2014年经济学人 特许学校 大但并不简单

Charter Schools

Big, not easy

Revolution and innovation in some of America's toughest neighbourhoods

AS PUPILS file into their classroom at Kipp Renaissance¹, a high school in a battered² corner of north-east New Orleans, each one stops to shake the hand of a history teacher. “Changes”, a rap song by Tupac about the struggles of being poor and black in America, plays quietly in the background. Within a minute or two, the dozen teenagers—all black—are busily filling in test papers. Soon afterwards, Mr Kullman, the teacher, begins rapping himself—hopping around the room demanding quick-fire answers to questions about the civil war. Pupils shout back answers in chorus.

Kipp Renaissance is one of New Orleans's newer high schools. Since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, only six traditional public schools, directly run by the city, remain. Instead 94% of pupils now attend charter schools, which are publicly funded but run by independent non-profit organisations such as Kipp (in full, the “Knowledge is Power Programme”).

Change began in 2003, when Louisiana created a Recovery School District (RSD) to take over and turn around failing schools across the state. Katrina dramatically accelerated the process: the RSD now controls most schools in New Orleans. Since 2008 alone, it has closed about 50 and presided over the opening of an equal number of charters. The district organises admissions and expulsions, and helps allocate³ school buildings. But staffing, teacher training, transport, catering⁴ and much else are left in the hands of schools and the charter chains which run them.

A decade ago, teachers in New Orleans were demoralised. The city's school district had eight different superintendents⁵ in the decade to 2005, none of whom managed to curb⁶ corruption⁷ or control waste. Affluent⁸ whites had fled the system: before Katrina New Orleans was roughly 67% black and 28% white, yet only 6% of public-school pupils were not black.

Under the new regime, schools have sharply improved. In 2004 just 16.5% of pupils in New Orleans's schools beat Louisiana's state performance score; by the end of the most recent school year, 31.1% did, according to the Cowen Institute at Tulane University. High-school graduation rates have risen from 55% before Katrina to 73% now; drop-out rates have fallen by half.

After Katrina, most of New Orleans's 7,500 unionised teachers were, in effect, fired. Charter schools have hired some back—but they have also hired plenty of new, young ambitious teachers, often straight out of college, who work the long days and extra hours without complaint.

The ability to choose a school matters less than you might expect. Autonomy and central scrutiny⁹ matter more. New Orleans's charter schools are probably more closely watched than public schools ever were, and those that fail to meet targets do not get their charters renewed. With academic targets set centrally, schools tend to agree on what works best.

The challenge now is whether improvement can be sustained. On national tests, Louisiana still comes last or nearly last on a range of measures. What the state deems “mastery” of a subject barely passes for acceptable in other states: by the standards of Massachusetts or Maine, schools in New Orleans remain terrible. Middle-class whites still mostly send their children to private schools.

One worry is money. Before Katrina, spending per pupil in New Orleans was 7,900 per year, about the same as in Louisiana at large. Last year the figure was 12,797—much more than the state average. Federal money, doled¹⁰ out to help rebuild after the hurricane, now pays for repairing almost all the city's school buildings. But it will not last for ever.

At some point, the city's overworked teachers may begin to struggle. Some critics say reform has been imposed paternalistically by white reformers on black communities, and so has only limited support. Yet in a vote on December 6th a new tax for school maintenance was easily approved by the city's voters. They, and their children, seem to like what they are getting.

1 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

2 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

3 allocate   

vt.分配，分派；把…拨给；把…划归

参考例句：

• You must allocate the money carefully.你们必须谨慎地分配钱。
• They will allocate fund for housing.他们将拨出经费建房。

4 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

5 superintendents   

警长( superintendent的名词复数 )； （大楼的）管理人； 监管人； （美国）警察局长

参考例句：

• Unlike their New York counterparts, Portland school superintendents welcomed McFarlane. 这一次，地点是在波特兰。
• But superintendents and principals have wide discretion. 但是，地方领导和校长有自由裁量权。

6 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

7 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

8 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

9 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

10 doled   

救济物( dole的过去式和过去分词 )； 失业救济金

参考例句：

• The food was doled out to the poor. 食品分发给了穷人。
• Sisco briskly doled out the United States positions on the key issues. 西斯科轻快地把美国在重大问题上的立场放了出去。