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  3. Teachers are heroes, not villains, and it’s time to stop demonizing them. It has become fashionable to blame all of society’

Teachers are heroes, not villains, and it’s time to stop demonizing them. It has become fashionable to blame all of society’

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问题     Teachers are heroes, not villains, and it’s time to stop demonizing them.
    It has become fashionable to blame all of society’s manifold sins and wickedness on "teachers unions," as if it were possible to separate these supposedly evil organizations from the dedicated public servants who belong to them. Collective bargaining is not the problem, and taking that right away from teachers will not fix the schools.
    The fact is that teachers are being saddled with absurdly high expectations. Some studies have shown a correlation between student performance and teacher "effectiveness," depending how this elusive quality is measured, but there is a whole body of academic literature proving the stronger correlation between student performance and a much more important variable: family income. Yes, I’m talking about poverty. Sorry to be so gauche, but when teachers point out the relationship between income and achievement, they’re not shirking responsibility. They’re just stating an inconvenient truth.
    According to figures compiled by the College Board, students from families making more than $200,000 score more than 300 points higher on the SAT, on average, than students from families making less than $20,000 a year. There is, in fact, a clear relationship all the way along the scale; Each increment in higher family income translates into points on the test. Sean Rcardon of Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis concluded in a recent study that the achievement gap between high-income and low-income students is actually widening. It is unclear why this might be happening; maybe it is due to increased income inequality, maybe the relationship between income and achievement has somehow become stronger, maybe there is some other reason.
    Whatever the cause, our society’s answer seems to be: Beat up the teachers. We tend to believe that most of the teachers in low-income, low-performing schools are incompetent—and, by extension, that most of the teachers in upper-crust schools, where students perform well, are paragons of pedagogical virtue. But some of the most dedicated and talented teachers I’ve ever met were working in "failing" inner-city schools. And yes, in award-winning schools where "all the children are above average", I’ve met some unimaginative hacks who should never be allowed near a classroom.
    It is reasonable to hold teachers accountable for their performance, but it is not reasonable—or, in the end, productive’ to hold them accountable for factors that lie far beyond their control. It is fair to insist that teachers approach their jobs with the assumption that every single child, rich or poor, can succeed. It is not fair to expect teachers to correct all the imbalances and remedy all the pathologies that result from growing inequality in our society. Portraying teachers as villains doesn’t help a single child. Ignoring the reasons for the education gap in this country is no way to close it. And there’s a better way to learn about the crisis than going to the movies. Visit a school instead.
With which of the following statements regarding education would the author most likely agree?
选项 A、Most of the teachers in low-income, low-performing schools are incompetent.
B、Most of the teachers in upper-crust schools, where students perform well, are paragons of pedagogical virtue.
C、If all teachers are competent in one school has nothing to do with its overall student performance.
D、Teachers are accountable for achievement gap.
答案C
解析 本题考查考生对第五和第六两段内容的理解。作者在第五段驳斥了两种关于学校和老师跟学生成绩之间关系的普遍看法，AB选项即这两种看法，作者用自己的亲身经历指出这两种看法是不正确，并且有可能是恰恰相反的。因此AB选项错误。作者在第五段指出，公认的坏学校里也有很优秀的老师．而公认的好学校里也有非常差劲的老师，总结起来就是：是否一所学校里所有的老师都是能干的跟这所学校学生的整体表现没有关系，因此C项正确。作者在第六段一开始就指出，教师们不应该为那些自己不能掌控的因素负责，具体到本文的论点，也就是说教师不应该为学生学术表现的差距负责，这是他们掌控之外的因素，D项观点刚好跟作者观点背道而驰。
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