Lessons learned

經(jīng)驗教訓(xùn)

Shutting schools has hit poor American children’s learning

關(guān)閉學(xué)校影響了美國貧困兒童的學(xué)習(xí)

Evidence is trickling in that this year’s?cohort have fallen behind

越來越多的證據(jù)表明，今年的學(xué)生已經(jīng)落后了

詞匯

?cohort /同期組群

Dec 19th 2020 | WASHINGTON, DC

CLOSED SCHOOLS?are bad for all children, but especially bad for poor and disadvantaged pupils. This basic pattern recurs wherever and whenever researchers look for it—in the wake of an epidemic of polio in America in 1916, after teachers’ strikes in Argentina since the 1980s, and after a devastating earthquake in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in 2005.

關(guān)閉的學(xué)校對所有的孩子都不好，但對貧窮和弱勢的學(xué)生來說尤其不好。這一基本模式在研究人員探索的任何時間、任何地點都不斷重現(xiàn)——1916年美國脊髓灰質(zhì)炎流行之后，自20世紀(jì)80年代以來阿根廷的教師罷工之后，以及2005年巴基斯坦控制的克什米爾地區(qū)發(fā)生毀滅性地震之后（都有所體現(xiàn)）。

詞匯

Recur/重現(xiàn)；再來

Polio/ 小兒麻痹癥；脊髓灰質(zhì)炎

Most natural experiments in school disruption come after isolated natural disasters. The covid-19 pandemic is leading to a simultaneous global experiment, however. In America, where schools have been significantly disrupted for the better part of a year, the first batches of reliable data are being gathered to assess how bad the damage has actually been. Sorting through them shows that sadly, America has not defied the gloomy predictions.

大多數(shù)學(xué)校的自然實驗都是在孤立的單獨災(zāi)害之后顯現(xiàn)的。然而，2019冠狀病毒大流行正在導(dǎo)致一場同步的全球?qū)嶒灐Ｔ诿绹?，學(xué)校在一年中大部分時間都受到嚴(yán)重干擾，目前正在收集第一批可靠數(shù)據(jù)，以評估實際損失有多嚴(yán)重。可悲的是，梳理這些數(shù)據(jù)表明，美國并沒有推翻這些悲觀的預(yù)測。

詞匯

?Simultaneous/同時的；聯(lián)立的

Batch/一批；一爐；分批次處理

?

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A recent analysis of standardised tests carried out by McKinsey, a consulting firm, found that pupils examined in the autumn had learned 33% less maths and 13% less reading than expected. For schools that are majority non-white, the learning losses were much steeper: pupils there had learned 41% less maths and 23% less reading. NWEA, a producer and administrator of standardised exams used in primary and secondary schools, published its own review of autumn scores that was less worrying. Pupils slid back substantially in maths, but not reading, with few detectable differences along racial or socioeconomic lines. But a substantial share of students, disproportionately poor and non-white, simply did not take the tests this year—which may have flattered the results.

咨詢公司麥肯錫最近進(jìn)行的一項標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化測試分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，秋季參加考試的學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)的數(shù)學(xué)比預(yù)期少33%，閱讀比預(yù)期少13%。對于以非白人為主的學(xué)校來說，學(xué)習(xí)損失要大得多:學(xué)生們學(xué)習(xí)的數(shù)學(xué)少了41%，閱讀少了23%。NWEA是中小學(xué)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化考試的制作者和管理者，它發(fā)表了自己對秋季考試成績的評論，但沒有那么令人擔(dān)憂。學(xué)生們的數(shù)學(xué)成績大幅下滑，但閱讀成績卻沒有，在種族或社會經(jīng)濟(jì)方面幾乎沒有明顯的差異。但今年有相當(dāng)一部分學(xué)生(不成比例的貧窮和非白人)根本就沒有參加考試——這可能夸大了考試結(jié)果。

?

?

