You comment "Norway, which is demographically very similar to Finland, but which uses American-style standardized testing methods, ranks near the U.S.'s mediocre level in the PISA results." suggests you are not very familiar with Norway. If you would like to know how it works (and how it could be improved) please take a look at OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education Report for Norway http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/60/48632032.pdf.
Evaluation and assessment for students, teachers, schools and systems are complex processes that need to work together coherently to support the goal of improving outcomes for all students. To learn more about these and see what other countries do, see www.oecd.org/edu/evaluationpolicy
By the way, in 2009, Finland's foreign born population was 4.4 per cent compared with 10.9 in Norway (and 12.7 for the US). This is just one of the many ways in which Finland and Norway are different.
On The Evil Economics Of Judging Teachers
You comment "Norway, which is demographically very similar to Finland, but which uses American-style standardized testing methods, ranks near the U.S.'s mediocre level in the PISA results." suggests you are not very familiar with Norway. If you would like to know how it works (and how it could be improved) please take a look at OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education Report for Norway http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/60/48632032.pdf.
Evaluation and assessment for students, teachers, schools and systems are complex processes that need to work together coherently to support the goal of improving outcomes for all students. To learn more about these and see what other countries do, see www.oecd.org/edu/evaluationpolicy
By the way, in 2009, Finland's foreign born population was 4.4 per cent compared with 10.9 in Norway (and 12.7 for the US). This is just one of the many ways in which Finland and Norway are different.