Education in New York
紐約教育
Teach us, Mr Mayor
教教我們吧，市長先生 （陳繼龍 譯）
From The Economist print edition
As mayors become leaders of school reform, cities look to New York
隨著市長成為學校改革領導人，各市都指望著紐約。
WHEN Adrian Fenty became mayor of Washington, DC, this month, he immediately announced a plan to take over the city's schools. He is not the first to propose such a scheme, and will not be the last. Although in most cities schools are run by an elected board, this is changing fast. Boston's mayor began the trend of 「mayoral control」 in 1991: it has spread to Cleveland, Chicago and a dozen other cities and counties, including Los Angeles, where it is now the subject of a court battle. But it is Michael Bloomberg, who took charge of New York's school system—the nation's largest—in 2002, who has become the paradigm of the mayor-educator.
本月阿德裡安•芬蒂成為華盛頓市長後，隨即宣布了一項接管該市各所學校的計劃。他並不是提出這種計劃的第一人，而且也不會是最後一人。儘管在大多數城市學校均由推選的教育委員會管理，但這種情況正在迅速改變。波士頓市長在1991年就開創了「市長控制」的先河，現已擴展到克利夫蘭、芝加哥及其它12個市縣，其中還包括洛杉磯。在洛杉磯，「市長控制」已成為法庭辯論的焦點。不過，「市長教育家」的楷模非紐約市長麥可•彭博莫屬，他於2002年掌管了規模位居美國第一的紐約教育系統。
（1）The sad state of city schools has never been plainer, thanks to testing required by No Child Left Behind, George Bush's 2002 education law. In 2005 51% of fourth-graders in big cities scored 「below basic」 on a standard reading test, compared with a national average of 38%. （2）Mayors are eager to step in, well aware that bad schools not only harm students, but drive away the middle class and make cities less competitive. But what can mayors do that school boards cannot?
布希2002年籤署了教育法令《不讓一個孩子掉隊》（No Child Left Behind），根據法令要求開展的評估結果清楚地表明，城市學校現狀十分糟糕。2005年，大城市四年級學生有51%在標準閱讀測試中成績「低於基本要求」，而全國的平均水平為38%。市長們非常清楚，學校差不但會害了學生，也會導致中產階級流失而減弱城市的競爭力，因而都急於插手學校事務，可是有什麼教育委員會辦不到的而市長們卻能做到的呢？
Mr Bloomberg, who gave his state-of-the-city address on January 17th, offers an answer. His power over schools has made him directly accountable for them, streamlined organisation and allowed him to make New York a test-bed for reform. It has also, some say, demonstrated the dangers of letting a mayor's power go unchecked. 彭博1月17日在紐約市情諮文中給出了答案。接掌學校後，他就可直接對學校負責，對機構進行精簡，並讓紐約成為改革的試驗田。有人說，讓一位市長無拘無束的行使權力也存在一定的危險。
As Mr Bloomberg campaigned for mayor in 2001, it was clear that New York's school board was failing its 1.1m students. The board, removed from the city's budget process, had little control over school finances. The consequences were dire. Many high schools were losing more than half their students before graduation. Mr Bloomberg promised change.
2001年彭博競選市長時，紐約的教育委員會顯然辜負了110萬學生的期望。教育委員會由於無法參與擬定紐約財政預算，因此對學校大部分財政權都鞭長莫及，結果也就不堪設想了。許多學校的學生有一半以上在畢業前就輟學。彭博承諾會改變這一現狀。
With the central school-board disbanded[1], the mayor got to work. He appointed as his education 「chancellor」 Joel Klein, a former top trust-buster at the federal Department of Justice. Together, they dissolved the city's 32 school districts and replaced them with ten regions. They chose a uniform curriculum for reading, writing and maths. And they began to close large high schools and open small ones in their place. Mr Bloomberg set up 15 small high schools in 2002, and got money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2003 to help open 169 more.
隨著中央學區教育委員會的解散，彭博的改革也開始了。他任命聯邦司法部前最高反託拉斯官員約爾•克萊因為其教育「大臣」。他們聯手將紐約32個學區重新劃分為10個區域，為閱讀、寫作和數學選定了統一課程，然後關閉大型的中學並在原址建立小型中學。2002年，彭博建了15所小型中學。2003年，他從比爾-梅林達•蓋茨基金會那裡拿到一筆資金後又建了169所小型中學。
Two years after seizing control, Messrs Bloomberg and Klein began a push to give more power to certain schools. Management scholars such as William Ouchi, of the University of California, Los Angeles, argued that decentralisation had saved American businesses; it could save schools too. In 2004, New York began opening schools where principals have more control over everything from budgets to staffing. If a principal does not meet the mayor's targets, he can be fired. Last spring, 322 principals, a fifth of the total, joined this 「empowerment」 programme.
接掌學校控制權兩年後，彭博和克萊因開始設法下放更多權力給某些學校。加州大學洛杉磯分校的威廉•奧奇等管理學學者認為，權力下放曾經拯救過美國企業，它也能拯救學校。2004年，紐約開辦了一些學校，在這些學校，校長擁有了更多控制權，從編制預算到安置人員都無所不包。哪個校長如果達不到市長的目標就得走人。去年春天，322名校長（佔總數1/5）被納入了這一「放權」計劃。
Many parents, teachers and experts—not to mention the mayor—say the reforms are a triumph. Last year Mr Bloomberg's first crop of small high-schools had a graduation rate of 78%, compared with 58% city-wide. The empowerment schools have also shown signs of success, with better rates of attendance and grades.
