異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第177期:貧富學(xué)生的差距

The first graders from the wealthiest homes have a 32-point advantage over the first graders from the poorest homes, and by the way, first graders from poor homes in Baltimore are really poor.

來自富裕家庭的一年級學(xué)生以32分的優(yōu)勢高于那些來自貧困家庭的學(xué)生——順便提一下，巴爾的摩來自貧困家庭的學(xué)生的確很貧困。

But by fifth grade, four years later, that initially modest gap between the rich and the poor has more than doubled.

現(xiàn)在再看五年級這一列，這樣看下來，接著是四年級，最開始不太明顯的貧富學(xué)生間的差距開始成倍擴大。

This "achievement gap" is a phenomenon that has been observed over and over again and it provokes one of two responses.

這種差距已經(jīng)被多次留意到，并引起了兩種不同的反應(yīng)。

The first response is that disadvantaged kids simply don't have the same inherent ability to learn as children from more privileged backgrounds. They're not as smart.

第一個說法是，貧窮的孩子不像有錢孩子一樣擁有與生俱來的學(xué)習(xí)能力，他們不聰明；

The second, slightly more optimistic conclusion is that, in some way, our schools are failing poor children: we simply aren't doing a good enough job of teaching them the skills they need.

第二個更樂觀一點的說法是，同樣的，我們的學(xué)校中，那些貧窮的孩子之所以失敗，是因為我們沒有足夠多、足夠好地教給他們必要的技能。

But here's where Alexander's gets interesting, because it turns out that neither of those explanations rings true.

亞歷山大在研究中得到了一些有趣的結(jié)論，證明了這兩種說法都是不正確的。

The city of Baltimore didn't just give its kids the California Achievement Test at the end of every school year, in June.

在巴爾的摩，他們的學(xué)生沒有在6月份的期末測試中做加利福尼亞測試題。

It gave them a test in September too, just after summer vacation ended.

他們會在暑假剛剛結(jié)束之后的9月份進行另外一個測試，

What Alexander realized is that the second set of test results allowed him to do a slightly different analysis.

就是這第二套測試的結(jié)果讓亞歷山大得出了不同的分析。

If he looked at the difference between the score a student got at the beginning of the school year,

我們可以先看一個學(xué)生每個學(xué)期9月開學(xué)時的分數(shù)，然后再看他/她在接下來的6月份得到的分數(shù),

In September, and the score he or she got the following June, he could measure precisely how much that student learned over the school year.

這正好可以測到他或她在這個學(xué)期學(xué)到多少東西。

And if he looked at the difference between how a student scored in June and how they scored the following September, he could see how much the student learned over the course of the summer.

如果看到一個學(xué)生6月份的分數(shù)和接下來9月份分數(shù)的不同,就可以了解到這個學(xué)生暑假里學(xué)了多少課程。

In other words, he could figure out, at least in part, how much of the achievement gap is a result of things happened during the school year, and how much it has to do with what happens during summer vacation.

換句話說，他可以計算出——至少部分得出——有多少成績的差距和整年的校內(nèi)學(xué)習(xí)有關(guān)，又有多少差距和暑假中的學(xué)習(xí)有關(guān)。