疫情影响 全美学生成绩出现“历史性倒退”

疫情下美国教室内的空桌椅（图源CNN）

Math and reading scores for 9-year-olds in the US fell between 2020 and 2022 by a level not seen in decades, a foreboding sign of the state of American education two years after the Covid-19 pandemic began.

2020年至2022年间，美国9岁儿童的数学和阅读成绩下降幅度“几十年未见”，这是新冠疫情开始两年后美国教育状况的一个不祥征兆。

The results were part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend reading and math exams, often called the “Nation’s Report Card,” conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The exams were administered to age-9 students in early 2020 before the pandemic and then again in early 2022, the group said.

该结果取自美国国家教育统计中心(National Center for Education Statistics)进行的“国家教育进步评价(NAEP)” 中阅读和数学测验水平的长期趋势，这一结果通常被称为“国家成绩单”。该组织表示，这些测验是在2020年初疫情之前对9岁学生进行的，然后在2022年初再次进行。

The average scores in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in math compared to 2020 – the largest decline in reading since 1990 and the first ever decline in math, the organization said.

该组织表示，与2020年相比，2022年的阅读平均分下降了5分，数学平均分下降了7分，这是自1990年以来阅读成绩下降最大的一次，也是数学成绩首次出现下降。

US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told the media that the drop in scores was connected to the lack of in-person classroom education during the Covid-19 pandemic and said the US is in an education crisis.

美国教育部长米格尔·卡多纳对媒体表示，成绩下降与疫情期间缺乏面对面的课堂教学有关，美国正处于一场教育危机中。

“That is very alarming. It’s disturbing. But it’s not surprising, keeping in mind a year and a half ago over half of our schools were not open for full-time learning.” he said, “All schools are now open for in-class learning. In-person learning is where we need to focus. We need to double-down our efforts."

“情况堪忧，令人不安，但并不奇怪。要知道一年半以前，我们一半以上的学校还没有恢复全天的线下教学。”他说，“现在所有学校都开放课堂学习，而这种面对面的学习是我们需要关注的，我们必须加倍努力。”

戴口罩的美国学生登上校车（图源AP）

Except for the schoolchildren, those applying to universities are no better off. The national average American College Testing (ACT) score for 2022 high school graduates fell to 19.8 out of 36 in 2022, the lowest average score recorded in over 30 years.

除了学龄儿童，那些申请大学的学生也没有好到哪去。2022年美国大学入学考试(ACT)的全国平均成绩为19.8分(满分36分)，创下了30年来的最低值。

“The ACT tests students in English, math, reading, and science and has college-readiness benchmarks, which correlate to the likelihood that a student will succeed in first-year college-level courses based on their score in a given subject.

ACT测试学生的英语、数学、阅读和科学，并提供了大学入学的基准分数，这关乎学生在大学一年级课程中能否取得好分数。

The magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming, as we see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting the college-readiness benchmark in any of the subjects we measure, “said ACT CEO Janet Godwin.

ACT首席执行官珍妮特·戈德温说：“今年的下降幅度尤其令人担忧，因为我们看到，越来越多的高中生在毕业时各科目的成绩均未达到对应的大学入学基准。”

Overall, 42 percent of seniors tested across the nation met none of the college-readiness benchmarks, nearly double the 22 percent who passed all four. As for getting a four-year bachelor’s degree, only 44 percent of students who did not pass any of the benchmarks completed their degree, 30 percent less than those who passed all four areas.

总体而言，全国有42%的高中毕业生没有达到任何大学的入学基准，几乎是达到全部四项基准的人数（占比22%）的两倍。而在没有通过任何一项基准的学生中，只有44%完成了四年制的学士学位，比通过全部四科的学生少30%。

Some states were in a better situation. Connecticut students fell behind during the pandemic, but not more than their peers across the country, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress test.

有一些州的情况相对较好。根据NAEP，在疫情期间，康涅狄格州的学生成绩虽然有所退步，但退步程度小于他们的同龄人。

However, education officials there also find something worth thinking. Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, and Jan Hochadel, president of AFT CT, cautioned that the results are simply a snapshot in time.

然而，那里的教育官员也发现了值得思考的因素。康涅狄格州教育协会主席凯特·迪亚斯和该州教师联合会主席简·霍查尔德提醒道，这些结果仅仅是短期内的。

“The NAEP results highlight the continued effects of COVID-19 on our students and confirm what educators have been saying for more than two years,” Dias and Hochadel said. “The pandemic exacerbated existing gaps in opportunity and learning experiences between students in well-funded schools and those in chronically underfunded schools. The impacts on students of color, English learners and students with disabilities were particularly acute.” 

“NAEP的结果强调了新冠病毒对学生们长远的影响，也证实了教育工作者们在这两年内一直在反映的情况。”迪亚斯和霍查尔德说道，“疫情扩大了资金充足的学校学生和资金长期不足的学校学生间的，在机会和学习经验方面的差距。尤其对于有色人种学生，（非英语母语的）英语学习者和残疾学生而言，这种影响是非常严重的。”

They added that teachers “need the support and cooperation of policymakers and education officials, not guidance that permits ineffective approaches like dual teaching, requiring educators to simultaneously teach both in-person and remote students.”

他们补充道，教师们“需要决策者和教育部门官员的支持与合作，而非一些无效方法的指导，例如‘双重教学’——要求教育工作者同时教授线下和线上的学生。”

“Despite the countless obstacles that students faced over the course of the pandemic – including instability at home, decreased access to resources, teacher shortages, cyberbullying, and an uptick in violence once schools reopened – we also see pockets of remarkable resilience across the country, particularly in the country’s urban districts,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of NCES.

“尽管学生在疫情期间面临无数阻碍——包括家庭的不稳定、获得资源的机会减少、教师短缺、网络欺凌和返校后暴力事件的增加——但我们也同时看到全国各地，特别是城市地区，有着极强的适应力。” 美国国家教育统计中心专员佩吉·卡尔说道。

“But academic recovery cannot simply be about returning to what was normal before the pandemic, as the pandemic laid bare an opportunity gap that has long existed,” Carr said. “It also showed how every student was vulnerable to the pandemic’s disruptions. We do not have a moment to waste.”

“但学业上的复苏不能仅满足于恢复疫情爆发前的正常状态，因为疫情凸显了机遇鸿沟这一长期存在的问题。”卡尔说，“这也表明，每个学生都很容易受到疫情的破坏性影响，我们一刻也不能浪费。”