VOA慢速英语:Should All Students in US Learn the Same Things?

More than forty of the fifty American states have approved what are known as the common core state standards. These are lists of content that students are supposed to learn at each grade level from kindergarten to high school.
美国50个州中超过40个认可了被熟知的共同核心州立标准。这是关于学生从幼儿园到中学每个年级应该学习的内容列表。

State governors and schools chiefs led the effort to develop the standards. The project involved teachers, administrators, experts and public comments. The final standards were released last June.
各州州长和学校校长领导制定了这些标准。参与这个项目的有老师，教育管理者，专家和公众评论。最终的标准定稿于去年6月公布。

Acceptance is voluntary. But acceptance helped states that entered President Obama's four-billion-dollar "Race to the Top" competition for school reform.
对这些标准的认可是以自愿为原则的。但是这有助于使各个州成为奥巴马总统为学校改革制定的40亿美元的“力争上游”计划中的一员。

The standards are for English language arts and math. More subjects may come later.
这些标准是面向英语语言艺术和数学。稍后将将向更多的学科开放。

Supporters say the standards provide clear goals to prepare students to succeed in college and in jobs. But critics of national standards say the idea goes against one of America's oldest traditions -- local control of education.
支持者称这些标准为学生准备在大学和工作上取得成功提供了明确的目标。但是国家标准的反对者称这个计划跟美国最古老的传统——当地控制教育相违背。

Political conservatives generally oppose federal intervention in schools. Yet it was a Republican president, George W. Bush, who expanded testing requirements to show that public schools are making yearly progress.
政治保守党通常反对联邦政府对学校的干预。然而，正是共和党总统乔治．W． 布什扩大测试要求表明公立学校每年都在进步。

Still, opponents of national standards call them "one-size-fits-all." They say the idea does not make sense for a country as large and diverse as the United States.
可是国家标准的反对者称之为“一刀切”。他们说这个计划对于像美国这样一个多元化大国是没有意义的。

One of those opponents is Bill Evers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California. He was an assistant education secretary under President Bush.
其中一名反对者是来自加利福尼亚斯坦福大学胡佛研究所的Bill Evers。他是布什总统时期的助理教育部长。

BILL EVERS: "We are having Washington, DC, having control and final say over, and supervision over and direction over, what is happening in the classrooms of America, in the public schools. Most changes, most positive influences have bubbled up from below.
Bill Evers：“我们任职于华盛顿特区，对美国公立学校，教室里所发生的事情的控制和决定得太多，监督和指导得太多。许多改变和积极影响已经从底下浮现出来了。”

"So it's closing the door on innovation by locking in a national, uniform bureaucratic system. But the states don’t have a problem in setting their curriculum -- they’ve been doing it ever since there've been public schools.”
“所以，这是通过锁定国家统一的官僚体制将创新拒之门外。但是各州在开设课程方面没有问题——它们从成为公立学校时就已经开设了课程。”

Richard Reilly was education secretary to President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Mr. Reilly says the federal government is not forcing the common core standards on states.
Richard Reilly是民主党人，他是比尔．克林顿时期的教育部长。Reilly称联邦政府并不强迫各州认可共同核心标准。

RICHARD REILLY:  "Conservatives would be concerned if we had federal-mandated common core standards. That’s not what we have. It’s a state-driven measure. High standards, challenging work for young people across the country. To be challenged to do and be the same, and not one way in Texas and another way in South Carolina."
Richard Reilly：“如果我们接受联邦政府所要求的共同核心标准，保守党将会担忧。那不是我们所想要的。这是国家推动的一项措施。整个国家的年轻人需要高标准，有挑战性工作。各个州都一样准备好迎接挑战，并不是在德克萨斯州实行一种方式，而在南卡罗来纳州实行另一种方式。”

Mr. Reilly says when he served in the nineteen nineties, he pushed states to develop their own statewide standards. But some of those standards were not very strong, he says, so he believes national standards are needed.
Reilly称，当他20世纪90年代在职时，他推动各州制定自己遍及全州的标准。但是，他说一些标准不是很有效，所以他觉得需要制定国家标准。

But Bill Evers says technology now makes it easier to develop individual learning plans to meet the different needs of students.
但是Bill Evers称，如今科技使制定个人学习计划满足学生不同需求变得更容易。

BILL EVERS: "If we put a bureaucratic hand on this, we will stifle the capacity for modern technology to give us a better shot at the students learning the material."
Bill Evers：“如果我们对此进行官僚干预，我们就会扼杀现代科技为学生学习资源提供更好尝试的能力。”

He says schools should worry less about a common curriculum and more about improving teacher quality.
他说学校应该少担心共同课程，而多考虑提高教师的质量。