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每天一篇ECO的分析
Rebuildingthe American dream machine
FOR America's colleges, January is a monthof reckoning(计算、估计、清算). Most applications for the next academic year beginning in theautumn have to be made by the end of December,so a university's popularity is put to an objective standard(有一个客观标准): how manypeople want to attend. One of the more unlikely(不大可能的)offices to have been flooded(淹没、充满) with mail is thatof the City University of New York (CUNY), a public college that lacks, amongother things, a famous sports team, bucolic campuses and raucous(沙哑的、粗糙的) parties (理解为喧嚣的排队)(it doesn't even have dorms), and, until recently, academiccredibility.
A primary draw at CUNY is a programme forparticularly clever students, launched(开始于) in 2001. Some 1,100of the 60,000 students at CUNY's five top schools receive a rare(少) thing in the costly(昂贵的) world of Americancolleges: free education. Those accepted by CUNY's honours programme pay notuition fees; instead they receive a stipend (薪俸)of $7,500 (to helpwith general expenses) and a laptop computer. Applications for early admissionsinto next year's programme are up 70%.上升70%
Admission has nothing to do with being anathlete, or a child of an alumnus(校友), or having aninfluential sponsor(赞助), or being a member ofa particularly aggrieved(受虐待的、受侵害的) ethnicgroup—criteria that are increasingly important(日益重要) at America'selite colleges. Most of the students who apply to the honours programme comefrom relatively(相对的) poor families,many of them immigrant ones. All that CUNY demands is that these students bediligent and clever.
Last year, the average standardised test(标准化考试) score of this group was in the top 7% (前…%)in the country. Amongthe rest of CUNY's students averages are lower, but they are now just breaking into(挤进、冲进) the top third (compared with thebottom third(倒数前三) in 1997). CUNY does not appear alongside (与…比肩)Harvard and Stanford on lists ofAmerica's top colleges, but its recent transformation offers a neat(整洁的)parable(寓言故事) of meritocracy(知识界精英)revisited(再访问、再现).
Until the 1960s, agood case could be made (一个好例子)that the best deal in American tertiary (第三级的)education was to befound not in Cambridge or Palo Alto, but in Harlem, at a small public schoolcalled City College, the core of CUNY. America's first free municipal(市的)
university,founded in 1847, offered its services to everyone bright enough to meet its gruelling standards(严格的标准).
City's golden era came in the last century,when America's best known colleges restricted the number of Jewish studentsthey would admit at exactly the time when New York was teemingwith (丰富的)the bright children of poor Jewish immigrants. In 1933-54 Cityproduced nine future Nobel laureates, including the 2005 winner for economics,Robert Aumann (who graduated in 1950); Hunter, its affiliated(联合的) former women'scollege, produced two, and a sister branch in Brooklyn produced one. Cityeducated Felix Frankfurter, a pivotal(关键的) figure (人物)on the Supreme Court (最高法院)(class of 1902), Ira Gershwin (1918),Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine (1934) and Robert Kahn, anarchitect of the internet (1960). A left-wing (左翼的)place in the 1930sand 1940s, City spawned many of the neo-conservative intellectuals who wouldlater swing to (转向)the right, such as Irving Kristol (classof 1940, extra-curricular(课外的) activity: anti-warclub), Daniel Bell and Nathan Glazer.
What went wrong? Putsimply(简单的说), City dropped its standards. It waspartly to do with (部分因为)demography(人口统计), partly to do with earnest muddleheadedness(认真的精神混乱?). In the 1960s, universities across the country (整个国家的)faced intense pressure to admitmore minority(少数民族) students. Although City was open toall races, only a small number of black and Hispanic students passed the stricttests (including a future secretary of state, Colin Powell). That, criticsdecided, could not be squared with (相一致)City's mission to“serve all the citizens of New York”. At first the standards were tweaked,(调整) but this was not enough, and in 1969 massive student protests shutdown City's campus for two weeks. Faced with upheaval(大动荡), City scrapped (丢弃)its admissions standards altogether. By1970, almost any student who graduated from New York's high schools could attend.
The quality of education collapsed. At first, withno barrier to (无障碍)entry, enrolment(登记) climbed, but in 1976 the city of New York, which was then in effect bankrupt(陷入实际上的破产), forced CUNY to imposetuition fees. An era of free education was over, and a university which hadonce served such a distinct purpose joined the muddle of America's lower-end (低档)education.
By 1997, seven out of ten first-yearstudents in the CUNY system were failing at least one remedial(补习的) test in reading,writing or maths (meaning that they had not learntit to high-school standard(学到高中标准)). A report commissioned by the city in 1999 concluded that “Central to (…的核心)CUNY's historic mission is acommitment to provide broad access, but its students' high drop-out rates andlow graduation rates raise the question: ‘Access to what?’ ”
Using the report as ammunition(弹药), profound reforms were pushed through(努力完成) by New York'sthen mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, and another alumnus, Herman Badillo (1951),America's first Puerto Rican congressman. A new head of CUNY was appointed.Matthew Goldstein, a mathematician (1963), has shiftedthe focus back towards (把焦点转向)higher standards amid considerablecontroversy(在争议中).
