The Billion-Dollar Problem in Education | Tanishia Lavette Williams | TED

翻译人员: Laixi Kang 校对人员: Yip Yan Yeung

We have a very expensive habit

我们有一个代价昂贵的习惯，

of creating and administering standardized assessments.

即创建并实行标准化考试机制。

Do you remember taking tests in school?

你还记得在学校参加考试吗？

Yeah, yeah you do.

记得吧。

Chances are, you may have been one of those people who said,

你很可能还这样说过：

"I'm going to stay up all night, I'm going to study.

“我要通宵达旦学习。

I'm going to read all these things.

我要把这些都读完。

And if I can just remember 25 more of these vocabulary words,

而且，如果我能 再记住 25 个这样的词汇，

the probability of my score goes up 2.3 percent."

我的分数概率就会上升 2.3％。”

Or maybe, maybe you were one of those ones who said,

或者你曾经是说这种话的人：

"If I just lay this book on my head,

“如果我把这本书放在头上，

the words will automatically seep into my brain."

书里面的知识就会自动渗入我的大脑。”

No matter either situation,

无论哪种情况，

you knew that the outcome of those assessments

你都知道这些考试的结果

would play a very important role in your future.

将对你的未来 发挥非常重要的作用。

So chances are,

如果你在美国 50 个州中的任何一个州长大，

if you grew up in any of the 50 states in America,

you participated in standardized assessments.

你很可能参加过标准化考试。

In fact, depending on where you live,

实际上，你居住的地方 有可能从三年级开始就实行标准化考试，

you may have started in third grade

and then tested every year until you graduated.

年年如此，一直到你毕业。

Now, as a nation,

尽管我们整个国家

even though we didn't really embrace this notion of written assessments

真正接受书面评估这一概念 是在 1845 年前后，

until around 1845,

Dr. William Reese teaches us that this process,

威廉·里斯博士 （Dr. William Reese）指出，

this notion of labeling and compartmentalizing children,

这种给儿童贴标签划分优劣的概念

started long before that, something like 150 years.

早在其大约 150 年前就开始了。

And I did the math.

我算了算。大家想想看。

Think about it.

We were testing and labeling children before we were a country.

我们对儿童的测试和分类 甚至早于我们国家立国。

It's a process that has always been embedded in our cycle

这一行为在我们的教学中根深蒂固。

of teaching and learning.

It's as American as apple pie.

它和苹果派一样根植于我们文化之中。

And that's some expensive pie, because let me tell you,

这个派还不便宜呢， 因为让我告诉你，

the standardized testing industry is a billion-dollar industry.

标准化测试行业 是一个价值十亿美元的行业。

It's used as a mechanism to define racialized achievement gaps,

它被用作定义种族化成就差距，

to dictate student promotion,

决定学生升学，

to disseminate school resources

分配学校资源，

and sometimes decide if it’s a “good” school or a “bad” school.

有时甚至决定了学校的好坏。

Now, once upon a time,

曾几何时，

I was a school and district leader, and I did the back-of-the-envelope math.

我是一名学校和学区领导， 那时我做了粗略的计算。

And I've got to tell you, in my career,

我得告诉你，在我的职业生涯中，

I've interfaced with, I've participated

我接触、参与过

in something like 203,760 standardized assessments.

大约 20 万 3760 次标准化测试。

And that's a low-ball count.

这还是保守估计。 我可是正儿八经在工作。

I was working, listen, I was working, and one thing I learned,

在我的工作中我学到一件事，

one thing I learned from my teachers and from my students,

从我的教师们和学生们那里学到一件事，

is that my students actually learned more and performed better,

那就是，学生们实际上 在非考试期间学习、表现得更好，

and my teachers were actually much better pedagogues in times of non-testing

老师们同样也在非考试时期 教学效果更好，

as opposed to high-stakes testing.

比高压应试时期要好得多。

Right?

对吧？

So here's the reality.

这就是现实。 以下是我面临过的一些问题。

Here's some of what I faced.

