國際學生評估美國被數學拖了後腿

Fifteen-year-olds in the United States score in the middle of the developed world in reading and science while lagging in math, according to international standardized test results being released on Tuesday.

據上週二發佈的國際標準化測試結果顯示，在發達國家中，美國15歲學生的閱讀和科學成績位居中游，而數學成績較爲落後。

While the performance of American students who took the exams last year differed little from the performance of those tested in 2009, the last time the exams were administered, several comparable countries — including Ireland and Poland — pulled ahead this time.

美國學生去年的成績與2009年（上一次考試時間）相差無幾，但包括愛爾蘭和波蘭在內的幾個類似國家這次卻大有進步。

As in previous years, the scores of students in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea put those school systems at the top of the rankings for math, science and reading. Finland, a darling of educators, slid in all subjects but continued to outperform the averages, and the United States.

與往年一樣，上海、香港、新加坡、日本和韓國學生的成績依然讓這些學校系統位居數學、科學和閱讀榜單的前列。一向被教育工作者視爲寵兒的芬蘭在所有學科榜單上均有所下滑，但繼續高於平均值，以及美國。

The Program for International Student Assessment, commonly known as PISA, was administered to 15-year-olds in 65 countries and school systems by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that includes the world's wealthiest nations. Just over 6,100 American students took the exams.

國際學生評估項目（Program for International Student Assessment，簡稱PISA）由總部位於巴黎、成員包括全球最富裕國家的經濟合作與發展組織（Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development，簡稱OECD）負責組織實施，其評估對象爲65個國家和學校系統的15歲學生。6100多名美國學生參加了這項測試。

In the midst of increasingly polarized discussions about public education, the scores set off a familiar round of hand-wringing, blaming and credit-taking.

在公共教育大討論日益呈現兩極化的大背景下，美國學生的表現掀起了另一輪熟悉的反應：焦慮、指責和邀功。

"The United States' standings haven't improved dramatically because we as a nation haven't addressed the main cause of our mediocre PISA performance — the effects of poverty on students," Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, said in a statement.

“美國的位次並沒有顯著改善，這是因爲我們國家還沒有解決學生PISA成績平庸的主要原因——家境貧困對學生的影響，”美國最大的教師工會全國教育協會(National Education Association)會長丹尼斯·範·容克爾(Dennis Van Roekel)在一份聲明中如是說道。

Some scholars warned that the lagging performance of American students would eventually lead to economic torpor. "Our economy has still been strong because we have a very good economic system that is able to overcome the deficiencies of our education system," said Eric A. Hanushek, an economist at Stanford University. "But increasingly, we have to rely on the skills of our work force, and if we don't improve that, we're going to be slipping."

有學者警告說，美國學生的滯後表現最終將導致經濟陷於停滯。“美國經濟依然強勁的原因是，我們有一套非常好的經濟體系，它目前還能夠克服教育體系的不足之處，”斯坦福大學(Stanford University)經濟學家埃裏克·A·哈努謝克(Eric A. Hanushek)說，“但我們必須越來越多地依賴勞動力的技能，如果我們不改善這一點，美國經濟就將滑落。”

The United States' underperformance was particularly striking in math, where 29 countries or education systems had higher test scores. In science, students in 22 countries did better than Americans, and in reading, 19 countries.

美國學生的數學成績劣勢尤其引人側目，有29個國家或教育系統的數學分數高於美國；22個國家的科學成績超過美國；在閱讀方面，19個國家排在美國前面。

The results painted a slightly different picture from tests administered to fourth and eighth graders in 2011 through the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Those results indicated that the United States was about on par with international averages.

這些成績描述的圖景，與國際數學和科學趨勢研究中心（Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study，簡稱TIMSS）2011年面向四年級和八年級學生的測試結果略有不同。TIMSS的測試結果顯示，美國與國際平均水平大體一致。

But both exams showed that the percentage of students who scored at the highest levels in math and science was much greater in several Asian and European countries.

不過，這兩項測試均顯示，幾個亞洲和歐洲國家的高分學生比重顯然比美國高得多。

In the United States, just 9 percent of 15-year-olds scored in the top two levels of proficiency in math, compared with an average of 13 percent among industrialized nations and as high as 55 percent in Shanghai, 40 percent in Singapore, and 17 percent in Germany and Poland.

在美國，僅有9%的15歲學生在數學測評中獲得兩個最高的精通層級，遠低於工業化國家的平均比重(13%)，而上海學生的這一比重高達55%，新加坡爲40%，德國和波蘭爲17%。

Jack Buckley, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, noted that American students from families with incomes in the highest quartile did not perform as well as students with similar backgrounds in other countries.

美國國家教育統計中心(National Center for Education Statistics)專員傑克·巴克利(Jack Buckley)指出，家庭收入位居最高四分位數的美國學生的表現不如具有類似背景的其他國家學生。

Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the liberal Economic Policy Institute and a fellow at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, said he put little stock in the PISA results. He said educators and academics should "stop hyperventilating" about international test rankings, particularly given that students are already graduating from college at higher rates than can be absorbed by the labor market.

自由派智庫經濟政策研究所(Economic Policy Institute)副研究員、加州大學伯克利分校法學院(University of California, Berkeley School of Law)研究員理查德·羅斯坦(Richard Rothstein)表示，他不大信任PISA測評結果。他說，對於國際測試排名，教育工作者和學者“沒必要倒吸一口冷氣”，特別是鑑於目前的大學畢業率已經超過了勞動力市場的吸收能力。

Others criticized recent efforts to reform public education by using measures like student test scores to evaluate teachers. Such policies "contribute to an environment in which young people who are making decisions as to whether they can go to work at a place like Google or the school down the street simply won't consider going into teaching," said Marc S. Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, a nonprofit think tank.

其他人批評近期用學生考試成績等指標評估教師的公立教育改革措施。這樣的政策“促成了一種環境，使得那些正在做出就業決定——究竟是去谷歌(Google)這樣的公司，還是去街上那所學校上班——的年輕人根本不會考慮從事教學工作，”非營利性智庫美國國家教育經濟中心(National Center on Education and the Economy)總裁馬克·S·塔克(Marc S. Tucker)這樣說道。

An increasingly vocal group of parents, teachers, union leaders and others have also objected to a focus on standardized tests at the expense of values like creativity.

家長、教師、工會領導人和其他人也越來越直言不諱地反對學校以犧牲創造力等價值爲代價，一門心思地提升學生的標準化考試能力。

"The question is, can we walk and chew gum at the same time?" said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education policy group. "There's no reason why we can't keep the creativity that we value while also teaching kids how to do math better."

“問題是，我們能不能一邊走路，一邊嚼口香糖？”保守派教育政策智庫托馬斯·B·福德姆研究所(Thomas B. Fordham Institute)執行副總裁邁克爾·J·彼得裏利(Michael J. Petrilli)說，“我們爲什麼不能繼續培養我們珍視的創造力，同時又教會孩子們如何提高數學成績呢？”