👑 今日主題：Britain Schools reform-- Class acts / 英國 學校改革--優秀法案
🎁 康康精選GRE&GMAT會考的主題，堅持每天精讀一定會進步的哦!!
🎁 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~
http://xia2.kekenet.com/Sou…/2016/…/eco160715_4527691vGj.mp3
🎁 只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：
🎁 中英文稿：
Britain Schools reform-- Class acts
英國 學校改革--優秀法案
England’s schools are radically different. Now make them better
英格蘭各個學校相比其他地方極為不同，現在是是時候改善這些學校了
AT the King Solomon Academy in London, children from the nearby tower blocks are settling into a new school year. Girls in hijabs mingle with Afro-Caribbean boys in over-sized new blazers. The proportion of pupils receiving free school meals because their parents are poor is three times the national average. Yet the academy, which is run by ARK, a charity, is ranked as “outstanding” by the schools inspector and has been lavishly praised by Anthony Seldon, headmaster of a leading private school.
在位於英國倫敦的索羅門國王學院裡，來自附近高層貧民樓的學生們正迎來他們新的學年。學校裡學生人種混雜：既有戴著頭巾的穆斯林女學生，又有穿著肥大的新 校服的加勒比黑人男學生。由於家境貧寒，一部分小學生可享受免費的校餐。這部分學生在全校中的比例現已達英國平均比例的三倍之多。然而，對於這所由某名為 “ARK”的慈善機構所運營的學院，督學人員表示“表現優異”，同時，某著名私學校長安東尼•塞爾頓（Anthony Seldon）也對其大加讚譽。
Max Haimendorf, its young head, has adopted many ideas from American charter schools. His mission is to get as many children as possible to top universities. “It’s what changes lives,” he says. Notice-boards are festooned with information introducing children from primary level upwards to that aspiration.
擔任該學院校長一職的Max Haimendorf十分年輕。他從美國特許學校中借鑒了許多想法。其辦校宗旨是讓盡可能多的學生能進入頂尖高等學府。“這將改變命運”，他表示。學校的佈告欄上貼滿了宣傳其學生從小學一路考入名牌大學的各種資訊。
Ambitious outfits like this delight Michael Gove, the education secretary. He has expanded the academies programme which began under Labour, and which aims to give schools more control over their management and curriculum (though not their admissions policies) as well as discretion to vary teachers’ pay. Over half of state secondary schools are now academies. The coalition is also pushing free schools, created by parents and other groups dissatisfied with the local offerings. So far 79 free schools have opened, with another 100 in the pipeline.
對於類似索羅門國王學院這樣的學校，英國教育部部長邁克爾•戈夫（Michael Gove）表示十分歡迎。原本由英國工黨發起的“學院計畫”（academies programme）經其手得到拓展。該計畫旨在使校方就學校管理、課程安排、教師工資方面（儘管招生政策不包含在內）有更多的自主權。如今，英國國立中 學中有一半以上已是學院類學校。由家長等不滿於地方政府補貼的團體也自發組成聯盟，以推進此類公益學校。至今為止，已有79所義學向學生開放。同時，另有 100所正處於醞釀之中。
That Britain’s schools need to be transformed is clear. A new OECD report, Education at a Glance, notes that British pupils slipped down the international league tables in the past decade despite a big increase in spending, which doubled in real terms under the last Labour government. Asian and former communist countries in eastern Europe are leaving them behind.
英國學校改革的必要性已不言而喻。據經合組織（OECD）一項名為“教育概覽”（Education at a Glance）的最新報告顯示，儘管英國政府的教育支出激增，相比工黨執政期最後一任內閣時的實際額度翻了一番，但其小學生平均成績的國際排名在過去10 年間有所下滑。而亞洲各國和東歐的部分原共產主義國家的表現，則不斷趕超英國。
Yet the government, so bold in many ways, has not dared to claim that its reforms will push the nation’s pupils up the rankings. England’s schools are different, but not yet demonstrably better (Scotland and Wales oversee their own schools, though not with much distinction). And as the schools revolution rolls on, new problems are popping up.
而即使各方面都行事大膽的英國政府，也不敢宣稱其改革將升高本國小學生成績的國際排名。英格蘭的學校相對比較不同，但也無法證明其表現較好（而蘇格蘭和威爾士則擁有學校監督的自主權，儘管差別不大）。隨著學校改革的推進，新的問題也將不斷浮現。
The spread of more autonomous schools has created a gap in accountability, which has been filled in a piecemeal way. Getting sluggish local authorities out of running schools is one thing. Ensuring effective intervention when things go wrong in academies or free schools is another. At the moment this role is left to the Department for Education—a state of affairs described by one critic as “Napoleonic” (it is also odd, given the coalition’s enthusiasm for pruning Whitehall bureaucracy).
