VOA慢速英语:How Much Should a Teacher's Job Depend on Test Scores?

Students in Washington, DC, will return to classrooms this month to begin a new school year. But at least five percent of their teachers will not return with them. Last month, the District of Columbia public schools told two hundred six teachers that they are not good enough to stay.
华盛顿特区的学生将在本月重返校园，开始新的学年。但是至少有5%的教师们不会和他们一起回到校。上个月，哥伦比亚校区公立学校告诉206名教师，他们的做得不够好，不能继续留在学校。

The school system dismissed seventy-five teachers last year. It was the first year of a new teacher rating system.
该学校体制在去年解雇了75名教师。这是新的教师等级评定系统实施的第一年。

Experts say such large numbers of dismissals are rare in American schools. But in Washington the rating system is not governed by the labor contract with the teachers union. So school officials have more freedom.
专家称，人数如此众多的解雇在美国学校中是相当罕见的。但是在华盛顿，该评级系统并不是由与教师工会签订的劳动合同管理的，所以，学校官员拥有更大的自由度。

The system is called IMPACT. Teachers are observed in the classroom five times a year for at least thirty minutes each time. They are also judged by student test scores.
该系统被称为IMPACT。教师每年在课堂上都要被监督至少五次，每次至少30分钟，同时还要通过学生的考试成绩来判断。

Administrators rated sixty-five of the two hundred six teachers as "ineffective." The others lost their jobs because they were rated "minimally effective" for a second year.
行政管理人员评定这206名教师中的65人为“无效的”。其他人失去工作岗位是因为已经连续第二年被评定为“最低效”。

The National Council on Teacher Quality is a research group that works to increase the number of effective teachers. Emily Cohen, a policy director there, says the council supports the IMPACT system.
全美教师质量委员会是一个研究小组，致力于增加高效的教师的数量。委员会政策主管Emily Cohen称，该委员会支持IMPACT系统。

EMILY COHEN: “This is an evaluation instrument that is finally able to capture who is highly effective and who is ineffective and who could be doing better and could use some assistance. Most evaluation instruments in the country do not capture teacher performance -- all teachers are rated satisfactory.”
Emily Cohen：“这是一个评估工具，最终能够鉴别出谁是高效的，谁是低效的，谁可以做的更好，谁应该获得一些帮助。该国大部分评估工具并没有获得教师的表现——所有教师都令人满意。”

Some Washington teachers say their ratings depend too heavily on test scores. For some teachers, half of their rating is based on how well their students do. But Emily Cohen says test scores are important.
一些华盛顿教师说，该评级系统大部分取决于学生的测试成绩。对一些教师来说，一半的评定等级基于学生的表现。但是Emily Cohen认为考试成绩非常重要。

EMILY COHEN: "Testing is probably one of the -- it’s the most objective data that we have on teacher performance. The District also is looking at other things, using master educators to evaluate teachers. So it’s not just looking at student test performance, it is using other sources of data."
Emily Cohen：“测试可能是我们对教师的表现最客观的数据。该区考虑其他方面，由专业的教育家来评估教师。所以，这套系统并不是只看学生的考试成绩，还使用了其他数据来源。”

Teachers with the highest rating -- "highly effective" -- can receive a performance bonus of up to twenty-five thousand dollars. In addition, they can receive a pay increase.
评级为“高效”的教师可以获得高达2.5万美元的奖金。另外，他们还可以加薪。

Almost sixty percent of the teachers who were rated "minimally effective" last year stayed in the school system and improved. School officials say these teachers received help to become better.
大约60%在去年被评为“最低效”的教师继续留在教育体系并且有所进步。学校官员称，这些教师得到了帮助，并且变得更好了。

Michelle Rhee created the IMPACT system. She gained national attention for her aggressive reform efforts when she led the troubled school system in the nation's capital. She left last year and her deputy, Kaya Henderson, took her place.
Michelle Rhee创建了IMPACT系统。她领导首都最糟糕的学校系统时大胆地进行改革，引起了全国的注意。她于去年退休，她的副手Kaya Henderson接替了她的工作。

The Washington Teachers Union says IMPACT unfairly hurts teachers who work in schools with high rates of poverty. The Washington Post reported that most of the teachers with the highest rating work in schools with lower poverty rates.
华盛顿教师工会称，IMPACT系统不公平地伤害了在贫困率比较高的学校工作的教师。华盛顿邮报报道称，获得最高评级的教师中大部分在贫困率较低的学校工作。