評論
打印
Chicago's schools
芝加哥的學校
Hard work rewarded
勤勞的獎勵
Rahm Emanuel's school reforms are working
拉姆·艾瑪努爾的學校改革措施正發揮作用
Let me teach you some new words
讓我來教你一些新詞匯
“NO FAMILY should go to the poorhouse because they are giving their kid a crack at the American dream,” said Rahm Emanuel on January 9th. Chicago's mayor was presenting his plans for education at Kenwood Academy, a high school on the city's South Side.
“所有家庭都不該去救濟院因為它們擊碎了孩子們的美國夢，”拉姆·艾瑪努爾在一月九號說道。這位芝加哥市長正在市南邊的一所名叫肯沃德學院的高級中學里施行他的教育計劃。
On the same day in Tennessee, President Barack Obama announced plans to exempt qualified students from tuition fees at community colleges. The White House had taken a leaf out of Chicago's book, said Mr Emanuel, who last October introduced the Chicago STAR Scholarship, which pays the community-college tuition fees of the best graduates from Chicago's public-school system.
同一天在田納西州，奧巴馬頒布改革豁免了有資格攻讀社區大學學生的學習費用。艾瑪努爾說白宮無疑是仿照芝加哥的做法，他們去年十月份推出了芝加哥明星獎學金計劃，這項計劃將從芝加哥公立學校系統中為優秀畢業生支付社區大學學費。
Mr Emanuel wants more students to enroll in a college and take courses (and, if they pass, get credits) while still in their last year of high school, which helps to reduce their tuition costs later. With the help of a donation of 500,000 over three years from General Electric, the programme will grow from almost 2,500 students to more than 6,000 next year. Kenwood Academy has more students in the programme than any other high school in Chicago.
艾瑪努爾想要更多學生在他們高中最后一年進入大學并參加課程學習（而且，如果他們通過就能得到學分），這將有利于隨后降低他們的學費。在通用電氣公司三年五十萬刀捐助的幫助下，這項計劃將在明年資助2500名左右的學生上漲至超過6000刀一年。在芝加哥市，肯沃德學院同任何其它學校相比有更多的學生參與這項計劃。
Some of the toughest decisions Mr Emanuel had to make in his first term concerned schools. He demanded merit pay for teachers and a longer school day (Chicago's was only 5 hours 45 minutes) and earmarked for closure 50 half-empty schools in poor districts. Teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years, but Mr Emanuel got the longer day and the closures went ahead in 2013. The teachers kept their seniority-based pay system.
在艾瑪努爾第一任期內不得不做出的艱難選擇中，有一些都是關于學校的。他要求建立教師的績效工資及更久的學習日（芝加哥只有5小時45分鐘）而且在窮困地區專門關閉50所半滿員的學校。教師們在25年里第一次句型罷工，但是艾瑪努爾延長了學習時長并在2013年進行學校關閉措施。教師們還是保留了他們基于工齡決定的工資體系。
Mr Emanuel ploughed some of the money saved by closures into charter schools, which made him even more unpopular with the teachers' unions. But charter schools have worked well in Chicago. The Noble Network, which already runs 16 charter high schools with 10,000 pupils and plans to have 20,000 by 2020, has an attendance rate of 94% (compared with 73% for Chicago public schools) and a drop-out rate of only 0.4% (compared with 4.7%). It also gets better results on the ACT, a college-readiness test. It has an even higher percentage of minority students (98% compared with 92% at Chicago public schools), and slightly less public funding.
通過關閉學校省下了錢，艾瑪努爾劃撥了一部分給特許學校，這項舉措無疑讓他在教室公會中更加不受歡迎。但是芝加哥的特許學校開辦得如火如荼。高尚網絡系統已經經營了十六所特許學校，有著一萬名左右的學生，并計劃在2020年招生兩萬名，入學率高達94%（同公立學校73%形成鮮明對比）以及在輟學率方面僅為0.4%（公立學校為4.7%）。在ACT美國大學測試中它也有著更好的成績。在少數族裔學生比例中它也取得領先（98%同對比公立學校的92%），而且還少占了一點公共資金。
Rosa Alanis, the principal of Golder College Prep, one of the Noble network schools, says all her pupils have a teacher as a designated adviser, whom they see twice every school day. Attendance and performance are the advisers' responsibility, so they go to great lengths to ensure their charges show up, dress properly in their uniform of grey trousers and blue sweaters, and work hard. Ms Alanis herself looked after a group of 13 “challenging” boys. In one case she even drove to a pupil's house to get him to come to school. He was still in his pyjamas, but obeyed.
洛薩·阿蘭尼斯是黃金大學預科的校長，這所學校是高尚網絡特許學校中的一所，他說他所有的學生有一名老師當他們的指定建議人，這些老師每天需要和學生見兩次面。學生出勤和日常成績是這些建議人的職責，因此他們在學校里花很長時間保證他們的職責體現出來，統一穿著制服—灰褲子和藍毛衣，并且辛勤工作。阿蘭尼斯自己則負責13名“具有挑戰性”的男生小組。一次她甚至開車去學生家里將他接到學校。雖然他還穿著睡衣，但還是被許可上學。
Mr Emanuel is keen on charter schools, but he didn't mention them when he presented his second-term plans for education. Instead he promised to put Wi-Fi in all classrooms, and to ensure that every family would be within three miles of a high school offering some special focus, such as science or the International Baccalaureate. Presumably, he did not want to annoy those who think that charter schools leave public schools in the dumps. In fact, competition has prodded public schools to shape up a bit. The drop-out rate has gone down and ACT scores have slightly improved, albeit from a very low level.
艾瑪努爾很傾向于特許學校，但是他在陳述第二期教育計劃是沒有提及它們。然而他承諾所有教室通上Wi-Fi，并且保證每個家同在三英里內都有高中等措施則引起了特別的關注，再例如理科或者國際文憑的開展。可以推測的是，他想順著那些持有特許學校將公立學校遺棄到垃圾堆觀點的人們。事實上，競爭已經刺激公立學校改進了一些。輟學率已經下滑而且盡管ACT得分還是很低，但已經輕微上揚。譯者:彭威
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