The Silicon Valley Billionaires Remaking America’s Schools
Netflix、臉書等矽谷億萬富豪 再造美國學校
By Natasha Singer

In San Francisco’s public schools, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, is giving middle school principals $100,000 “innovation grants” and encouraging them to behave more like startup founders and less like bureaucrats.
在舊金山的公立學校，Salesforce公司執行長馬克．貝尼奧夫贈予中學校長10萬美元「創新獎金」，鼓勵他們作風要更像新創公司的創辦人，而不是官僚。

In Maryland, Texas, Virginia and other states, Netflix’s chief, Reed Hastings, is championing a popular math-teaching program where Netflix-like algorithms determine which lessons students see.
在馬里蘭州、德州、維吉尼亞州和一些其他州，網飛公司（Netflix）執行長里德．哈斯汀正支持一項廣受歡迎的數學教學計畫，以類似網飛的演算法決定學生看哪些課程。

And in more than 100 schools nationwide, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief, is testing one of his latest big ideas: software that puts children in charge of their own learning, recasting their teachers as facilitators and mentors.
而在全國100多間學校，臉書執行長馬克．祖克柏正在測試他最新的大構想之一：讓孩童自己負責學習的軟體，把老師的角色重新塑造為促進者和精神導師。

In the space of just a few years, technology giants have begun remaking the very nature of schooling on a vast scale, using some of the same techniques that have made their companies linchpins of the U.S. economy. Through their philanthropy, they are influencing the subjects that schools teach, the classroom tools that teachers choose and fundamental approaches to learning.
不過幾年的時間，科技巨擘已開始大規模再造學校教學的本質，借助於一些讓他們的公司成為美國經濟要角的相同技巧。他們透過他們的慈善事業影響學校教學的科目、教師在課堂上選擇的教學工具，以及學習的基本態度。

The involvement by some of the wealthiest and most influential titans of the 21st century amounts to a singular experiment in education, with millions of students serving as de facto beta testers for their ideas. Some tech leaders believe that applying an engineering mindset can improve just about any system, and that their business acumen qualifies them to rethink U.S. education.
一些21世紀最富有和最具影響力巨人的參與，構成了一種獨特的教育實驗，數以百萬計的學生實際上充當他們構想的測試者。一些科技領袖認為，運用工程思維模式能改進任何系統，而他們在商業上的聰明敏銳，讓他們有資格重新思考美國的教育。

“They are experimenting collectively and individually in what kinds of models can produce better results,” said Emmett D. Carson, chief executive of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which manages donor funds for Hastings, Zuckerberg and others. “Given the changes in innovation that are underway with artificial intelligence and automation, we need to try everything we can to find which pathways work.”
矽谷社區基金會為哈斯汀、祖克柏和其他科技老闆管理捐款基金，執行長艾梅特．卡爾森說：「他們正在進行集體和個別的實驗，以找出何種模式能產生更好的結果。既然人工智慧和自動化正在創新方面進行變革，我們有必要盡可能做所有嘗試，以找出可行的道路。」

But the philanthropic efforts are taking hold so rapidly that there has been little public scrutiny.
但這些慈善工作快速扎根，以致幾乎未受公眾監督。

Tech companies and their founders have been rolling out programs in America’s public schools with relatively few checks and balances, The New York Times found in interviews with more than 100 company executives, government officials, school administrators, researchers, teachers, parents and students.
科技公司和他們的創辦人在美國公立學校推出各種計畫，受到的制衡相當有限。紐約時報與100多名公司執行長、政府官員、學校行政人員、研究員、教師、家長和學生進行訪談後，發現這個現象。

“They have the power to change policy, but no corresponding check on that power,” said Megan Tompkins-Stange, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “It does subvert the democratic process.”
密西根大學公共政策助理教授梅根．湯普金斯-史坦吉說：「他們有權力改變政策，但缺少相對應的制衡。這的確推翻了民主程序。」

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/technology/education-partovi-computer-science-coding-apple-microsoft.html

Video：What Most Schools Don’t Teach
https://youtu.be/nKIu9yen5nc

2017-07-09．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 田思怡譯

說文解字看新聞 田思怡

美國科技公司老闆投入教育已成為趨勢，雖然各級學校都清楚他們不是單純做善事，也有自身的商業考量，但看在他們出錢出力，多半欣然接受。本文探討這些未受到檢驗的教學實驗是否真能改進教學。