For instance, by 2001, all of CUNY's 11“senior” colleges (ie, ones that offer full four-year courses) had stopped offeringremedial education. This prompted(引起)howls(咆哮、不满)from the teaching faculty, who said it would “create a ghetto-like separation(贫民区般的)between levelsof colleges”, keeping black and Hispanic students out of the best schools. Infact, the racial composition of the senior schools, monitoredobsessively (执着的监视)by critics, has remained largely unchanged: one in four students atthe senior colleges is black, one in five is Latino. A third have ties to(连接、是) Puerto Rico, Jamaica, China and the Dominican Republic.
Admissions standards have been raised.Students applying to CUNY's senior colleges now need respectable(体面的) scores on either anational, state or CUNY test, and the admissions criteria for the honoursprogramme are the toughest (严格)in the university'shistory. Contrary to (与…相反)what MrGoldstein's critics predicted, higher standards have attracted more students,not fewer: this year, enrolment at CUNY is at arecord high(创新高). There are also anecdotal signs that CUNY is once again picking upbright locals(当地居民), especially in science. One advancedbiology class at City now has twice as many students as it did in the late1990s. Last year, two students, both born in the Soviet Union, won Rhodesscholarships, and a Bronx native who won the much sought-after(很吃香的)Intel Science Prize is now in the honours programme.
All this should not imply that CUNY is out of the woods.(走出泥潭) Much of it looks run down(走下坡路). CUNY's annual budget of $1.7billion has stayed largely unchanged(大致保持不变), even asstudent numbers have risen. With New York City's finances still precarious,city and state support for the university has fallenby more than one-third (下降了…)since 1991 in real terms. It has, however, begun to bring in privatemoney.
A new journalism school will open in theautumn, helped by a $4m grant from the Sulzberger family, who control the NewYork Times, and led by Business Week's former editor, Steve Shepard (class of1961). Efforts to raise a $1.2 billion endowment have passedthe half-way mark(成功了一半), helped by (formerly estranged) alumni. Intel's former chairman,Andrew Grove, who graduated from City in 1960 as a penniless(一文不名的)Hungarian immigrant, donated $26m (about 30% of City's operatingbudget) to the engineering school, calling his almamater(母校)“a veritable (真正的)American dream machine”.
There are broaderlessons to draw from(…有更多可学习的地方) CUNY, especially to do with creating opportunities in highereducation for the poor. Currently, only 3% of the students in America's topcolleges come from families in the lowest incomequartile(四分位数) and only 10% from the bottom half(中等), according to a studyby Anthony Carnevale and Stephen Rose for the Century Foundation. Most studentsare relatively well-off, and their numbers include plenty of racial minoritieswho receive preferential(优惠的) status independentof their economic circumstances.
For all its imperfections(不完美), CUNY's model of lowtuition fees and high standards offers a different approach. And its recenthistory may help to dispel the myth (杜撰出来的谬论)that highacademic standards deter students and donors. “Elitism”, Mr Goldstein contends,“is not a dirty word.”
生词: reckoning(计算、估计、清算
flooded(淹没、充满)
raucous(沙哑的、粗糙的)
launched(开始于)
rare(少)
costly(昂贵的)
stipend (薪俸)
alumnus(校友)
sponsor(赞助)
aggrieved(受虐待的、受侵害的)
bottom third(倒数前三
alongside (与…比肩)
neat(整洁的) parable(寓言故事
meritocracy (知识界精英)revisited(再访问、再现
tertiary (第三级的)
municipal(市的)
teeming with (丰富的)
pivotal(关键的) figure (人物)
Supreme Court (最高法院
left-wing (左翼
swing to (转向
extra-curricular(课外的)
demography(人口统计),
minority(少数民族
tweaked,(调整
upheaval(大动荡),
scrapped (丢弃
enrolment(登记)
lower-end (低档)
remedial(补习的)
ammunition(弹药)
howls (咆哮、不满
ties to(连接、是)
respectable(体面的)
toughest (严格)
locals(当地居民
out of the woods.(走出泥潭)
penniless (一文不名的
veritable (真正的
quartile(四分位数)
bottom half(中等
preferential(优惠的)
imperfections(不完美
myth (杜撰出来的谬论)
好用法:is putto an objective standard(有一个客观标准)
One of the moreunlikely
(有可能的
up 70%.上升70%
increasinglyimportant(日益重要
relatively(相对的) poor
was in the top7% (前…%)
breaking into(挤进、冲进
a good case could be made (一个好例子)that
gruelling standards(严格的标准).
affiliated(联合的)
Put simply(简单的说)
partly to do with (部分因为
across the country (整个国家的)
be squared with (相一致
The quality of education collapsed
with no barrier to (无障碍)
in effect bankrupt(陷入实际上的破产)
Central to (…的核心)CUNY's historicmission is
pushed through(努力完成
shifted the focusback towards (把焦点转向)
amid considerablecontroversy(在争议中).
prompted(引起)
ghetto-likeseparation(贫民区般的)
monitored obsessively(执着的监视
Contrary to (与…相反)
at a record high(创新高
sought-after (很吃香的)
run down(走下坡路)
stayed largelyunchanged(大致保持不变)
fallen by more thanone-third (下降了…)
passed the half-way mark(成功了一半)
There are broaderlessons to draw from(…有更多可学习的地方) |
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