1、This is the VOA Special English Education Report.这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报告。Students in Washington, DC, will return to classrooms this month to begin a new school year. But at least five percent of their teachers will not return with them. Last month, the District of Columbia public schools told two hundred si
2、x teachers that they are not good enough to stay.华盛顿特区的学生本月将返回校园,开始新的学年。但是至少5%的教师不会和他们一起返校。上月,哥伦比亚校区公立学校告诉206名教师,他们的教学质量不够好,不能留在学校。The school system dismissed seventy-five teachers last year. It was the first year of a new teacher rating system.华盛顿学区去年解雇了75名教师,当时是新的教师考评体系实施的第一年。Experts say such larg
3、e numbers of dismissals are rare in American schools. But in Washington the rating system is not governed by the labor contract with the teachers union. So school officials have more freedom.专家表示,人数如此众多的解雇在美国学校是罕见的。但是在华盛顿,该评级系统并不是由与教师工会签订的劳动合同管理的,所以,学校官员拥有更多的自由度。The system is called IMPACT. Teachers
4、 are observed in the classroom five times a year for at least thirty minutes each time. They are also judged by student test scores.这一考评体系被称之为IMPACT。它每年会对教师课堂表现进行5次考察,每次不低于30分钟。还将通过学生考试成绩对教师进行考评。Administrators rated sixty-five of the two hundred six teachers as ineffective. The others lost their job
5、s because they were rated minimally effective for a second year.行政管理人员评定这206名教师中的65人为“无效”。其他人失去工作岗位是由于已经连续第二年被评定为“低效”。The National Council on Teacher Quality is a research group that works to increase the number of effective teachers. Emily Cohen, a policy director there, says the council supports t
6、he IMPACT system.教师素质全国委员会是一个致力于提升合格教师数量的研究机构,该机构政策主管埃米莉科恩(Emily Cohen)表示,委员会支持IMPACT体系。EMILY COHEN: This is an evaluation instrument that is finally able to capture who is highly effective and who is ineffective and who could be doing better and could use some assistance. Most evaluation instrument
7、s in the country do not capture teacher performance - all teachers are rated satisfactory.Emily Cohen:“这是一个评估工具,最终能够鉴别出谁是高效的,谁是低效的,谁可以做的更好,谁应该获得一些帮助。美国大部分评估工具并没有鉴别出教师的表现所有教师都令人满意。”Some Washington teachers say their ratings depend too heavily on test scores. For some teachers, half of their rating is
8、 based on how well their students do. But Emily Cohen says test scores are important.华盛顿一些教师表示,他们的评级过于倚重考试成绩。对一些教师来说,一半的评级是基于他们的学生表现。但科恩认为考试成绩是非常重要的。EMILY COHEN: Testing is probably one of the - its the most objective data that we have on teacher performance. The District also is looking at other th
9、ings, using master educators to evaluate teachers. So its not just looking at student test performance, it is using other sources of data.Emily Cohen:“测试是我们对教师的表现最客观的数据。该学区还查看了其他方面,由专业的教育家来评估教师。所以,这套系统并不是只看学生的考试表现,还使用了其他数据来源。”Teachers with the highest rating - highly effective - can receive a perfor
10、mance bonus of up to twenty-five thousand dollars. In addition, they can receive a pay increase.被评为最高等级“高效”的教师将获得多达2.5万美元的绩效奖金。此外,他们还将得到加薪。Almost sixty percent of the teachers who were rated minimally effective last year stayed in the school system and improved. School officials say these teachers r
11、eceived help to become better.去年被评为“低效”的占总数近60%的教师继续留任并已有所提高。学校官员表示,这些教师得到了帮助并有所提高。Michelle Rhee created the IMPACT system. She gained national attention for her aggressive reform efforts when she led the troubled school system in the nations capital. She left last year and her deputy, Kaya Henderso
12、n, took her place.米歇尔李开发了IMPACT体系。在她领导华盛顿这个陷入困境的学区时,她激进的改革措施获得了全国的注意。去年她辞职离开,她的副手卡亚汉德森(Kaya Henderson)接替了她的职位。The Washington Teachers Union says IMPACT unfairly hurts teachers who work in schools with high rates of poverty. The Washington Post reported that most of the teachers with the highest rating work in schools with lower poverty rates.华盛顿教师工会表示,IMPACT系统不公平地伤害了在贫困率比较高的学校工作的教师。华盛顿邮报报道称,获得评定等级最高的教师中大部分在贫困率较低的学校工作。