That means, when families decide where to live, one big factor is:

也就是說，當家庭決定住在哪裡的時候，有一個很大的因素就是。

How good is the school in the neighborhood?

附近的學校有多好？

So how do you figure that out?

那你是怎麼想出來的呢？

Well, you could visit the school...

好吧，你可以去學校看看... ...

See how the playground looks....

看看操場的樣子......。

Or ask friends about it.

或者向朋友打聽一下。

But all of these seem so imprecise.

但這些都顯得那麼不精確。

Plus, it's kind of weird to visit dozens of playgrounds.

另外，要去幾十個遊樂場，有點奇怪。

So, these days, you would probably Google the school.

所以，這幾天，你可能會谷歌學校。

And you'll almost certainly end up on this website:

而你幾乎肯定會在這個網站上結束。

GreatSchools.org. GreatSchools is a nonprofit school ratings website.

GreatSchools.org。GreatSchools是一個非營利性的學校評級網站。

They provide a number rating for almost every public school in America.

他們幾乎為美國所有的公立學校提供了一個數字評級。

The worst schools are a 1, and the best schools are a 10.

最差的學校是1分，最好的學校是10分。

There are other websites and organizations that rate schools, but GreatSchools is the big one.

還有其他的網站和組織對學校進行評級，但GreatSchools是大網站。

Well, we dug into the data to find out.

好吧，我們從數據中挖出了答案。

And what we found, is that this score often ends up showing something other than how good a school is.

而我們發現，這個分數往往最後顯示的不是一所學校的好壞。

GreatSchools started in the late 1990s.

GreatSchools始於20世紀90年代末。

They visited schools around the San Francisco Bay Area, and talked to each school's principal.

他們走訪了舊金山灣區的學校，並與每個學校的校長進行了交談。

But that method of profiling schools wasn't exactly scalable.

但這種剖析學校的方法並不完全可擴展。

They couldn't go visit every single school in the country.

他們不可能去參觀全國的每一所學校。

That would be prohibitively expensive; it was hard enough as it was.

這將是令人望而卻步的昂貴，因為它已經夠難了。

Matt Barnum is a reporter at Chalkbeat, a site that covers education.

馬特-巴納姆是Chalkbeat的記者，這是一個報道教育的網站。

He helped us report this story.

他幫我們報道了這個故事。

Going to every single school was just not a sustainable model.

去每一所學校都是不可持續的模式。

Then, in 2001, something huge happened for GreatSchools.

然後，在2001年，GreatSchools發生了一件大事。

Congress passed a national education law called "No Child Left Behind."

國會通過了一項名為 "不讓一個孩子掉隊 "的國家教育法。

No Child Left Behind required schools to give state standardized tests,

"不讓一個孩子掉隊 "要求學校進行國家標準化測試。

each year, in grades three through eight, to figure out how many of them

每年，在三至八年級，要計算出其中有多少人

met a standard called "proficiency."

達到了一個叫做 "熟練度 "的標準。

"Proficiency" is basically each US state's standard for what kids should know at a certain grade level.

"熟練度 "基本上是美國每個州對孩子們在某個年級應該知道什麼的標準。

So that gave them a lot of data to rate schools all across the country.

所以這就給他們提供了很多數據，讓他們對全國的學校進行評級。

After No Child Left Behind, GreatSchools had the numbers they could base their scores on.

在 "不讓一個孩子掉隊 "之後，GreatSchools有了可以作為分數依據的數字。

Today, they say this proficiency score is the biggest factor

今天，他們說這個能力分數是最大的因素。

in the ratings it gives each elementary and middle school; accounting for about half the score.

在它給每所中小學的評分中；佔了一半左右的分數。

But when we start looking at GreatSchools' data, we notice something.

但當我們開始看GreatSchools的數據時，我們發現了一些問題。

Here are basically all the public elementary and middle schools in Denver and a few of its suburbs.

這裡基本上是丹佛市及其幾個郊區的所有公立中小學。

With the help of journalists at Chalkbeat, we sorted them by the percentage of

在Chalkbeat記者的幫助下，我們按照比例對它們進行了排序。

low-income students in each school.

每所學校的低收入學生；

These schools have more low-income students,

這些學校的低收入學生較多。

and these schools have fewer.

而這些學校的人數較少。

Now, let's highlight the schools that got a GreatSchools rating of at least a 7, which is what they consider above average.

現在，讓我們強調一下那些獲得GreatSchools評級至少7分的學校，這是他們認為高於平均水平的。

You can see that almost all of these better-rated schools are more affluent.

你可以看到，這些評價較好的學校幾乎都是比較富裕的。

And this is true in basically every city from San Francisco to Detroit.

而從舊金山到底特律，基本上每個城市都是如此。

And this correlation also appears when we sort these schools by racial demographics.

而當我們按照種族人口統計學對這些學校進行分類時，這種相關性也會出現。

Here's Denver again. The schools on the left have more black and hispanic students,

這裡又是丹佛。左邊的學校有更多的黑人和西班牙裔學生。

and the schools on the right have fewer.

而右邊的學校則較少。

So which schools got a rating of 7 or above?

