評論
打印
School reform
校制改革
How to tame a Trojan horse
如何馴服一只害群之馬
Extremism in Birmingham schools poses a conundrum for reformers
擺在改革者面前的難題是伯明翰學(xué)校中的極端主義
PETER CLARKE, who used to spot terrorist plots for London's Metropolitan Police, has confirmed that something ugly has been happening in Birmingham, too. In a report on July 22nd he showed that teachers at several mostly Muslim schools in the city had exchanged messages on a mobile app disparaging gays, Israel and the West; they had also discussed how to foster an intolerant Islamist culture. Mr Clarke's is the third report on this subject—and the one that, almost certainly, signals a partial retreat for the government's bold education reforms.
彼得·克拉克曾經(jīng)為倫敦警察局偵查恐怖陰謀，他確信，在伯明翰也有一些骯臟的事情發(fā)生。他在7月22日的一份報告中說，伯明翰穆斯林居多的學(xué)校中，有一些老師在一款詆毀同性戀、以色列以及西方國家的手機應(yīng)用上相互交流；他們還討論如何形成一個排除伊斯蘭教徒的文化氛圍?？死讼壬膱蟾媸堑谌蓐P(guān)于這個主題的報告，還幾乎是一份政府正大膽進行的教育改革有所退讓的信號。
Since 2010 the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has freed some 2,500 schools from local-authority control, including some of the ones that went awry in Birmingham. Though all remain under the control of the Department for Education and must submit to inspections by Ofsted, the schools watchdog, head teachers have considerable power to shape the curriculum. In addition to these “academies”, parents have been encouraged to set up “free schools”. Institutionally, it is the coalition's most successful public-sector reform: by contrast, changes to policing, health and welfare have been slow and troubled. But the education reforms have ruffled feathers, and posed a knotty question.
2010年，保守黨—自民黨聯(lián)合政府讓2500所學(xué)校脫離地方當局的管控，這包括其中一些出問題的伯明翰學(xué)校。即使所有的學(xué)校仍然在教育部的管理之下，并且必須服從教育標準局的審查。因為學(xué)校的監(jiān)管者——校長，有相當大的權(quán)力來修改課程。除了這些“學(xué)術(shù)型學(xué)校”，家長們還被慫恿去建立“免費學(xué)?！薄Ｔ谥贫壬?，這是聯(lián)合政府最成功的一次有關(guān)國營部門的改革：相比之下，在治安、醫(yī)療和福利方面的改變顯得進程緩慢，而且困難重重。但這次的教育改革民怨難平，問題棘手。
How can the desire to give schools more autonomy be squared with the desire to enforce liberal values? Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted's boss, fought a battle with Michael Gove—until July 15th the combative education secretary—over whether the burgeoning number of academy chains and free schools should be overseen by a new layer of commissioners. Mr Gove feared that such a move would slow down reform. But Sir Michael has succeeded in instating a group of eight regional commissioners and Birmingham is to get its own commissioner.
怎樣才可以在保證學(xué)校自主權(quán)的同時，又加強自由主義價值觀？教育標準局局長邁克爾·威爾肖爵士和邁克爾·戈夫曾有過爭論，后者在7月15日之前一直任教育部長，且非常好斗。他們爭論的焦點是，蓬勃發(fā)展的學(xué)院鏈和免費學(xué)校的數(shù)量是否該被新的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層監(jiān)管。戈夫擔心，這樣的舉動會使改革放緩。但邁克爾爵士已經(jīng)成功任命一個八人區(qū)域?qū)T小組，而且伯明翰也將要有自己的地區(qū)專員。
Tristram Hunt, Labour's education spokesman, backs more muscular oversight for all English schools. He wants new “schools-standards directors” to keep a beady eye on what happens in classrooms. But achieving that without crushing innovation or reproducing the mediocre uniformity imposed by local authorities will not be easy. Nobody seems sure whether they should be elected or not, or how large their fiefs ought to be.
特里斯特拉姆·亨特是工黨教育方面的發(fā)言人，他對所有的英語學(xué)校都有強勢的監(jiān)管。他想要新的“基于學(xué)校標準的負責人”，睜大眼睛關(guān)注教室中的一舉一動。但是想要實現(xiàn)這個目標并非易事，因為要同時不壓制創(chuàng)新，抑或重現(xiàn)地方當局實行成效平平的一致化。似乎沒人能夠肯定，他們自己是否該被選上，或者自己的管轄區(qū)域到底該多大。
The puzzle of how to combine freedom with accountability bedevils education reforms far beyond the English Midlands. Many of America's charter schools are brilliant: a report by the University of Arkansas concluded that they deliver a greater return on investment than other secondary schools by almost 3% per student for every year enrolled in school. Yet an alarming number have self-inflicted problems. Michigan has just announced that it will step up oversight of over 700 charter schools after revelations of waste.
如何把教育自由和問責制相結(jié)合，這個難題給教育改革帶來的困擾要遠遠超過英國中部地區(qū)。相比之下，美國很多的特許學(xué)校就很聰明：阿肯色大學(xué)的一份報告總結(jié)出，每年學(xué)校錄取的學(xué)生中，每名有近3%的投資回報會超過其他初級中學(xué)。然而，有非常多自身造成的問題。在濫用職權(quán)被披露后，密歇根州已經(jīng)宣布，將會對超過700所特許學(xué)校建立監(jiān)管體制。
Sweden's free schools, often cited as a bracing innovation by Conservative reformers in Britain, have also performed poorly. Sweden's ranking in standardised tests fell steeply between 2002 and 2012; faults have been found with its inspection and oversight system. But centralisation often works no better. France, which firmly keeps religion out of education, has many indifferent schools and does a poor job of educating children of north African origin.
瑞典的免費學(xué)校常常被英國保守黨改革者當作一個令人振奮的改革創(chuàng)新，卻也推行困難。瑞典的標準化測試排名在2002年到2012年間急劇下降；其檢查及監(jiān)管體制已經(jīng)找到了錯漏之處。但中央集權(quán)也無甚成效。法國一直堅定的把宗教排除在教育之外，現(xiàn)在有許多低檔學(xué)校，這些學(xué)校在教育北非裔的孩子時非常的不上心。
One sobering lesson from Birmingham is that academic results are often a poor guide to the health of a school. Park View School was rated “outstanding” by Ofsted in January 2012—a glaring misjudgment. Nor was parent power much use. Some Muslim families seem to have been happy with the social conservatism of the school.
伯明翰是一個非常令人警醒的教訓(xùn)，學(xué)業(yè)成績經(jīng)常不能正確反映出學(xué)校的好壞。2012年一月，園景學(xué)校曾經(jīng)被教育標準局評級為“杰出”，這是一個非常明顯的誤判。家長監(jiān)管的權(quán)利也沒有得到使用。一些穆斯林家庭似乎對學(xué)校的社會保護主義非常滿意。
Increased local oversight for England's schools now looks inevitable. Deciding what the new overseers should do—and just as importantly, what they should not do—will test the ingenuity of all school reformers.
如今看來，加強英格蘭學(xué)校的當?shù)乇O(jiān)管是不可避免的?，F(xiàn)在，決定監(jiān)管者應(yīng)該做什么和不該做什么一樣重要，這就會考驗所有學(xué)校改革者的獨創(chuàng)精神。
