VOA标准英语2009年-California Teacher's Program Helps Underpr

By Mike O'Sullivan
San Diego, California
21 October 2009

Immigrant and minority students in the United States often face obstacles getting into college. To help them, California teacher Mary Catherine Swanson started a program that has expanded to more than 4,000 schools and is making a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of students in the United States and abroad.

 
The AVID¹ system is helping² students in more than 4000 schools around the world
The program is called AVID, Advancement³ Via Individual Determination. It began in 1980, when Swanson's suburban⁴ San Diego school, Claremont High School, became racially integrated under a court order. New students, many of them immigrants and African Americans, were bused to the school from poor neighborhoods.

Many needed extra help to cope with the heavy coursework, so Swanson started the program with 32 of her students, and then got other students, teachers and college-age tutors involved. She says the program is based on problem solving through group discussions and writing. "I taught the teachers how to put the students in groups with very thought-provoking questions and have the students solve those things and then give them back to us - a different way of teaching," she said.

The students got extra help in subjects ranging from English to mathematics. Swanson says the students were challenged, and they responded. "Our test scores, standardized⁵ test scores, went up 35 percentage points higher than the rest of the district in mathematics and 48 percentage points higher in language arts," she said.

 
Mary Catherine Swanson, who now travels to promote the AVID program, has won numerous awards for excellence⁶ in teaching 
She says the students were eager to learn, and just needed direction and focus. "They are students who want to succeed in our school systems, but don't have the support in their communities or in their homes to be able to do that. And we give them that kind of support," she said.

More than 300,000 students are now enrolled⁷ in AVID and most will go on to college. The program has expanded to include the 4th through 12th grades, and it operates throughout the United States and on U.S. military bases overseas.

The program also reaches out to Canadian and Australian students.

Swanson says its principles are simple, encouraging students to tackle challenging problems and master difficult concepts through writing, group discussions and hard work. "There are no shortcuts⁸ to any of this. It is all hard work. But it's working smart, knowing how to learn, knowing how to teach the students how to learn," she said.

Swanson says AVID teachers tell their students that the hard work will payoff for the rest of their lives.

1 avid   

adj.热心的；贪婪的；渴望的；劲头十足的

参考例句：

• He is rich,but he is still avid of more money.他很富有,但他还想贪图更多的钱。
• She was avid for praise from her coach.那女孩渴望得到教练的称赞。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

4 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

5 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。

6 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

7 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 shortcuts   

n.捷径( shortcut的名词复数 )；近路；快捷办法；被切短的东西（尤指烟草）

参考例句：

• In other words, experts want shortcuts to everything. 换句话说，专家需要所有的快捷方式。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Offer shortcuts from the Help menu. 在帮助菜单中提供快捷方式。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