英语 英语 日语 日语 韩语 韩语 法语 法语 德语 德语 西班牙语 西班牙语 意大利语 意大利语 阿拉伯语 阿拉伯语 葡萄牙语 葡萄牙语 越南语 越南语 俄语 俄语 芬兰语 芬兰语 泰语 泰语 泰语 丹麦语 泰语 对外汉语

VOA教育报道2023--Three Years after Pandemic, Students Still Far Behind

时间:2024-01-02 02:52来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Three Years after Pandemic, Students Still Far Behind

In the third full school year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, students continued to feel the effects of school closures. Some leading experts and education officials worry that the learning loss caused by the pandemic may be long-term.

Making matters worse, many students are missing school. Chronic1 absenteeism is becoming more common at school districts around the country. Some students went missing from the attendance2 rolls during the pandemic and have never been accounted for.

And in a year of growing artificial intelligence technology, AI has also entered the classroom. Some schools have banned the use of chatbots like ChatGPT. Other teachers are using the new technology to help students, hoping they use the technology in appropriate ways.

Here is a look at the big issues that shaped education in 2023 and will shape education in the year to come.

Continued learning loss

In June, the U.S. Department of Education released the scores from a national math and reading test that is given to 13-year-olds. About 8,700 students took the test in both math and reading in late 2022.

The results showed a drop of nine points in math and four points in reading compared to 2020, the last year the test was administered3. The department's information shows that those are the largest point decreases between tests recorded since 1973.

The test asks students to read short passages and identify the main idea or some facts. In math, students had to answer simple multiplication4 and geometry questions.

The latest test scores show that American 13-year-old students are back to their lowest level in math since 1990 and lowest reading level since 2004.

Math and Reading scores were no better outside the U.S. Students around the world suffered historic5 setbacks in reading and math. That information comes from results of the latest Program for International Student Assessment6 (PISA).

The PISA is an international comparative study of the scores of 15-year-old students on tests in reading, math and science. It is administered by OECD. Nearly 700,000 students worldwide took part in the study.

PISA is given every three years. The latest results showed an "unprecedented7 drop in performance" since 2018. The 2022 results were released on December 5. It is the first extensive study with data on how the pandemic has affected8 student performance around the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a major reason for the worldwide score drops. But science and reading scores were dropping even before the pandemic. This suggests there are other reasons for the decrease.

Factors such as the level of investment in education, the social value and pay levels of teachers, and educational beliefs of students have all influenced educational results, OECD found.

Absent, missing students

Students are not going to make gains in learning if they miss school. Education officials and activists9 are concerned about an increase in the number of students who are absent for many days during the school year.

Education policy experts call the problem "chronic absenteeism." Chronic absenteeism is defined10 as missing more than 10 percent out of the days in a school year.

There are many reasons why students miss a lot of school. Certain physical problems and mental health problems, which have increased since the pandemic, are possible causes.

Certain community conditions also can affect attendance, says Joshua Childs, a professor of education policy at the University of Texas at Austin. These include whether a student has safe transportation to and from school and whether the school itself is a safe environment. Childs added that if families do not feel connected with the school community or do not value education that can add to absenteeism.

Hundreds of thousands of American students have also dropped out of public schools since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have essentially11 gone missing from schools.

A recent examination found an estimated 240,000 students in 21 states whose absences from school could not be explained. These students did not move out of state. They also did not sign up for private school or home-school.

The issue of missing students received a lot of attention in 2020 after the pandemic closed schools around the country. In the years since, however, the issue has largely become a budgeting problem.

There is no longer urgency to find the students who disappeared from school. Early in the pandemic, school workers would go to the students' homes to try and help them return to the classroom. Most of those efforts have ended.

Changing technology

The COVID-19 pandemic showed how useful digital technology could be for schools. But it also showed the limitations of technology in the educational setting. Millions of students were able to attend classes online and avoid spreading the virus. But many students failed to learn by such methods.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( or UNESCO) argues against unsupervised wide use of digital tools and AI in education. A recent UNESCO report says there is little evidence that wide technology use improves learning.

