In the past few years， reformers have embraced a disarmingly simple idea
for fixing schools： Why not actually flunk those students who don't earn passing
grades? Both Democrats and Republicans have begun attacking the practice of
“social promotion”——shuttling bad students to the next grade， advancing them
with peers even if they are failing. Make F truly mean failure， the movement
says.
Last week in Los Angeles， the reformers learned just how ornery the current
system can be.
According to a plan released Tuesday by the L.A. school district， ending
social promotion there will take at least four years， could cost hundreds of
millions of dollars——and probably would require flunking about half the
district's students. That's a pessimistic assessment， but it's not just
bureaucrats' caterwauling. Rather， L.A.school superintendent Ruben Zacarias was
an eager convert to the crusade against social promotion. In February he
unveiled an ambitious plan to end unwarranted promotions in five grades during
the 1999-2000 school year——a full year ahead of the timetable set by a state
law.
At the time， Zacarias acknowledged that his goal would be hard to meet. He
estimated that as many as 6 of every 10 students would flunk if they had to
advance on merit. Zacarias wanted to spend $140 million in the first year alone
to help these kids. Why so much? Because a mountain of research shows that
ending social promotion doesn't work if it just means more Fs. Kids who are
simply forced to repeat grades over and over usually don't improve academically
and often drop out. Zacarias wanted more tutoring， summer school and
intensive-learning classes. Unqualified students wouldn't rise to the next
grade; nor would they be doomed to redo work they already failed. It was a
forward-looking plan that Zacarias， 70， didn't have the clout to enact. He
wasn't popular enough——the school board recently bought out his contract after a
bitter power struggle——but even fellow reformers think his plan was too much，
too soon. Says board member David Tokofsky： “You've got the unions who want
their say. And， of course， there's the facilities issue： Where do you send all
these eighth-graders if you can't send them to high school?” The district now
says it will stop advancing low-achieving students only in two grades (second
and eighth)， and it will begin next year.
Los Angeles isn't the only place that has run into roadblocks while trying
to end social promotion. In New York City， some advocates have said in lawsuits
that parents weren't notified early enough that their kids were flunking. And in
Chicago， which led the nation on the issue， a parents' group has filed civil
rights complaints alleging that the promotion crackdown holds back a
disproportionate number of black and Latino kids.
Still， the war on social promotion could have one salutary consequence： if
every school district takes L.A.'s approach， struggling students will get a lot
more teaching help， not just a kick in the rear as they finish another
unproductive school year.
注(1)：本文选自Time;12/13/99， p73， 2/3p， 1c
注(2)：本文习题命题模仿对象2001年真题text 2和text 4第4题(本习题第5题) 1.“Social promotion” is ___________.
[A] a simple idea for fixing school
[B] flunking students who don‘t earn passing grades
[C] making F more or less meaningless
[D] a political movement 2. Education officials give the reform prospect a pessimistic assessment
because_______.
[A] it takes too long time， costs too much and may produce undesirable
result
[B] there is no feasible plan yet
[C] it involves too many students
[D] it is not approved by state legislature 3. The writer mentioned the case of Zacarias to show that
______________.
[A] ending social promotion doesn‘t work
[B] schools do not have the ability to enact his plan
[C] plans like his are too ambitious
[D] it‘s hard to reach agreement on the issue of ending social
promotion 4. It seems that the effort at ending social promotion _____________.
[A] is confronting a lot of resistance
[B] has proved fruitless
[C] has little hope of success
[D] does more harm than good 5. Toward the proposal of ending social promotion， the author‘s attitude
seems to be ________.
[A] pessimistic
[B] optimistic
[C] objective
[D] biased 答案：C A D A B
发表于 2017-8-6 16:07:27