Have you ever seen a student collapse into tears

你有没有目睹过一名学生

因为记不起来那些 “一事无成的总统”而泪流满面？

because she could not remember the “Do-Nothing Presidents?”

Or what about the student who --

或者是——

this is what I'm saying, you've seen it?

对，大家见过吧？

I’ve seen it, I seen’t ’em.

我见过这些学生。

Or have you ever interfaced with a student who literally broke into hives?

你有没有遇到因为压力巨大 而起满疹子的学生？

And, I mean, we had to call in the nurse to put ice packs on this baby's chest

我们当时必须叫护士 拿来冰袋放在这个孩子的胸口，

because he could not participate in that makeup exam

因为他无法参加补考，

because he had to go to college,

因为他必须上大学的话，

and he needed that test score by that date.

需要在截止日期之前拿到考试成绩。

I've also had students

我还遇到过一些学生，

who were more willing to punch each other in the face,

甚至宁愿和同学大打出手，

to literally get into a fight,

卷入斗殴，

rather than to sit down and participate in a paper-pencil test.

而不是坐下来参加纸笔测试。

It ain't right.

这很有问题。

Now people say that money is the root of all evil.

人们总说金钱是万恶之源。

But I've got to be honest, as an educator,

但我必须说实话，作为一名教育工作者，

I don't think that standardized assessments are too far off.

我认为标准化测试也半斤八两。

Audience: Mhm.

观众：嗯。

TW: Mhm.

威廉姆斯：嗯。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Standardized assessments, as a form of accountability,

标准化测试作为一种问责形式，

do not improve teacher practice.

并不能改善教师的教学。

They don't build thinkers and creators in students.

它们也不会培养学生成为 思想家和创造者。

Now, what if I told you

如果我告诉你，

that the quality of education that we offer to students

我们可以提高向学生提供的教育的质量，

can be improved through a strategic disinvestment in standardized testing

只需通过战略性地减少标准化考试

as a form of accountability?

作为一种问责制度呢？

Now, in one of my roles,

我担任过教育分层研究员，

I serve as the Education Stratification fellow

at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy.

就职于种族、权力与政治经济学院。

I know, you like my title, I like it too.

我知道你们喜欢这个职位的名字。 我也喜欢。跟其他人说说吧。

Tell somebody.

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I study the construct of race.

我研究种族的结构。

I look at rankings and status and distributions of power.

我察看排名、地位和权力的分布。

I examine political economies.

我研究政治经济学。

And all that's really, really fancy.

这些东西听起来都很高大上。

But what it really means is that I look at income and wealth

直白点说，我通过教育和其成果

as pertaining to education and its outcomes.

研究收入以及富裕程度。

So for the last 10 years or so,

在过去 10 年左右的时间里，

I've worked in and researched New York City schools.

我一直在纽约市的学校工作和研究。

Now, with the understanding that history class is the place

我知道历史课是学生最常

where students most often come into contact

接触世界各地文化的地方，

with the world and its cultures,

I thought, well, let's start there.

我便想从这里开始。

United States history and all of its accompanying exams.

美国历史及其附带的所有考试。

So in New York, like in most places,

在纽约，就像大多数地方一样，

there are standards that dictate all of the skills

有各种标准来衡量 我们希望学生获得的所有技能。

that we want students to acquire.

There's a curriculum that lays out the who, what, when, where, why,

课程会详细列出

the people, the places, the things that we want to expose students to.

我们想让学生了解的人、事、物，

And there’s an assessment that says:

然后标准化评测会列出

these are all the important things

我们必须确保学生们 需要在年底之前学到的重要知识。

that we've got to make sure these kids know by the end of the year.

These three documents serve as the foundation

图中这三份文件

upon which the US history curriculum has been curated in New York.

是纽约州规划美国历史课程的基础。

Now this, this is a visual depiction

而这些是

学生在上这节课时会看到的一些图片。

of some of the imagery that our students see

when they participate in this class.

And you may know some of these images

你可能认识其中的一些图片，

because they were pulled directly from textbooks.

