父母研究如何提高孩子的大学的前景

 　　GWEN IFILL: Now: how some Los Angeles schools are trying to improve students' college prospects¹ by focusing directly on their parents.

　　One organization is committing substantial resources to teaching parents how to make higher education an important goal for their offspring.The NewsHour’s April Brown has our report, part of our American Graduate project.

　　APRIL BROWN: It's a lovely Saturday morning at Markham Middle School in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts². And Nadia Solis is taking 8-year-old Darlene and 6-year-old Alexander to a classroom on the campus.

　　While her oldest children and other kids play in a large room, Solis and her mother, Sofia Orgeta, arestarting their second year of college, Parent College.

　　NADIA SOLIS, mother: My kids came home with a brochure and they were like, you need to attend this workshop.

　　APRIL BROWN: Darlene and Alexander had one motive³ to get their mother into the classroom. If she went, they would earn a day to wear street clothes and not uniforms at school.

　　But, as it turns out, Darlene and Alexander are getting much more than they bargained for, including amom enthusiastic about homework.

　　NADIA SOLIS: We shouldn't give them the attitude, oh, come on, let's do homework. You know, like, hey, let's do homework so we can spend time together.

　　APRIL BROWN: And they now have a mom who talks about college.

　　NADIA SOLIS: I never thought I should introduce college right about now, but I should have when they were kids, when they were babies, for them to have an idea of what they are going to expect of life.

　　APRIL BROWN: Raising expectations and graduation rates are why Solis, a single mother and high schooldropout, joins dozens of other parents from her community here. They spend one Saturday each month during the school year at Parent College learning about learning in classes that are held in both Englishand Spanish.

　　Martha Maitchoukow, an English teacher at Markham during the week, leads the one Solis attends. Maitchoukow covers a lot of material, including the importance of reading and college preparedness. But there is one thing in particular she stresses to every parent.

　　MARTHA MAITCHOUKOW, Parent College: The success of your child depends on the strength of our triangle, you, the parent, your child and me. I cannot do it by myself. You cannot do it by yourself. Your child cannot do it by himself or herself.

　　APRIL BROWN: Research over the past 20 years and conventional wisdom have both held that parental⁴ involvement has a positive impact on a child's education.

　　But a report out this year has linked it directly to higher academic achievement, the outcome Parent College is striving for in this community. Sociologist⁵ Toby Parcel of North Carolina State University co- authored the study:

　　TOBY PARCEL, North Carolina State University: The bonds children have at school, the school environments, the positive relationships between teachers and principals, those are important things.

　　It turns out, though, that the bonds that the parents form with their children around the subject of schoolwork, those bonds are three to four times more important, and I think that's maybe what parents don't always understand.

　　APRIL BROWN: The key, according to Parcel, is continuous involvement, and the sooner the better.

　　TOBY PARCEL: Prioritizing this type of activity and continually reinforcing that the parent feels theschool is important and expects the child to put out effort and engage beginning early in the child's schooling⁶, that's where I think we get the greatest dividends⁷.

　　APRIL BROWN: And that is precisely⁸ the aim of Parent College, which primarily serves families in Watts, Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles.

　　In 2007, some of the lowest-performing schools in the Los Angeles Unified⁹ School District were slated¹⁰ for turnaround efforts. Educating and empowering parents became key strategies in improving academic achievement in these 17 schools, which serve 16,000 students.

　　Solis' children attend 99th Street Elementary, one of the 17 schools now managed by the nonprofit Partnership¹¹ for Los Angeles Schools. The organization works within the L.A. Unified School District, but has more autonomy and leverages¹² support from outside funders and partners; 89 percent of children in Partnership schools are Latino; 95 percent are eligible¹³ for free and reduced lunch, and nearly a third are English-language learners.

　　Saskia Pallais, the partnership's director of family and community engagement, says parents often don't know how to help children reach their full potential.

　　SASKIA PALLAIS, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools: What we wanted to do with Parent College was address some of the basic needs that our parents were experiencing.

