Part I Writing
On Excessive Packaging
Nowadays, the phenomenon of excessive packaging of goods is prevalent in our society. Wandering in the supermarkets, one might be dazzled by the fancy packaging of goods on the shelves. Although the government has concerned with the issue, the phenomenon still flourishes
PartⅡ Reading comprehension(skimming and scanning)15 minutes
Small Schools Rising
This year's list of the top 100 high schools shows that today, tho with fewer students are flourishing.
Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern, suburban high schools with students counted in the thousands. As baby boomers came of high-sch
ool age, big schools promid economic efficiency, a greater choice of cours, and, of cour, better football teams. Only years later did we understand the trade-offs this involved: the creation of lumbering bureaucracies, the difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping in 1963; today, on average, 30 percent of students do not complete high school in four years, a figure that ris to 50 percent in poor urban neighborhoods. While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-driven standards embodied in No Child Left Behind resulted in significantly better performance in elementary (and some middle) schools, high schools for a variety of reasons emed stuck in a rut.mistletoe
impressSize isn't everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has en a noticeable countertrend toward smaller schools. This has been fostered, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools—most of them with about 400 kids each, with an average enrollment of only 150 per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. 早上好英语
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Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif., is one of tho, ranking No. 423—among the top 2 percent in the country—on NEWSWEEK's annual ranking of America's top high sch
ools. The success of small schools is apparent in the listings. Ten years ago, when the first NEWSWEEK list bad on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating class smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full NEWSWEEK list of the top 5 percent of schools nationally, available , had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007.
主板维修培训Although many of Hillsdale's students came from affluent houholds, by the late 1990s average test scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate nickname "Hillsjail." Jeff Gilbert, a Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, remembers sitting with other teachers watching students file out of a graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment, "How did that student graduate?"
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So in 2003 Hillsdale remade itlf into three "hous," romantically designated Florence, Marrakech and Kyoto. Each of the 300 arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the hous, where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years, before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. The cloness this system f
马克笔手绘教程osters was reinforced by the institution of "advisory" class. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bullying and bad Saturday-night dates. The advirs also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents, so they are deeply invested in the students' success. "We're constantly talking about one another's advies, " says English teacher Chris Crockett. "If you hear that yours isn't doing well in algebra, or e them sitting outside the dean's office, it's like a personal failure." Along with the new structure came a more rigorous academic program; the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95. "It was rough for some, but by nior year, two thirds have moved up to physics," says Gilbert. "Our kids are coming to school in part becau they know there are adults here who know them and care for them." But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be en whether smaller schools will be a panacea.
The NEWSWEEK list of top U.S. high schools was compiled this year, as in years past, ascrewing
ccording to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams: Cambridge, International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. We count the total number of the tests taken at a school by all students each May, and divide by the number of graduating niors. Any school with a ratio of 1.000 or higher is placed on the NEWSWEEK list. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it's easy for readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools if they'd like.贸易配额
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Ranking schools within the list is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superintendents from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from the calculation. "It is impossible to know which high schools are 'the best' in the nation," their letter read, in part. "Determining whether different schools do or don't offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students' overall academic accomplishments and their subquent performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities."
