校制改革

　　How to tame a Trojan horse

　　如何驯服一只害群之马

　　Extremism in Birmingham schools poses a conundrum for reformers

　　摆在改革者面前的难题是伯明翰学校中的极端主义

　　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·克拉克曾经为伦敦警察局侦查恐怖阴谋，他确信，在伯明翰也有一些肮脏的事情发生。他在7月22日的一份报告中说，伯明翰穆斯林居多的学校中，有一些老师在一款诋毁同性恋、以色列以及西方国家的手机应用上相互交流；他们还讨论如何形成一个排除伊斯兰教徒的文化氛围。克拉克先生的报告是第三份关于这个主题的报告，还几乎是一份政府正大胆进行的教育改革有所退让的信号。

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　　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，保守党—自民党联合政府让2500所学校脱离地方当局的管控，这包括其中一些出问题的伯明翰学校。即使所有的学校仍然在教育部的管理之下，并且必须服从教育标准局的审查。因为学校的监管者——校长，有相当大的权力来修改课程。除了这些“学术型学校”，家长们还被怂恿去建立“免费学校”。在制度上，这是联合政府最成功的一次有关国营部门的改革：相比之下，在治安、医疗和福利方面的改变显得进程缓慢，而且困难重重。但这次的教育改革民怨难平，问题棘手。

　　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.

　　怎样才可以在保证学校自主权的同时，又加强自由主义价值观？教育标准局局长迈克尔·威尔肖爵士和迈克尔·戈夫曾有过争论，后者在7月15日之前一直任教育部长，且非常好斗。他们争论的焦点是，蓬勃发展的学院链和免费学校的数量是否该被新的领导层监管。戈夫担心，这样的举动会使改革放缓。但迈克尔爵士已经成功任命一个八人区域专员小组，而且伯明翰也将要有自己的地区专员。

　　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·亨特是工党教育方面的发言人，他对所有的英语学校都有强势的监管。他想要新的“基于学校标准的负责人”，睁大眼睛关注教室中的一举一动。但是想要实现这个目标并非易事，因为要同时不压制创新，抑或重现地方当局实行成效平平的一致化。似乎没人能够肯定，他们自己是否该被选上，或者自己的管辖区域到底该多大。

　　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.

　　如何把教育自由和问责制相结合，这个难题给教育改革带来的困扰要远远超过英国中部地区。相比之下，美国很多的特许学校就很聪明：阿肯色大学的一份报告总结出，每年学校录取的学生中，每名有近3%的投资回报会超过其他初级中学。然而，有非常多自身造成的问题。在滥用职权被披露后，密歇根州已经宣布，将会对超过700所特许学校建立监管体制。

　　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.

　　瑞典的免费学校常常被英国保守党改革者当作一个令人振奋的改革创新，却也推行困难。瑞典的标准化测试排名在2002年到2012年间急剧下降；其检查及监管体制已经找到了错漏之处。但中央集权也无甚成效。法国一直坚定的把宗教排除在教育之外，现在有许多低档学校，这些学校在教育北非裔的孩子时非常的不上心。

　　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.

　　伯明翰是一个非常令人警醒的教训，学业成绩经常不能正确反映出学校的好坏。2012年一月，园景学校曾经被教育标准局评级为“杰出”，这是一个非常明显的误判。家长监管的权利也没有得到使用。一些穆斯林家庭似乎对学校的社会保护主义非常满意。

　　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.

　　如今看来，加强英格兰学校的当地监管是不可避免的。现在，决定监管者应该做什么和不该做什么一样重要，这就会考验所有学校改革者的独创精神。