VOA慢速英语20060831a

EDUCATION REPORT - Importance of New Findings About Charter¹ Schools ArguedBy Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, August 31, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A new school year is beginning in the United States -- and with it comes new debate about charter schools. These are publicly financed² but privately³ operated schools. Charter schools can be found in most of the fifty states and Washington, D.C.


First-grade students at a New York charter school

The Department of Education says more than one million students attend charter schools. That compares to almost fifty million in traditional public schools.

A charter school might be fully⁴ independent or connected to the local school system. It might be operated by a non-profit group or a profit-making company.

In any case, charter schools do not have to follow all of the same rules as traditional public schools. They have greater freedom to decide what to teach and how to teach.

Class sizes may be smaller in charter schools, but the teachers often have less power through unions than in traditional schools.

The Bush administration supports charter schools as a choice for parents whose local schools are bad. But some education officials, parent groups and unions argue that the money spent on charter schools could help traditional schools improve.

Critics say studies so far have not shown enough gains for charter schools to justify⁵ the possible loss of resources from traditional schools. They say a study released last week by the Education Department only strengthened their arguments. Supporters of charter schools, however, found much to criticize in the study.

The study used test scores from the two thousand three National Assessment⁶ of Educational Progress. The researchers compared the scores of fourth grade students in charter schools with those in traditional public schools.

The traditional schools had an average score five points higher in reading and almost six points higher in mathematics than the charter schools.

But the study showed that charter schools connected with a public school system performed about the same as traditional schools. Fully independent charter schools had lower scores by comparison.

Supporters of charter schools say the results show nothing about student progress over time or about individual schools. And they say charter school students may not do well on tests because they came from terrible traditional schools.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can read and listen to archives of our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 charter   

n.特许状，执照，宪章；v.特许，发给特许执照

参考例句：

• This new law amounts to a tax evader's charter.这项新法律简直成了为逃税者开的许可证。
• We will charter a steamer to convey the goods.我们将租一艘船运送这批货物。

2 financed   

为…供给资金，从事金融活动( finance的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Capital expenditure can be financed by borrowing; operating expenditure should not. 资本支出可以靠借款，而运营费用不行。
• All purchases shall be financed with the proceeds of loan. 全部货款用贷款支付。

3 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

6 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？