因为它们是直接从教科书中选的。

We don't have time to go through the entire curriculum in this format,

我们没有时间把整个课程都过一遍，

so I've organized the data a little differently for you.

所以我用不同的方式 为大家整理了一下数据。

This data visualization uses squares to represent males,

这里，数据可视化 使用正方形代表男性，

circles to represent females,

圆形代表女性，

triangles to represent our non-binary

三角形表示非二元性别，

and diamonds for everything that doesn't fit in a gendered category.

菱形表示其它不列入以上分类的性别。

Now, in terms of color,

在颜色方面， 我们使用了一系列肤色。

we've used a spectrum of skin hues.

We've also used our census denotation,

我们还使用了人口普查标记，

so our white folks are represented by that lightest pigmentation.

白种人以最浅的颜色为代表。

And then when we get all the way to the other end,

颜色的另一端

the richest, the most melanated, the darkest of the colors

可以看到最浓重、深沉的颜色

that's associated with our Black and African Americans.

用来代表黑人及非裔美国人。

This visualization shows you each and every topic

这份数据按时间顺序向大家显示了

that we want to expose students to over the course of the year,

我们希望在一年中 向学生介绍的每个主题。

in chronological order.

So we're going to dig a little deeper,

我们现在来深入看看， 我想重点关注这些人物。

and I want to zero in on the people.

But the beat I want to take here

但我想强调的是，

is that it's not just people that we randomly stumble across,

学生学到的不仅仅是人名， 更是这些人的身份、

it's who they were,

what their contribution was to the story of US history,

他们对美国历史所作出的贡献、

what their narrative is and how it fits with this history course.

他们的故事 及其如何融入这门历史课程。

So these are the people that we actually study in this course,

这些是我们在本课程中学到的人物，

sorted by race and gender.

按种族和性别排序。

Now we've got a good concept of what we teach in that class

现在我们能够清晰了解到 这个课程教授的内容，

or what we expose students to.

我们让学生接触到的知识。

We have a good concept of the people who surface in that class.

我们对在该课程中提到的人物 有了很好的认识。

Now I want to look at assessments

现在我们来看看考试内容，

and remember, assessments pull out the most important information

请大家记住，考试考的是 我们希望学生知道的最重要的信息。

that we want our students to know.

So this visualization shows us the people

这份可视化数据向我们展示了

who are of most importance

最常考的人物，

on that multiple-choice exam in August 2023.

示例为 2023 年 8 月的单选题考试。

This is June 2023,

这是 2023 年 6 月的试卷。

this is January 2020,

2020 年 1 月，

and this is 2019.

和 2019 年。

So when we look at all of this data set together,

我们将所有这些数据集合在一起，

and the significance of looking at all four years

这样集合看四年的数据是因为

is that this is that last cohort.

这是最后筛选下来的人。

These are the students that we pushed out into the world.

这些学生是要走向世界的，

And this is what we most wanted them to remember regarding US history.

而这些是我们最想让他们 在美国历史上记住的人。

The people, the people whose narratives really told the tale.

这些人的故事才是最重要的故事。

And I have a wondering,

我想问的是， 有一些故事会不会被忽略了？

might some narratives be missing?

Because I've got to be honest,

因为我得说，

there's a distinguishable amount of white squares.

白色方块的数量相当多。

So when we look into the curriculum,

因此，当我们研究课程时，

when we dig a little deeper and we look at that in a bar graph format,

当我们更深入地研究数据， 并将它们做成柱状图时，

we can see where some of that inequity actually begins.

我们可以看到不平等的起源。

Can you see it now?

这样你能看到吗？

So this is the part, this is the part that's easy.

这还是简单的部分。

You look at my data set, you can see that.

只需看看这份数据集，你就能看出来。

There are also parts that you can't see as closely.

还有很多是你看不见的。

These pieces that have become rituals of normalcy.

