英国仍有许多“课堂作业”要做

政客们往往喜欢高调、雄心勃勃的改革，而把细节丢在一边，结果往往令人失望。与其美化学校的“面子工程”，不如静下心把注意力放在教室里面。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

reform革新；重新组成[rɪ'fɔːm]

OECD经济合作与发展组织

tinkering铸补，熔补['tɪŋkərɪŋ]

curricula课程[kə'rɪkjʊlə]

pupil学生；未成年人['pjuːpɪl; -p(ə)l]

Britain still has a lot more homework to do（559 words）

By FT View

Politicians tend to obsess over high-profile,ambitious reforms,while brushing details aside. The results often disappoint. This is certainly true of British education policy,where too much effort has focused on devising new school structures and standards. The pedestrian question of what happens in the classroom has received less attention. This has been a mistake.

For all the reforms of recent decades,the latest Pisa results show that the performance of Britain’s students has not improved over the past decade. In Scotland and Wales,performance fell in the most recent exams. The tests,undertaken by the OECD every three years,compare the skills of more than half a million 15-year-old students in maths,reading and science across 72 countries. Britain has emerged from the rankings above the OECD average but lagging far behind east Asia,Canada and northern Europe.

If tinkering by well-meaning ministers were enough to lift up student results,Britain’s schools would lead the world. Almost every successive education minister has tried to improve testing and curricula,revise school structures and give more hand-holding to struggling schools — all that with the objective of making Britain one of the world’s top-five performers. They are right to try. Over time,poor instruction will hurt any country that relies,as Britain does,on a skilled and educated population for economic prosperity.

The power of international tests is that they allow approaches that work in one place to be tried in another. One general lesson is that spending more on education in rich countries does not buy better student results. The UK pays more than $115,000 per pupil from the age of 6 to 15,outspending many top performers.

Nor is it clear that the introduction of academic selection — as proposed under prime minister Theresa May’s plans to increase the number of grammar schools — would improve the record. The Pisa results show clearly that many countries that achieve outstanding results keep selection to a minimum.

What distinguishes top performers is their strong focus on what happens inside the classroom. They prioritise high-quality teaching over smaller classes. Students thrive when they are exposed to good teaching. It is surprising that this common sense notion needs reinforcement,but it does.

Simple in principle,achieving classroom success is not easy in practice. It means recruiting good teachers,motivating them to stay on,devising robust curricula and giving every pupil the same chance to succeed in school. According to a recent survey,four in five schools across the UK struggle to retain teachers,and two in five teachers in England are planning to leave the profession in the next five years.

The success stories say that excellent teachers stay on when they are given opportunities to grow with continuous support and pedagogical training. The government should also build on the success of imaginative initiatives that work to this end,such as TeachFirst which encourages university graduates to go into teaching.

Government ministers should be embarrassed to be reminded of Britain’s stagnant performance with each batch of Pisa results. For all the structural reforms,the quality of classroom teaching has been the hardest factor to prioritise. A handful of positive examples across the country,notably in London,show that concentrated efforts and resources make change possible. It is time for ministers to focus on what matters most. The future prosperity of the UK is at stake.

1.Where does British education policy focus on for the most part?

A. devising new school structures and standards

B. what happens in the classroom

C. students’mistakes

D. the type of math

答案(1)

2.If the OECD’s performance test was undertaken in 2015,when will be the next happen?

A. 2016

B. 2018

C. 2030

D. 2030

答案(2)

3.What is the power of international tests as mentioned?

A. international influence

B. comprehend by analogy

C. international influence

D. doing an aggressive sales pitch

答案(3)

4.How many percent of UK schools are struggling to retain teachers?

A. 20%

B. 40%

C. 60%

D. 80%

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.devising new school structures and standards

解释：事实上英国的教育政策把过多的注意力放在设计新的学校结构和标准上，而不是关注真正在教室发生了什么。

(2) 答案：B.2018

解释：这个针对15岁学龄青少年的调查每三年一次。

(3) 答案：B.comprehend by analogy

解释：国际测试的动力在于，在这个地方生效的方法可以拿来在另一处尝试，即举一反三、触类旁通。

(4) 答案：D.80%

解释：更关注教室内的情况在实践起来并不容易，根据最近的一项调查，英国境内五分之四的学校面临“教师荒”，五分之二的教师子啊5年之内有离职计划。