Jeanne Whitmore is the founder and CEO of American Fork charter school Aristotle Academy and an education columnist for the American Fork Citizen.

Finland has scored in the top rank in a world wide test of 15-year-old students in reading, math and science. Finland was surprised by these results. They were not expecting it because their national policy is not high achievement of individuals but equity.

Since their success in 2000, Finland has become a destination location for educators trying to find the solution for the U.S. decline in test scores. Finland is a welfare state with no private schools. All schools are funded equally, all students receive a free lunch and students who are high achievers are expected to help low achievers.

U.S. educators in search of a “magic pill” solution are stunned by the incorporation of the school system into the welfare state and can’t figure out how to transfer the success of the Finnish system to the US system. Finland indicates that small class sizes, well educated teachers and plenty of funding combine to create their success.

Meanwhile, another study of New York Charter schools indicates that none of these items mean a lot for education outcomes. These 35 New York City schools have a lot of underprivileged and minority students. The study showed that small class sizes, high spending per pupil and the education attainment of teachers had nothing to do with student test scores in language and math. What mattered? A culture of high achievement, high expectations, teacher professional development, instruction time, tutoring, and data driven instruction, correlated with high test scores. What did not seem to matter? Class size, Certification of teachers, and per pupil spending.

The only points of intersection of the two systems seem to be more time spent giving teachers feedback on their performance in the classroom. Finland’s lack of research into its own school system is problematic to discovering how we can incorporate results into our own system. They don’t test students frequently and have no national tests until age 16, when students graduate from high school. Finland is not concerned in their students’ individual success but do want to create an equitable environment for all students. Their lack of interest in the high performers but instead the overall success of all students may incidentally cause them to focus on the same things that caused the success of the New York schools: instruction time, high expectations, tutoring and teacher feedback.

So what does Finland teach the U.S. in light of our own findings about what drives success? Mostly that what we have been focusing on to create success, such as more spending, teacher credentialing, and standardized high-stakes testing, won’t necessarily drive student test scores up.

Utah has a great basis for following the Finnish model. We fund all schools through the State and all students in public schools are funded equally on a per pupil basis. On the other hand, Utah has followed the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, which mandates high stakes testing, teacher credentialing and a focus on lower class size. These very things were repudiated by the New York study.

What can Utah do? Continue to fund all children equally. Reduce high stakes testing in every grade, subject and year for every student and conduct random survey testing instead. Focus on teacher quality regardless of education level instead of paying teachers for more degrees. Give teachers more feedback on their teaching skills. Trust parents to know what their student needs. Provide more small group tutoring.

In all these ways, Utah can incorporate the best of the Finnish model with research proven results from schools in the U.S.

Jeanne Whitmore is the founder and CEO of American Fork charter school Aristotle Academy and an education columnist for the American Fork Citizen. You can learn more about Aristotle Academy at aristotleacademyk8.org or on Facebook.