不要說彭博，就是多數家長、教師和專家也都認為改革是成功的。去年，彭博建立的第一批小型中學畢業率達到78%，而全紐約僅為58%。加入「放權」計劃的學校也有了進步表現，到課率和成績都有提高。
（3）But some who favoured mayoral control in 2002 now complain that Mr Bloomberg is a dictator, hastily imposing plans after little public input. The uniform curriculum for reading and maths was poorly chosen, argues Diane Ravitch, a professor at New York University. Randi Weingarten, head of the teachers' union, describes teachers using egg-timers to try to follow rigid lesson plans. The effect of the uniform curriculum is unclear. Elementary school students have performed well in some local tests, but their scores in national exams have hardly budged.
但是，有些在2002年擁護「市長控制」的人現在開始抱怨彭博是一個專權者，認為他在公眾反應還極為有限時就輕率地強制推行其計劃。紐約大學教授戴安•拉維奇指出，閱讀和數學的統一課程安排得很差勁。教師聯合工會負責人蘭蒂•維恩加爾滕則說，老師們為了跟上苛刻的教學進度差不多連煮蛋計時器都用上了。統一課程效果到底怎樣目前還不好說。小學生在地方一些考試中成績很好，但在全國考試中的成績差不多還是老樣子。
Mr Bloomberg's small-schools initiative has also drawn criticism. When the mayor closed big schools to open small ones, many displaced students simply crammed into other schools nearby. （4）David Bloomfield, a professor at Brooklyn College, argues that although the small schools are promising, the rush to open them has placed too great a strain on larger schools, where most students are still enrolled. One Brooklyn high school has as many as 46 teenagers to a class.
彭博建立小型中學的做法也遭到了非議。他關閉大型學校、開辦小型學校之後，許多需要轉移的學生都被硬塞到附近其它學校。布魯克林學院教授大衛•布魯姆菲爾德認為，雖然這些小型學校很有發展前途，但開辦速度過快已經給一些仍然擁有大量在校生的大型學校帶來了太大的壓力。布魯克林有一所中學一個班級的學生竟多達46人。（譯者按：46人，這在中國恐怕算少的了吧？據本人所知，中國的中學一個班級有60人都不足為奇。招生指標也許就三、四十人，人多是因為多了什麼集資生、關係生等等，反正有錢即可。教育制度？在唯利是圖的學校當權者看來，那是扯淡。中美教育之差距由此也許可見一斑吧。）
Yet the mayor, when faced with complaints, has usually forged ahead. He proved particularly autocratic in 2004, when he announced a plan to keep failing students from advancing to the next grade. A similar scheme in the 1980s did not raise achievement levels and was deemed a failure. But when members of Mr Bloomberg's advisory board opposed the policy, hesacked[2] them. Mr Klein argues that critics' inability to block change is a good thing. City schools, he says, need 「bold, tough leadership」. In his state-of-the-city address, the mayor announced yet more reforms, tackling everything from teacher tenure to funding. He plans to disband his ten regions, and give principals even greater autonomy by letting them choose between different methods of support.
即便抱怨聲不斷，彭博仍舊一往無前。2004年，他表現得尤為專制，在那年他宣布了一項計劃，要把那些成績不合格的學生留級。上世紀八十年代也有一個類似的計劃，但並未提高學生成績，被認為是失敗之舉。但是，彭博顧問委員會中反對這項政策的人都被他一一解僱。克萊恩認為，持批評意見的人無力阻止改革是件好事。他說，城市學校需要「大膽、堅強的領導」。在市情諮文中，這位市長還公布了更多的改革方案，涉及教師任期、財政撥款等各個問題。他還計劃撤去他劃定的10個區域，並賦予各校長更大的自治權，允許他們採取不同的辦學支撐方式。
Education scholars generally agree that mayors can help failing districts, but they are starting to utter warnings. （5）Last summer the editors of the Harvard Educational Review warned that mayoral control can reduce parents' influence on schools. And they pointed to Mr Bloomberg's aggressive style as an example of what not to do. All this must be weighed up by the New York state legislature in 2009, when mayoral control is up for renewal—or scrapping[3].
教育學者普遍認為市長們是可以幫助落後學區的，但他們也開始提出忠告。去年夏，《哈佛教育評論》編輯提醒說「市長控制」有可能削弱家長對學校的影響力，並將矛頭直指彭博的激進風格，認為他是「什麼都是自己說了算」的典範。一切是好是壞，到2009年紐約州議會自會有所評說，市長控制是繼續還是廢止到時當有定論。
[QUIZ]
英譯漢（將劃線部分英文翻譯成中文）：
[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. disband v. [I, Tn] (cause sth to) stop operating as an organization; break up （使組織、機構等）解散, 散夥, 解體: The regiment disbanded when the war was over. 戰爭結束後, 這個團就解散了. * disband a club, society, etc 解散俱樂部、社團等.
2. sack v. [Tn] (infml 口 esp Brit) dismiss (sb) from a job; fire 解僱（某人）: be sacked for incompetence 因能力不夠而被解僱.
3. scrap v. (-pp-) [Tn] throw away (sth useless or worn-out) 拋棄, 拋掉（無用的或用壞的東西）: scrap a car, ship, bicycle, etc 遺棄報廢的汽車、船、自行車等 * (fig 比喻) Lack of cash forced us to scrap plans for a new house. 我們現款不足, 只好打消買新房子的念頭.