很多潜在的问题已成为常态。

They manifest themselves in pieces

它们可能体现在

like racialized hierarchies of intelligence,

种族化的智力等级上，

like legislative wars over what students should and should not read,

体现在关于学生应该读什么 和不应该读什么的立法大战上，

like millions of dollars in and out of curriculum companies

体现在课程设计公司

as they curate a story of the United States.

讲述美国的故事时 数百万美元的收支上。

Like wealth and income inequities amongst people of color.

还体现在有色人种之间的财富 和收入不平等上。

Now, an irony of these assessments,

关于这些考试还有我们 收集到的数据的讽刺之处在于，

or the data that we glean from these students,

is that it actually feeds more into a political economy

它对政治经济的影响实际上大于

than it does classroom instruction.

它对课堂教学的影响。

It's like the whole utility,

标准化考试这个系统的意义 完全消失了。

the whole function of those standardized assessments gets lost.

Reason being, we are not forefronting building teacher capacity

原因是，在此过程中，我们并没有 优先考虑提升教师能力

or deepening students' knowledge

或加深学生的知识。

in the process that we’re using.

And we are spending billions of dollars to do that.

而我们为此花费了数十亿美元。

Now I used to say,

我以前说，我们会把成功的颜色

I used to say that the color of achievement,

we can look and we can associate it with hues classified by race.

和种族的肤色联系起来。

But maybe,

但是也许成功是绿色的。

maybe the color of achievement is green.

Now, the way that we are currently rolling out these assessments

我们目前实行这些标准化考试的方式

results in an inadvertent focus on a very specific,

导致人们无意中 将注意力集中在一个非常具体、

a very laser-point focused point of view

非常微小的焦点上，

that will not equip our students to be ever-evolving citizens

而这并不会助我们的学生 成为不断进步的公民，

in this crazy society that continues to change.

以应对这个不断变迁的社会。

We have created a memorization test

我们创建的不过是记忆力测试，

where the most likely answer is the white male.

试题答案大概率是某个白人男性。

So I said it at the onset,

因此，我一开始就说过，

and I feel compelled to say it again:

现在我想再说一遍：

I believe that the quality of education that we offer to children

我相信我们可以提高学生教育的质量，

can be improved through a strategic disinvestment

通过战略性地减少

in leveraging standardized assessments as a form of accountability.

标准化测试作为一种问责形式。

What we're doing right now does not build thinkers.

我们现在的方式不能培养思想家。

We need tinker thinkers.

但我们需要改造家、思想家。

What we're doing right now does not build creators,

我们现在的方式不能培养创作者，

and we need creators.

而我们需要创作者。

So imagine,

大家想象一个世界，

imagine a world where all of the minutes of the instructional day

其中，教学日的每一分每一秒，

are used in service of creating the people who are going to run society.

都被用来培养将来管理社会的人。

The radical solution is an economic one.

解决方案很激进，但是也很经济。

Shift the focus of assessments back into the classroom,

我们将考试的重点重新转移回课堂，

where the teachers can use it to make pedagogical decisions,

教师可以利用考试做出教学决策，

and where the students can be informed

学生可以利用考试

about what they know and what they don't know.

了解他们知道和不知道的内容。

So for my federal and my state policymakers,

各位联邦和州决策者，我的方案是，

sample test.

抽样测试。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Understandably, you would love a mathematical equation

我知道，你们肯定巴不得 有个数学方程式，

that allows you to put every single decimal point

能让你在电子表格上 把数据精确到小数点，

on that spreadsheet,

but I assure you,

但我向你保证，

you do not have to test every single American child

你没必要让美国每一个小孩

112 times in their compulsory school years

在义务教育阶段接受 112 次考试，

for you to decide that the school up the street needs more books.

只为你做出某某学校 需要更多书籍这一决定。

Sample test.

抽样测试。

It's easier, it's cheaper, it's faster,

它更容易执行，更便宜，也更快，

and it gives way more instructional hours back into the instructional day.

并且可以将更多教学时间返还给教学日。

For my local districts and my school boards,

各位地区与学校董事会成员，

it's OK to have standards.

