VOA常速英语2013--字母不再用来表示成绩了（在线收听）

C’ Isn’t Average in All Schools Any More 字母不再用来表示成绩了

There’s an old, but often-played, song by the late Sam Cooke whose lyrics go, in part:

已故的山姆库克有首老歌经常有人表演，它的部分歌词是这样的：

Now I don’t claim to be an “A” student

如今，我不再自称是A等生了

But I’m trying to be.

但是，我还为了努力

And so are millions of other American children each school term. Being an “A” student signifies being the best, the smartest, the highest achiever. “B” means good but not best, “C” stands for average, “D” for below average, and either “E” or “F” for unsatisfactory, or to put it more harshly, failure.

成千上万的其他美国孩子每个学期也是如此的。成为一个A等生被认作是非常出色的，最聪明的，最高等的荣誉获得者。B意味着优秀但不出众，C表示中等，D就低于平均水平了。不论得E还是F都是令人失望的，或者对之进行更严厉的评判，失败。

But in hundreds, maybe thousands, of American schools, nobody’s an A student any more. And the idea of getting “straight A’s” – and thus being the best of the best – is gone as well. There aren’t B or C or F students, either. Thanks to something called “standards-based” report cards, these students are receiving a numerical rating – a number instead of a letter – for their performance in each class.

但是在几百所，可能是几千所的美国学校中，没有人能再成为A等生了，成为全优生的想法——成为顶尖——也不存在了。也没有B或是F等级的学生了，多亏了名为“基础标准”的报告卡片，这些学生在接受数字评级，用一个数字而不是字母来评价他们在每堂课的表现。

Those numbers – usually 4 for best, down to 1 – reflect a lot more than just mastery of the subject matter. In a math class in New York State schools, for instance, a 4 means the student can not only add and subtract but has, in the new terminology, displayed high skill in “number sense and operations.”

那些数字中，4经常代表最好，下降至1能够反映很多信息而不仅仅是科目掌握程度问题。在纽约州立学校的一堂数学课上，打个比方，一个4意味都会学生不仅仅会加减运算，借用新的术语来讲就是在“数感和运算”方面有很高的天赋。

The switch from letter grades to numbers has something to do with national education standards, which are tied to student performance on standardized tests. That performance is measured in numbers. And now, so is their work in the classroom.

字母厅成绩数字化的转变与国家教育标准有关，该标准是和学生在标准测试的表现挂钩的。表现的好坏则用数字来衡量，现在，他们在课堂上的表现也用数字来评判了。

This means a lot more work for teachers, because they’re being asked to factor as many 50 detailed skill areas into their ratings of student success in each class.

这意味着老师会有更多的工作要做，因为他们被要求要将50项细节技术领域考虑到他们对学生每堂课表现的评价当中去，

A lot of parents are unhappy with the new numerical report cards. One woman told the Washington Post that they “don’t provide any recognition for a student who is consistently doing excellent work.” Another parent told the New York Times that “what has happened is that the high-performing students are saying, ‘I don’t have to work that hard,’ and they all stopped trying.”

许多家长对新的数字成绩报告单并不满意，一位女士对华盛顿邮报说，他们 没有提供对一个一直成绩都很出众的学生的认可，另外一位家长对纽约时报说，“发生的改变是那些高效绩的学生说，“我不是再那么努力了，”于是，他们都停止用功了”

And parents seem to be saying – without using these exact words – “It’s a lot cooler to have a bumper sticker that reads, ‘I’m riding with an A student from McKinley School’” than it is to say they’re carting around a “Number 4.”

家长们似乎会说——没有使用多余的话语——在贴纸上面写着，“我是麦金利的A等生”比他们评给了“第四名”要酷的多。