Highly educated parents drive school shopping, Yle expert says

Highly educated parents are most likely to choose schools based on their perceived quality, particularly in areas with many pupils who speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish at home, according to Yle.

The issue has gained attention after the City of Helsinki announced recent changes to school admission boundaries. The boundaries are set to change in eastern Helsinki, where the share of foreign-language speakers and people on low incomes is above average. The debate has also focused on segregation between Helsinki neighbourhoods.

School shopping means that parents choose where to live based on the schools they consider to be of high quality. They try to avoid schools in areas with a low socioeconomic profile, said Annette Ukkola, a leading evaluation expert at the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre. Such areas typically also have many pupils who speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish at home, she said.

The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre is responsible for evaluating education and early childhood education throughout Finland, including assessments of learning outcomes.

Parents’ education has the strongest link to achievement

The effects of school shopping are visible in selective and specialised teaching. Schools are often chosen on the basis of such teaching in the third grade and again in lower secondary school. These are points when parents commonly consider which options would suit their child best and provide the greatest benefit in the future.

Most pupils in specialised teaching have highly educated parents, and these parents are the ones most likely to make choices about schools. Some parents may also consider the child’s peer group and whether the child would feel that they fit in.

There is no strong research evidence that attending a particular school provides a child with a specific advantage, Ukkola said. A child’s school performance is strongly linked to the parents’ education, rather than to the school itself.

According to Ukkola, pupils who start with the strongest skills achieve excellent results even in classes where the average level of ability is the lowest.

“I would stress that every school has pupils at different levels, and good results can be achieved at any school,” she said.

Effects are visible among pupils who speak other languages

If most pupils at a school do not speak Finnish at a native level, the school’s average learning outcomes are lower than those of a school where most pupils are Finnish native speakers who have completed their entire education in Finnish, Ukkola said.

However, there is no evidence that the results of Finnish-speaking pupils would decline in such a school. The effects may instead be seen among pupils who do not speak Finnish as well, she said.

Rumours and an imagined reputation can influence school choices when reliable information is unavailable, Ukkola said. Each year group is also different.

“Reputations are often quite persistent, and a school can easily be labelled for a long time even if the situation changes,” she said.

School selection is particularly concentrated in areas with many pupils who speak other languages.

“It can look like racism if a school is avoided specifically because it has many S2 pupils,” Ukkola said.

The goals are the same at every school

According to Ukkola, state equality funding is directed especially to schools in areas where the population’s average level of education is low and unemployment is higher.

The goals set out in the national curriculum are the same at every school, she said. Teachers are required to adapt teaching to different needs. Even if a class starts at a low level, a pupil can still succeed.

Teachers in Finland are generally good, Ukkola said, meaning the issue is not the quality of the teachers.

Ukkola said school shopping reflects parents’ concern about whether their own child will receive the very best education.