制定标准是可以的。

I have standards,

我也有标准，

but I need you to prioritize standards over standardization.

但我希望大家优先考虑标准 而不是标准化。

We do not need to test every single child the same exact way,

我们不需要以完全相同的方式 测试每个孩子，

particularly if that way does not bring out that child's gifts or skills.

尤其是如果这种方式无法 体现孩子的天赋或技能。

Say it after me.

大家跟我一起说。

Standards.

标准。

Audience: Standards.

观众：标准。

TW: Over.

威廉姆斯：大于。

Audience: Over.

观众：大于。

TW: Standardization. Audience: Standardization.

威廉姆斯：标准化。 观众：标准化。

It sounds like a button, right?

听起来像胸针上的标语，对吧。 我该做一些的。

I should get some buttons made.

I should get some buttons made.

Now for my principals,

各位校长，

oh, this is fun because I had this gig.

有意思，我之前也是个校长。

Principals, you need to resource your teachers.

各位校长，你需要为你的教师提供资源。

There are a lot of things in the building that you cannot control,

学校里有很多事情是你无法控制的，

but one thing you can control is ensuring that your teachers, your staff,

但是你可以控制的一件事是 确保你的教师、员工、

your crew have every single resource

工作人员拥有有效完成工作

and skill that they need to do their job effectively

所需的所有资源和技能，

and that they're making good on that,

并确保他们在这方面能做到最好，

that they are doing their jobs effectively.

能有效地完成工作。

And know that every time you interact with a teacher,

而且要知道，每当你与教师互动时，

every time you build that teacher's capacity

每当你培养老师的能力时，

and give that teacher what he, she or they need,

每当你向老师他们所需要的东西时，

they are working with a child,

请记住他们在培养某个孩子，

and that child will go out to solve the problems of the world.

而那个孩子会长大， 去解决世界上的问题。

Now for my teachers,

各位老师，

you actually have a really fun job as well.

你实际上也有一份非常有趣的工作。

You get to ask the questions that no one knows the answers to.

你可以问那些没人知道答案的问题。

And here's the thing, you can't be wrong because nobody knows the answer, right?

正因为没有人知道答案， 所以你也并不必担心犯错。

You get to pose unfathomable scenarios,

你可以提出深奥新奇的问题，

all in pursuit of cultivating those thinkers of tomorrow.

以助我们培养未来的思想家。

Because the problems, the questions

因为这些问题，

for which we don't have answers today

这些我们目前尚不能解答的问题，

become the catalyst to the solutions that we need for tomorrow.

能推动我们找到未来所需的解决方案。

I'm going to say it again.

我再说一遍。

The questions that are unanswered today

目前我们尚不能解答的问题，

serve as the catalyst for the solutions that we need for tomorrow.

能推动我们找到未来所需的解决方案。

That's how we cultivate a growing society.

这就是我们培育成长型社会的方式。

That's how we build thinker tinkers.

这就是我们培养思想家、改造家的方式。

The innovations that we need for tomorrow have yet to be conceived,

我们未来所需的创想尚不明晰，

but they can start, my teachers, in your classroom, under your watch.

但老师们，它们可以在你的教室里， 在你的目光下开始成形。

Now for my students, my families,

各位学生、各位家长，

my community members and everybody else,

各位社区成员和其他所有人，

I need you to hold folks accountable.

我需要你们大家都负担起责任。

One thing history teaches us

历史教会我们，

is that we cannot sit back and wait for those empowered to make policy

我们不能袖手旁观， 等待那些当权者制定包容性的政策。

that is inclusive.

Policy changes, curriculum changes,

政策的变革，课程的变革，

people changes can come from the people

人员的变革可以来自于人民群众，

and be for the people.

为人民群众服务。

And people work.

而人民群众集体的工作就是一项好工作。

People work, that's good work.

So let's do some of that people work together.

所以我们大家一起行动吧。

Divest in standardized assessments

减少标准化测试，

and invest in humanity.

增加我们对人的投入。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Cheers and applause)

（欢呼声和掌声）