Small Schools Are Ahead in Graduation
By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: June 30, 2007
毕业率：小型学校领先
朱莉·伯斯曼报道
2007年6月30日《纽约时报》
（图片说明：小型化高中，更高毕业率）
Graduation rates at 47 new small public high schools that have opened since 2002 are substantially higher than the citywide average, an indication that the Bloomberg administration’s decision to break up many large failing high schools has achieved some early success.
2002年起（纽约）新创办的47所小型公立高中，毕业率明显高于全市平均水平。迹象表明，布伦伯格行政部门“小型高中撼动大型高中”举措，已经初见成效。
Most of the schools have made considerable advances over the low-performing large high schools they replaced. Eight schools out of the 47 small schools graduated more than 90 percent of their students. One campus of small schools at the old Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, for example, reported a 92 percent four-year graduation rate this month. In 2002, 40 percent of its students graduated.
很多小型学校，跟大型学校的日薄西山相比，取得了相当可观的进步，并有取代之势。47所小型高中中的8所，毕业率超过了90%。比如说，布鲁克林（美国纽约西南部的一个区）的老伊拉兹马斯·霍尔学校内2002年变身为一所小型高中，这个月公布的报告说它的毕业率高达92%，而在2002年只有40%。
The announcement appeared to solidify the first signs of progress in the city’s new small schools that came last year when a group of 15 schools that opened in 2002 graduated their first senior classes.
有15所在2002年创立的小型学校，去年迎来它们的首届高中毕业生。（小型学校毕业率高的）结果表明，纽约大力发展小型学校的战略，取得了初步成功。
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has made small schools a centerpiece of his efforts to overhaul the public education system in the belief that a more close-knit environment — and schools with themes like health, diversity, arts or architecture — will serve students more effectively than the large and often chaotic high schools they replaced.
小型化学校是纽约市市长迈克尔·R·布伦伯格的成就，可以审视公立教育系统跟周边环境的关系：在学校的健康、多样性、文科或建筑学等方面，小型高中可以比大型、混乱的高中给学生提供更有效的教育。
On average, the 47 small schools reported 73 percent of their students graduating this June, compared with the city’s calculations of an overall 60 percent graduation rate in 2006, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced yesterday.
教育长官约尔·I·克莱侬29日公布，今年6月，47所小型学校报告了它们73%的平均毕业率，跟2006全市平均毕业率60%多一点相比，明显高出。
The city and the state have traditionally disagreed about New York City’s graduation rate, and the state calculated last year’s graduation rate at 50 percent, below what the city reported. Still, both say that there have been jumps in performance. Mr. Klein said that using the state’s method of calculation, the 47 small schools had a slightly lower average graduation rate of 71 percent.
州政府并不认同纽约市统计的毕业率，去年州政府统计的（纽约市）毕业率是50%，比纽约市报告的要低。但它们都称自己的统计是建立在研究基础上的。克莱侬说，如果用州政府的统计方法，47所小型高中的毕业率要比71%还低一些。
New York City’s results are closely watched because of the size of its experiment. Marie Groark, a spokeswoman for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has put millions of dollars into small schools, said the foundation was encouraged by the data released yesterday.
纽约市的（毕业率）统计结果备受关注，因为那是此次实验（小型学校）的规模决定的。比尔-梅林娜基金会曾向小型学校实验投入百万美金，它的发言人玛丽·格劳阿科昨天表示，看到毕业率超过其他大型学校，基金会倍受鼓舞。
“I think it demonstrates that this problem is solvable,” she said. “Schools that New York City has taken leadership in developing are a critical element in any city’s strategy in improving high school graduation rates.”
她说：“我认为小型学校证明了问题是可以解决的，在提高高中毕业率方面，纽约市率先搞小型化学校（取得的成就），可以看成是对其他市（教育）战略的一种批评。”
To publicize the results, Mr. Klein went to the Evander Childs High School campus in the Bronx, long one of the city’s most dangerous and dysfunctional schools. It once housed 3,300 students, and in 2002, the four-year graduation rate was just 31 percent. This year, Mr. Klein said that three new small schools in the building graduated 80 percent of their seniors.
为了宣扬成绩，克莱侬先生来到纽约北端的布朗克斯区，伊万达高中校园，它一度是纽约市最危险和最难搞的学校。2002年时，它的学生高达3300人，4年制高中的毕业率才31%。今年，克莱侬先生说伊万达高中拆分成3所小型高中，毕业率达到了80%。
Mr. Klein, speaking in the library of Evander Childs, where, he added, his mother was a student 60 years ago, said that while there is much more work to be done, the data showed that the schools are working. “All indications are that we are making enormous progress,” he said. “I believe we’re going to see more and more students graduate.”
克莱侬先生在伊万达高中的图书馆演讲，他还说，自己的妈妈60年前是个学生，她说“当时有很多很多的工作要做，数据显示学校是在工作的”。克莱侬说：“所有迹象都表明我们获得巨大成功，我相信我们将会看到越来越多的学生毕业。”
Others were more skeptical, pointing out that the small schools enroll few special education students or students with limited English proficiency, who typically drag down graduation rates.