In Washington, DC, 73% of white children in kindergarten and 45% of black children typically show adequate reading progress. When examined this year, white children showed a modest drop in adequate literacy, to 67%, while black children experienced a much larger one—to 31%. The gaps are also showing up in coursework, not just exams. Teachers in Los Angeles are reporting a stark increase in the number of failing grades—with the greatest increase in poor neighbourhoods. Researchers from Brown and Harvard universities examining data from Zearn, an online maths-teaching platform, found that pupils in high-income schools are actually performing 12% better in their coursework than in January 2020. But for low-income schools, scores fell by 17%.

在華盛頓特區(qū)，73%的幼兒園白人兒童和45%的黑人兒童在閱讀方面有一定的進(jìn)步。在今年的調(diào)查中，白人兒童的識字率略有下降，達(dá)到67%，而黑人兒童的識字率則大幅下降，僅有31%。這種差距不僅體現(xiàn)在考試上，也體現(xiàn)在功課上。洛杉磯的教師們報告稱，不及格的人數(shù)明顯增加，其中貧困地區(qū)的增長幅度最大。來自布朗大學(xué)和哈佛大學(xué)的研究人員分析了在線數(shù)學(xué)教學(xué)平臺Zearn的數(shù)據(jù)，發(fā)現(xiàn)高收入學(xué)校的學(xué)生在課程作業(yè)上的表現(xiàn)實際上比2020年1月時高出12%。但是低收入學(xué)校的分?jǐn)?shù)下降了17%。

?

The results suggest that the fears of worsening achievement gaps at the start of the pandemic were justified. There are enormous racial gaps in the kinds of instruction being received: 70% of black and Hispanic children are receiving fully remote education, compared with 50% of white pupils. Parents with the means to do so appear to be pulling their children out of public education altogether. There are 31,000 fewer pupils in the New York City public school system than in 2019; the roster in Austin, Texas, is 6% smaller. Instead, parents are hiring private tutors to teach their children in person. That is almost certain to widen the achievement gap.

這些結(jié)果表明，在大流行開始時，對成績差距進(jìn)一步擴(kuò)大的擔(dān)憂是有道理的。在接受的教育種類上存在著巨大的種族差異:70%的黑人和西班牙裔兒童接受完全的遠(yuǎn)程教育，而白人學(xué)生只有50%。有能力這樣做的父母似乎要讓他們的孩子完全脫離公共教育。紐約市公立學(xué)校系統(tǒng)比2019年減少了3.1萬名學(xué)生;德克薩斯州奧斯汀市（學(xué)校的）花名冊則少了6%。相反，家長們開始聘請私人教師親自教他們的孩子。這差不多肯定會拉大成績差距。

詞匯

?roster / 花名冊；執(zhí)勤人員表

Standardised exams are far from perfect. They do not measure the learning of impatient children well. More meaningful measures of lost learning, such as wages in adulthood, will not be known for years. Yet tests are not all bad. Given third-grade maths scores, researchers can quite accurately pick out which children will go on to become patent-holding inventors. They need not be a counsel of despair. Learning loss is remediable. But it requires the sort of serious investment that only Congress could provide and, so far, the gridlocked House and Senate have not seemed especially interested in providing it. ■

標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化考試遠(yuǎn)非完美。他們沒有很好地衡量沉不下心的孩子的學(xué)習(xí)情況。關(guān)于學(xué)習(xí)損失的更有意義的指標(biāo)，比如成年期的工資，在數(shù)年內(nèi)都不會為人所知。然而，測試也不全是壞事。根據(jù)三年級的數(shù)學(xué)成績，研究人員可以相當(dāng)準(zhǔn)確地判斷出哪些孩子將會成為專利持有者。（成績不好的學(xué)生）他們無需自暴自棄。學(xué)習(xí)損失是可以補(bǔ)救的。但它需要那種只有國會才能提供的認(rèn)真投資，而且到目前為止，陷入僵局的眾議院和參議院似乎對提供這種投資并沒有特別的興趣?！?/span>

詞匯

counsel of despair/參考短語【adopt a counsel of despair/ 采取自暴自棄的態(tài)度】