隨著各學校自主權的增強，問責制缺口問題已然出現。對此，解決方法各式各樣。其一是使學校脫離地方政府的保守經營。其二是確保學院或義校出現問題時政府的 有效介入。目前，該義務由英國教育部承擔。對於該現狀，某評論家稱之為“拿破崙式管理”（同時，由於私人團體強烈要求精簡英國政府，這一現狀也比較反 常）。
The education secretary’s ability to send strong reformist signals, so useful in encouraging the growth of academies, can cause a mess. A row over the sudden downward revision of English GSCE grades suggest that the qualifications regulator responded to pressure to make exams tougher—a favourite theme of Mr Gove—without giving due warning of the shift in grade boundaries or how to address them.
儘管教育部部長多次有力地暗示將進行教育改革，並有效地刺激了學院式學校的開辦，但最終可能引起混亂。就近期英國普通初級中學畢業文憑評級（GSCE）向 下修正一事爭論迭起，這說明英國的資格考試審查機構屈于壓力而增加考試難度（這迎合了戈夫部長的主題），但卻沒有就評級標準改變和應對方法作出相應的提 醒。
Another conundrum is what to do if an academy or free school under-performs (in America, charter schools close every year). Sir Michael Wilshaw, head of OFSTED, the schools inspectorate, hankers for powers to inspect academy chains as well as the local authorities who run the country’s remaining (and frankly neglected) comprehensive schools. OFSTED only has the right to inspect individual schools: a hangover from the previous system. One remedy might lie in the creation of powerful regional school commissioners, who could demand changes, send in improvement teams when things go awry and generally strive to outdo one another. A flaw in both Labour and Conservative school-reform efforts is that there is little drive for improvements to spread round the country. A keener sense of regional responsibility might help.
另一個問題是，對於表現不佳的學院或義校該如何處理（美國每年都有倒閉的特許學校）。英國教育標準局（OFSTED）負責監督學校，其局長麥克•威爾蕭爵 士(Sir Michael Wilshaw) 則希望獲得更大的權力，以監督各個學院以及經營英國其他（說白了就是被忽略的）綜合學校。而目前，英國教育標準局的權力僅限於監督個別學校，這是先前的教 育體系所遺留下的。對此，設立許可權較大的地方教育專員可能是一個解決辦法。該專業可以要求教育改革，發生問題時派遣補救小組，總體上又能相互競爭。英國 工黨和保守黨在教育改革上都存在一個問題，那就是缺乏將改革擴散至全國的動機。而提高地區政府責任意識可能會有所改善。
Ultimately, though, no amount of structural change, interventions or inspections counts for as much as good teaching. Lord Adonis, a former Labour minister who set up the academies programme, says it is “simply absurd” that top universities have no stake in teacher-training, a job left too long, he says, to “under-par educational sociologists”. The best schools could be given more autonomy and incentives to help train teachers, ensuring that newcomers learn from the best of their profession, not the middling performers. Rewards need sharpening, just as poor performers should be edged out more quickly. The coalition, which has supported “golden hellos” for some graduates training as teachers, could do more to entice top maths and science performers. (It might not harm to recruit a few teachers from the Asian Tiger economies, too, if only to impress parents with the amount of homework they would set.)
然後最終，無論進行多少結構性改革、加大多少政府介入和審查，都不如改善教育品質來得有效。學院計畫的發起人，前工黨大臣阿多尼斯男爵(Lord Adonis)表示，教師培訓對於頂尖高等學府無關緊要，這“簡直荒謬”。他還稱，教師培訓這一工作被擱置得太久，“教育社會學家們都失望了”。那些優異 的學校可以獲得更多自主權，同時在教師培訓上有更強的動機。這樣，可以確保教授學生的是那些頂尖的師資，而非中庸的講師。對於那些表現不佳者，需要立刻予 以取代。同時，留任者的報酬也宜有所提高。而那些私人團體向來支援對畢業後接受培訓的准教師們提供優厚待遇，這些團體在招攬優秀的數學、理科教師方面將更 勝一籌。（若只是為了給家長們留下海量作業的印象，雇傭一些來自“亞洲四小龍”的教師也無傷大雅。）
England’s reforms are sound—just not sufficient by themselves to transform outcomes. The focus should now be on acquiring as many brilliant teachers as possible, as fast as possible. Pursuing that aim, rather than judging progress by the numbers of freshly-hatched schools, is the vital next step towards better education.
英格蘭的教育改革本身沒錯，只是通過自身不足以改變結果。而現在，改革的焦點應該集中在盡可能多而快地招攬優秀教師。相比以新辦學校數來衡量成果，師資力量才是今後改善教育的關鍵一步。
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