　　Many of them never went to college. Many of them don't know the U.S. education system. Many of them never graduated from high school. And so we wanted to make sure that they understood what the U.S. education system is like and what are the requirements for their child to be able to graduate from high school and go to college.

　　APRIL BROWN: Claudia Ramirez teaches eighth grade English and Parent College at Hollenbeck Middle School. She uses a class exercise to illustrate¹⁴ just how large an educational challenge their community is facing. First, Ramirez asks all the parents to stand.

　　WOMAN: You're representing the high schoolers in LAUSC.

　　APRIL BROWN: Then she instructs roughly half to sit down.

　　WOMAN: So, half of you guys, this half sitting is not graduating.

　　APRIL BROWN: As the exercise continues, just one remains¹⁵ standing¹⁶.

　　WOMAN: The only that was able to graduate from college.

　　APRIL BROWN: Ana Rojas, a student in the class, is here to make sure her two kids buck¹⁷ that trend.

　　ANA ROJAS, mother (through interpreter):I want to learn more every day. I want to use what I learn to help my kids at home, be like an additional teacher at home. Today, I learned I have to be more attentive¹⁸ so that they will go to university one day and distinguish themselves as good professionals.

　　APRIL BROWN: Still, there is a long way to go before the Rojas children and all those attending partnership schools will be ready to graduate high school. But CEO Joan Sullivan says significant progress has been made.

　　JOAN SULLIVAN, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools: Over the past five years, the partnership isthe highest-performing system in the state among all mid-to-large systems.

　　APRIL BROWN: Sullivan believes investing 10 percent of the partnership's budget on family and community engagement is money well spent and one of the reasons test scores are improving.

　　JOAN SULLIVAN: The reality is that our parents really are our students' first and most important teachers. And unless we invest in embracing and developing a relationship with them, we're not going to find the kind of success we ultimately want.

　　APRIL BROWN: It turns out Nadia Solis has had a success of her own since starting Parent College, earning her GED. Daughter Darlene provided a much-needed push one day after Solis stressed the importanceof studying hard and going to college.

　　NADIA SOLIS: Her answer to me was, if you didn't finish high school, why are you telling me? Well, what is this that I have to do it?

　　I just gave her a simple -- a simple answer of, well, I just couldn't. But the minute that I had Parent College the next week, it was my first question to my teacher: What can I do to get my GED?

　　APRIL BROWN: Solis is now looking forward to Parent College's big event in the spring, Family University Day, where they will tour a local campus and learn about qualifications and financial aid.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: American Graduate is a public media initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

1 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

2 watts   

（电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• My lamp uses 60 watts; my toaster uses 600 watts. 我的灯用60瓦，我的烤面包器用600瓦。
• My lamp uses 40 watts. 我的灯40瓦。

3 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

4 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

5 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

6 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

7 dividends   

红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金

参考例句：

• Nothing pays richer dividends than magnanimity. 没有什么比宽宏大量更能得到厚报。
• Their decision five years ago to computerise the company is now paying dividends. 五年前他们作出的使公司电脑化的决定现在正产生出效益。

8 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

9 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

10 slated   

用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Yuki is working up an in-home phonics program slated for Thursdays, and I'm drilling her on English conversation at dinnertime. Yuki每周四还有一次家庭语音课。我在晚餐时训练她的英语口语。
• Bromfield was slated to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. 布罗姆菲尔德被提名为美国农业部长。

11 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

12 leverages   

促使…改变( leverage的第三人称单数 )； [美国英语]杠杆式投机，（使）举债经营，（使）利用贷款进行投机

参考例句：

• Additionally, this approach leverages the benefits of incremental and full backups. 除此之外，这一个作法也使渐近式以及完全的备份变得容易。
• A simple formula for building mutual value-creating relationships with consumers leverages dialogue, data, and insights. 与客户建立共同的价值创造关系，一条简单的准则就是利用对话、数据和洞察力。

13 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

14 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

15 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

16 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

17 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

18 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。