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Lower Secondary School Students move on to lower secondary school at age twelve or thirteen to begin grade seven. Most lower secondary schools average 250 students per school. As in primary school, there is no tracking. Students that are behind receive remedial education. According to officials in the Board of Education, parents and the students ask for this help and there is no stigma. Teachers also identify students having problems and arrange for extra help during or after school. There is no final exam covering all of basic education. As you can see below, the mathematics content required in lower secondary school (our grades 7-10) is comparable to the average American high school graduate’s course of study. Core Mathematics Content by Grade Grade 1-2 Gr. 3-5 Gr. 6-9 Numbers & Calculations Numbers & Calculations Thinking Skills & Methods Algebra Algebra Numbers & Calculations Geometry Geometry Algebra Measurement Measurement Functions Data Processing & Statistics Data Processing, Statistics & Probability Geometry Probability & Statistics (National Core Curriculum for Basic Education, 2004) All students in basic education and general upper secondary school receive counseling in how to study, career planning and how to choose their next phase of education. Students with learning problems must receive remedial education and the government is required to provide education to the severely handicapped. Students that adequately perform in all of their graded courses in basic education receive a basic education certificate. Upper Secondary School Once compulsory school ends, students can choose between general and vocational upper secondary school. Half choose general upper secondary with some of these schools specializing in certain subjects similar to compulsory schools. After leaving compulsory school, students can choose any educational institution in the country to continue their National Center on Education and the Economy, 2005 6 studies. This is possible because a student’s home municipality is required to cover upper secondary or vocational education costs not covered by government subsidies. Municipalities fund 43% of upper secondary or vocational education while the state funds 57%. There are no fees and both lunch and healthcare are provided free-of-charge. Students do buy their own books. Materials used by teachers in upper secondary school are developed by publishers. Schools, and at times, municipalities, choose textbooks. Students buy their books from the school bookshop. Students apply to upper secondary school and schools choose students based on their academic record including grades and test scores. There are no teacher recommendations. As an aside, the grading scale in lower secondary school begins at 4 points and ends at 10 points with 10 as the best score. The highest achieving students have “5 10’s”. Upper secondary schooling in Finland is more flexible than in most countries in terms of how classes are organized and sequenced as well as the amount of student choice available. There are no specific year-long classes so students can graduate in less than or more than a three-year period. The government requires that students complete a minimum of 75 courses (38 hours each) of which 47-51 courses are compulsory and 10 are specialized subjects (more in-depth than compulsory courses) over three years. Each course is assessed by the teacher and graded by the teacher. Students adequately performing in each of their courses receive an upper secondary school leaving certificate noting their grades and scores on the courses in their individual syllabus. However, this flexibility is directed again by a set of national curriculum standards called the National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools. Similar to the national core curriculum standards for basic education, these contain objectives and core content topics for each compulsory and specialization course. They do not, however, describe good performance. An example of the compulsory courses in mathematics at the upper secondary level follows