs and ambitions of each, and has a high ratio of young people completing their high school education.
What they found -- “they are preparing young people for life, not for tests.”
Delegates found that Danish high school students indeed have many choices: those who are interested in higher education can attend one of three different types of gymnasiums (high schools)—the general gymnasium specializing in sciences, languages, and humanities, the business gymnasium specializing in economics, business, and languages, or the technical gymnasium specializing in technical and natural sciences—or one of a number of vocational education programs, typically a combination of school-based instruction and practical training in company-based apprenticeship programs comparable to our technical college environment. They learned that a system offering students real choices can be created within a public school system and that students in such a system are more likely to embrace the choices they’ve made and successfully finish high school. They learned that the Danes value practical, hands-on learning and provide both classroom and on-the-job learning for non-college bound students.
In the Danish system, intensive counseling begins in what we would call middle school; students take aptitude tests and are counseled about what the results mean for their high school choices; and students are encouraged to spend a week or two in work environments that appeal to them so they can test their interests and assumptions. Instead of rigidly “tracking” students, the Danish system allows students to switch from vocational schools to gymnasiums and vice versa or to complete one course of study and go back to a different focus area. Students also are given ample time to make decisions: they can even take a year off between middle and high school to travel or take an extra year of middle school before deciding on a high school. Once they do decide, students are treated more like adults and relied upon to behave appropriately and attend classes without a lot of monitoring. N.C. delegates noted that the students rise to the occasion and take responsibility for attending classes and making the most of their learning experiences. Likewise, teachers are treated as professionals and are given more on-the-job time to prepare for classes, lighter teaching loads, and more freedom generally than U.S. teachers.
Delegates also found there are different philosophies underlying the U.S. and Danish school systems. The Danish system does not rely on standardized test scores; rather it focuses on life skills that are marketable. As one delegate noted, “ they are preparing young people for life, not for tests.” In addition, Denmark prepares its students to live in the international community: there is a strong focus on foreign languages and culture and many apprenticeship programs include placement in other countries.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, the Americans found that the Danes invest far more of their dollars in education. Education at all levels is free, and high school and college students receive government financial support while enrolled, the theory being that they can then focus on their educations without having to take part time jobs to earn spending money. The financial support also is an incentive for them to stay in school.
As the New Schools Project gets under way and begins a statewide examination of North Carolina’s approach to high school education, delegates hope their observations about the Danish educational system will spark serious discussion throughout the state. The SMT Center’s Dr. Houston noted, “of course we can’t import the Danish model wholesale into the N.C. system, but there are many elements of the Danish system that we ought to seriously consider for North Carolina.”
Source: http://bwfund.org/news/focus/archive/winter%202004/Denmark%20trip.html
