芝加哥的学校

　　Hard work rewarded

　　勤劳的奖励

　　Rahm Emanuel's school reforms are working

　　拉姆·艾玛努尔的学校改革措施正发挥作用

　　Let me teach you some new words

　　让我来教你一些新词汇

　　“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.

　　“所有家庭都不该去救济院因为它们击碎了孩子们的美国梦，”拉姆·艾玛努尔在一月九号说道。这位芝加哥市长正在市南边的一所名叫肯沃德学院的高级中学里施行他的教育计划。

　　芝加哥的学校.jpg

　　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.

　　同一天在田纳西州，奥巴马颁布改革豁免了有资格攻读社区大学学生的学习费用。艾玛努尔说白宫无疑是仿照芝加哥的做法，他们去年十月份推出了芝加哥明星奖学金计划，这项计划将从芝加哥公立学校系统中为优秀毕业生支付社区大学学费。

　　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.

　　艾玛努尔想要更多学生在他们高中最后一年进入大学并参加课程学习（而且，如果他们通过就能得到学分），这将有利于随后降低他们的学费。在通用电气公司三年五十万刀捐助的帮助下，这项计划将在明年资助2500名左右的学生上涨至超过6000刀一年。在芝加哥市，肯沃德学院同任何其它学校相比有更多的学生参与这项计划。

　　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.

　　在艾玛努尔第一任期内不得不做出的艰难选择中，有一些都是关于学校的。他要求建立教师的绩效工资及更久的学习日（芝加哥只有5小时45分钟）而且在穷困地区专门关闭50所半满员的学校。教师们在25年里第一次句型罢工，但是艾玛努尔延长了学习时长并在2013年进行学校关闭措施。教师们还是保留了他们基于工龄决定的工资体系。

　　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.

　　通过关闭学校省下了钱，艾玛努尔划拨了一部分给特许学校，这项举措无疑让他在教室公会中更加不受欢迎。但是芝加哥的特许学校开办得如火如荼。高尚网络系统已经经营了十六所特许学校，有着一万名左右的学生，并计划在2020年招生两万名，入学率高达94%（同公立学校73%形成鲜明对比）以及在辍学率方面仅为0.4%（公立学校为4.7%）。在ACT美国大学测试中它也有着更好的成绩。在少数族裔学生比例中它也取得领先（98%同对比公立学校的92%），而且还少占了一点公共资金。

　　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.

　　洛萨·阿兰尼斯是黄金大学预科的校长，这所学校是高尚网络特许学校中的一所，他说他所有的学生有一名老师当他们的指定建议人，这些老师每天需要和学生见两次面。学生出勤和日常成绩是这些建议人的职责，因此他们在学校里花很长时间保证他们的职责体现出来，统一穿着制服—灰裤子和蓝毛衣，并且辛勤工作。阿兰尼斯自己则负责13名“具有挑战性”的男生小组。一次她甚至开车去学生家里将他接到学校。虽然他还穿着睡衣，但还是被许可上学。

　　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.

　　艾玛努尔很倾向于特许学校，但是他在陈述第二期教育计划是没有提及它们。然而他承诺所有教室通上Wi-Fi，并且保证每个家同在三英里内都有高中等措施则引起了特别的关注，再例如理科或者国际文凭的开展。可以推测的是，他想顺着那些持有特许学校将公立学校遗弃到垃圾堆观点的人们。事实上，竞争已经刺激公立学校改进了一些。辍学率已经下滑而且尽管ACT得分还是很低，但已经轻微上扬。