本文第2段的champion是動詞，指捍衛、擁護、公開支持，例如，She championed the cause of civil rights.（她擁護民權運動）

第3段的facilitator是從旁指導、輔助的人，沒有適當的中文翻譯，一般翻為促進者，翻成督導可能更貼切，例如，The workshop’s facilitator kept discussion flowing smoothly.（研習會的督導讓討論進行順利）

第5段的a singular experiment，意思是獨特的實驗，singular有獨一無二、罕見的意思，例如，Singular things are always dear.（物以稀為貴）

第7段的take hold是生根、確立的意思，例如，This idea has taken hold.（這個觀念已確立）

Free Play or Flashcards? New Study Nods to More Rigorous Preschools
學前教育不能只是玩耍？ 家長嚇壞了
By Dana Goldstein

A group of students at Woodside Community School in Queens peered up at their teacher one morning this month, as she used an overhead projector to display a shape.
這個月的一個早晨，在皇后區的林邊社區學校，一群學生凝視著他們的老師，她正使用頭頂上的投影機打出一個形狀。

It looked like a basic geometry lesson one might find in any grade school, except for the audience: They were preschoolers, seated cross-legged on a comfy rug.
它看來像是你可能在任何小學看見的基本幾何課程，只不過聽眾有所不同：他們全是學齡前兒童，盤腿坐在舒適的地毯上。

“What attributes would tell me this is a square?” asked the teacher, Ashley Rzonca.
老師艾希莉．隆薩問道：「哪些特徵告訴我這是個正方形？」

A boy named Mohammed raised his hand, having remembered these concepts from a previous lesson. “A square has four angles and four equal sides,” he said.
名叫穆罕默德的男孩舉手，他上次上課時，記住了這些概念。他說：「正方形有四個角和四個等長的邊。」

As school reformers nationwide push to expand publicly funded prekindergarten and enact more stringent standards, more students are being exposed at ever younger ages to formal math and phonics lessons like this one. That has worried some education experts and frightened those parents who believe that children of that age should be playing with blocks, not sitting still as a teacher explains a shape’s geometric characteristics.
隨著全美的學校改革人士推動擴大公費學前幼兒園，並且制定更嚴格的標準，已有更多學生在越來越小的年紀即接受類似這個課程的正式數學和拼音課程。這讓一些教育專家憂心忡忡，也讓一些家長嚇壞了，那些家長認為這個年齡的孩童應該玩積木，不是安靜坐著聽老師解釋某個形狀的幾何特徵。

But now a new national study suggests that preschools that do not mix enough fiber into their curriculum may be doing their young charges a disservice.
不過，現在一項新的全國性研究指出，學前幼兒園若不將足夠的實質內容加入課程，可能是在傷害他們所照料的孩子。

The study found that by the end of kindergarten, children who had attended one year of “academic-oriented preschool” outperformed peers who had attended less academic-focused preschools by, on average, the equivalent of 2 1/2 months of learning in literacy and math.
研究發現，上完幼稚園後，那些曾上過一年「學術導向學前幼兒園」的兒童，表現優於上過較不以學術為焦點的學前幼兒園的兒童，平均而言，識字和數學學習成果前者領先差距相當於兩個半月。

“Simply dressing up like a firefighter or building an exquisite Lego edifice may not be enough,” said Bruce Fuller, the lead author of the study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. “If you can combine creative play with rich language, formal conversations and math concepts, that’s more likely to yield the cognitive gains we observed.”
研究由柏克萊加州大學研究人員完成，領銜作者布魯斯．富勒說：「只是裝扮成消防員，或堆砌一座精緻的樂高積木大建築也許已不足夠。若能將富有創造性的遊戲，與豐富的語言、正式的對話和數學概念相結合，那就更有可能產生我們觀察到的認知增長。」

The new wave of preschools provide playtime, but their major goal is academic “kindergarten readiness,” and the study could provide ammunition for policymakers who want to keep on that course. It could also help officials like de Blasio make the case for even more public spending on prekindergarten programs.
新一波的學前幼兒園有玩耍時間，不過主要的目標是成為學術上的「幼稚園的預備班」，而這項研究可為想要繼續這種作法的決策者提供彈藥。它還能幫助白思豪這樣的官員找到理由，為學齡前教育計畫提供甚至更多的公共支出。

Whether they will win over all parents is another question.
至於他們能否贏得所有父母的支持，另當別論。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/us/preschool-academics-study.html

2017-07-09．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 王麗娟