The organization says digital educational tools can never replace the human connection of teacher and student. There is a very large divide, or gap, between rich and poor countries when it comes to digital resources

"Even if connectivity was universal, it would still be necessary to demonstrate ...that digital technology offers real added value in terms of effective learning," the UNESCO report says.

Many educators fear students will use the AI tool ChatGPT to write their reports or cheat on homework. New York City school officials started blocking the writing tool on school devices and networks in January. But other teachers are including it in the classroom.

Donnie Piercey is a teacher in Lexington, Kentucky. He told his fifth-grade students to try and outsmart the tool that was creating writing assignments. Piercey says his job is to prepare students for a world where knowledge of AI will be required.

He describes ChatGPT as just the latest technology in his 17 years of teaching that raised concerns about the possibility of cheating. Other tools include Google, Wikipedia and YouTube.

"As educators, we haven't figured out the best way to use artificial intelligence yet," he added. "But it's coming, whether we want it to or not."

Words in This Story

chronic — adj. continuing or occurring again and again for a long time

absent — adj. not present at a usual or expected place

district — n. an area established by a government for official government business

appropriate — adj. right or suited for some purpose or situation

passage — adj. a usually short section of a book, poem, speech, etc.

unprecedented — adj. not done or experienced before

access — n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone

universal — adj. done or experienced by everyone

cheat — v. to break a rule or law usually to gain an advantage at something

assignment — n. a job or duty that is given to someone : a task someone is required to do

figure — v. to understand or find by thinking


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 chronic BO9zl     
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的
参考例句:
  • Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
  • Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。
2 attendance qvFzZ     
n.出席,出席人数,护理,照料
参考例句:
  • The attendance of this class never dropped off.这个班的出席人数从未下降。
  • The young man danced attendance on his rich aunt.这个年轻人小心侍候他有钱的姑妈。
3 administered f618f8bb2428345d1a84d64d5fd59e0c     
管理( administer的过去式和过去分词 ); 治理(国家); 给予; 执行
参考例句:
  • An oath was administered to the newly elected President. 新当选的总统执行了宣誓手续。
  • In summary, all government departments are administered rather differently. 概括地说,各政府部门的管理方式是很不相同的。
4 multiplication i15yH     
n.增加,增多,倍增;增殖,繁殖;乘法
参考例句:
  • Our teacher used to drum our multiplication tables into us.我们老师过去老是让我们反覆背诵乘法表。
  • The multiplication of numbers has made our club building too small.会员的增加使得我们的俱乐部拥挤不堪。
5 historic AcNxw     
adj.历史上著名的,具有历史意义的
参考例句:
  • This is a historic occasion.这是具有重大历史意义的时刻。
  • We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。
6 assessment vO7yu     
n.评价;评估;对财产的估价,被估定的金额
参考例句:
  • This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
  • What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何?
7 unprecedented 7gSyJ     
adj.无前例的,新奇的
参考例句:
  • The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
  • A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。
8 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
9 activists 90fd83cc3f53a40df93866d9c91bcca4     
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 defined GuQzxW     
adj 定义的; 清晰的
参考例句:
  • These categories are not well defined. 这些类别划分得不太明确。
  • The powers of a judge are defined by law. 法官的权限是由法律规定的。
11 essentially nntxw     
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上
参考例句:
  • Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
  • She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎点击提交分享给大家。
------分隔线----------------------------
TAG标签:   VOA英语  慢速英语  教育报道
顶一下
(0)
0%
踩一下
(0)
0%
最新评论 查看所有评论
发表评论 查看所有评论
请自觉遵守互联网相关的政策法规,严禁发布色情、暴力、反动的言论。
评价:
表情:
验证码:
听力搜索
推荐频道
论坛新贴