991.10.28 How to Build A Better High School

United on the need, perhaps, but not on a course of action. The Bush administration, as part of its No Child Left Behind program, wants more accountability from high schools by requiring them to give annual tests in core subjects and show regular improvement in their results. At the National Education Summit in February, governors and business leaders focused on aligning the high-school curriculum with the demands of college and work. One of the speakers at that summit was Microsoft's Bill Gates, who called high schools "obsolete." He has made another approach, smaller schools, a major target of his philanthropy, with $734 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation going to support 1,500 new high schools with more personal attention. It's a tough sell, Gates says, in part because breaking up big schools "really messes up the football team."!

第三段：也許我們應該在需要上統一而不是對於一堂課的行動。英國的管理部門身為「有教無棄」方案的一員希望可以藉由要求他們交出每年核心課程的考試成績還要從他們的結果中顯示出標準的進步來從各個高中當中得到更多的可說明性。在二月的國際教育高峰會中，州長和商業的領袖們集中針對調整高中課程來應付大學和工作。其中一位在高峰會的發言人是微軟的比爾蓋茲，他曾經說過高中是“過時的”。他做過另外一個演講，「小型學校」是他慈善事業的其中一個主要對象，比爾和瑪琳達蓋茲基金會將會提供美金734百萬元來支持1500所新的高中來致力於個人的發展。比爾說,「這是一項困難的買賣」，因為某種程度上也是要打破大學校“真的把橄欖球隊搞砸了”！

As a college degree becomes ever more essential in the workplace, much of high-school reform centers on getting as many students as possible ready for higher education. That's what the NEWSWEEK List tries to measure by ranking schools based on participation in AP and IB tests written and graded by outside experts. In these courses, students prepare for the demands of college and can earn college credit if their scores are high enough. NEWSWEEK omitted schools with strict academic admission standards that exclude average students. Although there's much debate about the value of standardized tests and AP in particular, NEWSWEEK's List is based on the conviction that no other standard works as well to measure a high school's success at challenging all students to perform at a high level. AP is the better known of the two programs and is used all over the country. IB is less common. It's a series of college-level courses and tests, similar to AP, originally designed in Geneva for the children of diplomats and international business executives preparing for baccalaureate exams but now used in a range of U.S. schools to energize students.

第四段：當一張大學畢業文憑在工作職場當中變得更不可或缺時，很多的高中改革中心也希望讓更多的學生盡可能地預備好來受更高的教育。這也是NEWSWEEK列表嘗試要根據AP 和 IB紙筆考試的出席率和讓外面的專家來評分來測量出學校的排名。在這些課程當中，學生預備來應付大學的要求，而且如果他們的成績夠高的話他們就可以得到大學的學分。NEWSWEEK刪去學校藉由嚴格的學術許可標準來把中等的學生排除在外。儘管有很多的辯論是特別關於標準測試的價值和AP，NEWSWEEK的列表是以一個信念為基準，這個信念是也沒有其他的標準工作來測量一間高中的成功，而成功與否是在於挑戰所有學生在一個高的階段中的表現。AP是兩個方案之中較為人所知的，而且是可以普及被用於國家當中的。IB比較沒有這麼的普及。它是一系列大學階段的課程和考試，和AP類似，在最初是在日內瓦針對外交官和國際生意經理的小孩所設計預備可以通過學士學位考試的課程，但是現在被用於美國的學校範圍之中來激勵學生。