那麼，哪些學校得到了7分以上的評價呢？

It's schools with more white and Asian kids, who tend to come from more affluent neighborhoods.

是有更多白人和亞裔孩子的學校，他們往往來自更富裕的社區。

GreatSchools' ratings seem to confirm something that many people already assume:

GreatSchools的評級似乎證實了很多人已經假設的事情。

Here's the problem: That's not necessarily true.

問題是：這不一定是真的。

And to understand why, we need to look at one of the big issues with measuring proficiency.

而要了解原因，我們需要看看衡量能力的一個大問題。

America's neighborhoods are highly unequal.

美國的鄰里關係極不平等。

And when children show up to school in affluent neighborhoods,

而當孩子們出現在富人區的學校時。

that are mostly white and Asian, they're better-prepared for school

他們大多是白人和亞洲人，他們對學校有更好的準備。

than children in poor, mostly black and Hispanic areas.

比貧困地區（主要是黑人和西班牙裔地區）的兒童要好；

So when we look at proficiency, we're actually often measuring how prepared these kids were coming in.

所以當我們看能力的時候，我們其實往往是在衡量這些孩子進來的時候準備得怎麼樣。

Not what happens inside the school.

而不是在學校裡面發生的事情。

So, if proficiency is more about measuring the student than the school,

所以，如果說能力是衡量學生而不是學校。

how could we actually measure the school's performance?

我們如何才能真正衡量學校的表現？

Well, another common way of measuring schools is to see how much a school helps a student improve.

嗯，另一種常見的衡量學校的方法是看學校對學生的進步有多大幫助。

This is called a "growth score."

這就是所謂的 "成長分"。

Now, Growth is still just based on test scores, which not everyone is a fan of.

現在，《成長》還只是以考試成績為依據，並不是所有人都喜歡。

But it's how many schools prefer we measure them.

但這是多少學校喜歡我們衡量他們。

The principals I talked to felt that it was more fair to judge them on growth.

與我交談的校長們都覺得，以成長為標準來評判他們比較公平。

If you're a school that is serving a lot of students who are coming in at a low level, you could

如果你是一所學校，服務的學生很多，進來的學生水準不高，你可以

be doing a great job with those students, but it might not be showing up in proficiency.

在這些學生身上做得很好，但可能沒有表現在能力上。

Not all states report growth scores, which is a problem in itself. But most do.

並非所有的州都報告增長分數，這本身就是一個問題。但大多數州都會報告。

And growth scores show that there are many low-income schools that are pretty good.

而成長成績顯示，有很多低收入學校都是相當不錯的。

Here's every Denver school again.

這裡又是每一所丹佛學校。

And again, sorted by the percentage of low-income students.

再按低收入學生的比例排序。

And now, if we highlight the schools that have an above-average growth score,

而現在，如果我們突出那些增長分數高於平均水平的學校。

which is data we got from GreatSchools' own website,

這是我們從GreatSchools自己的網站上獲得的數據。

we can see that there are lots of schools in poor neighborhoods that are very good at educating their students.

我們可以看到，有很多貧困地區的學校，對學生的教育非常好。

And this is true in other cities, too: Like Indianapolis...

在其他城市也是如此。像印第安納波利斯...

and Detroit.

和底特律。

But in the GreatSchools rating system, growth only matters about half as much as proficiency does.

但在GreatSchools的評級體系中，成長的重要性只有能力的一半。

Which is why these schools are rarely rated highly,

這也是為什麼這些學校很少有高評價的原因。

even if they do a great job teaching students.

即使他們對學生的教學工作做得很好。

We talked to GreatSchools. They said the important thing

我們和GreatSchools談過。他們說，最重要的是

is that they give parents a "broader picture of school quality,"

是他們給家長提供了一個 "更廣泛的學校品質圖景"。

and that their site helps "underserved families" make good choices.

以及他們的網站幫助 "服務不足的家庭 "做出良好的選擇。

They also stressed that they've actually changed the rating system to

他們還強調，其實他們已經把評級系統改成了

start considering growth, alongside proficiency.

開始考慮成長，同時考慮熟練度。

And the data reflects this. But:

而數據也反映了這一點。但。

There's still this really stark correlation with race and class of

仍然有這種非常鮮明的相關性 與種族和階級的

students, but it is lower than what it was before.

學生，但比以前低。

That's not entirely their fault. Not every state reports growth scores.

這不完全是他們的錯。並不是每個州都會報告增長分數。

But even where growth scores are available, GreatSchools still weights proficiency a lot more.

但即使在有成長分數的情況下，GreatSchools仍然對能力的權重更高。

And that muddles the difference between two definitions of "good" schools:

而這就混淆了 "好 "學校的兩種定義的區別。

The ones that do the best job teaching students,

的，對學生的教學效果最好。

and the ones that get kids who are already high-achieving,

和那些讓孩子們已經成績優異的。

who tend to be from white and affluent families.

他們往往來自白人和富裕家庭。

So maybe, the real question is:

所以，也許，真正的問題是。

Which one do parents actually want?

家長們到底想要哪個？