有些人则抱着质疑的态度，他们指出，小型学校招收了少数要接受特殊教育或并不精通英语的学生，正是这些人拉低了小型学校的毕业率。
David C. Bloomfield, the president of the citywide parent council on high schools and an education professor at Brooklyn College, said he was reluctant to draw conclusions from the small schools’ graduation data. “These schools are artificial environments,” Mr. Bloomfield said in an interview. Mr. Bloomfield filed a complaint with the United States Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights last year about the policy of allowing small schools to exclude some students during their early years.
纽约市家长委员会主席、布鲁克林学院的教授戴维·C·布卢姆菲尔德说，他很难从小型学校的毕业率中得出结论。在接受采访时，他说：“这些学校是人造的环境。”布卢姆菲尔德先生曾就美国教育部人权办公室去年允许小型化学校可以拒绝招收一些学生，表示不满。
Mr. Klein acknowledged that the small schools have fewer students with disabilities and limited English. But he said that in other ways the schools were serving an educationally disadvantaged population. He said that more than 90 percent of the students attending the small schools are either black or Hispanic, compared with the citywide average of 72 percent, and that more of the students in small schools come from poor backgrounds.
克莱侬承认小型化学校里有少数残疾、英语不好的学生，但他认为从另一个角度看，那样做照顾了困难人群的受教育权。如果跟全市72%的比率比起来，克莱侬说90%到小型学校的学生都是黑人或西班牙裔，小型学校的大部分学生都有家境贫寒的背景。
Ron Chaluisan, the vice president for programs at New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit group that has helped create more than 30 schools in New York City, said the special education students enrolled in the small schools have had a high rate of success.
公立学校新视野计划，一个帮助纽约创立超过30所学校的非盈利性组织，它的副主席罗恩·查路易珊说，要接受特殊教育的学生被招收进入小型学校后，有更高的成功几率。
“I think that the classes do take on many of the challenges that face high schools,” he said.
他说：“我想（小型学校毕业率高的）结果，呈现了高中教育面临的诸多挑战。”
The first batch of small schools, which began opening in 2002, were funded by the New Century High Schools project, a $30 million collaboration among the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the Open Society Institute. The Gates Foundation has pumped more than $100 million into city schools.
2002年开始创立的第一批小型学校，是由“新世纪高中项目”资助的，比尔盖茨-梅林达基金、卡内基公司和社会开放研究所投入了3000万美金。在城市学校方面，盖茨基金已经接连投入超过了1亿美金。
Last June, the Department of Education announced results from the first graduating class of those 15 new small high schools that opened in 2002. Those schools posted an average 73 percent graduation rate, with a handful reporting high graduation rates and others having low rates. The graduation rate at those 15 schools was largely unchanged this year, the education department said.
去年6月，教育部宣布了15所2002年开办的新小型高中的毕业率，这些学校毕业率超过了73%，大大拉开了与只有较低毕业率的其他高中的距离。教育部说：“那15所小型高中的毕业率，今年几乎没有大的变化”。
Even as they were cheering the results yesterday, some experts wondered if a high school diploma is enough. The Carnegie Corporation announced at the news conference a $10 million grant to help high school students prepare for college, with the goal of doubling the number of students who enter college.
面对昨天公布的结果，尽管有很多欣喜的声音，一些专家却惊奇地质疑：“高中教育是否已经足够？”卡内基公司在新闻发布会上声称，他们将拿出1000万美金，去帮助那些高中毕业后准备上大学的学生。
Michele Cahill, a director at the Carnegie Corporation who had previously been a senior aide to Mr. Klein, said part of the grant will be devoted to tracking graduates for the first two years after high school to see how well they perform.
卡内基公司的一名主管、克莱侬先生先前的高级助手米切尔·卡西尔说，他们将对高中毕业后、第一二年内的学生进行跟踪调查，看看他们到底表现如何。
“We want them not to stop, but to go on to the next phase,” said Vartan Gregorian, the president of the Carnegie Corporation.
卡内基公司的总裁瓦谭·格里格瑞恩说：“我们希望他们永远不要停止（学习进修），继续完成下一步。”
延伸阅读：
小型学校的6种模式
根据美国教育研究者瑞威德、史莫勒在《并非易事》(Not So Easy Going)的研究，美国的小型学校共有6种结构模式，其中第二、五、六种结构模式和“校中校”有关。
第一种结构的代表是纽约。由学区成立的独立的办公室来专门负责小型学校。这种结构由纽约时任教育官员托尼·奥瓦拉多于1983年提出。
第二种结构的代表是费城。1994至2000年，费城把入学人数超过400人的学校划分成小的学习共同体，每一部分都由一位校长负责。这种结构的好处是每个学生都会取得进步，弱点是进步较慢。
第三种结构的代表是波士顿。其结构模式是，把由教师协会发起、监督机构支持的11所小型学校，作为全市小型学校创意和理念之源，并为学生和家长提供选择机会。
第四种结构的代表是芝加哥。在芝加哥，小型学校由学校委员会支持，但近来得到的支持在下降。小型学校的权威性和发言权没有上述几个城市大。
第五种结构的代表是夏威夷。小型学校改革是在个体学校层面上，在校长的发动下而不是在学区这一层面来实现的。
第六种结构是近来最普遍的结构——草根模式，代表是波特兰和俄勒冈州的某些城市。在这些城市，一个教师团体或者一个家长和教师团体决定去建立“校中校”，其每一个安排都要和校长进行谈判。相比而言，这种模式也许最不牢固，因为一切都取决于校长的喜好。