单选题 Tinkering again with enforcement of the No Child Left Behind education law, the government plans to let some states fundamentally change how they measure yearly student progress. In an experiment that"s been months in the making, up to 10 states will be allowed to measure not just how students are performing, but how that performance is changing over time.
Currently, schools are judged based only on how today"s students compare to last year"s students in math and reading such as fourth-graders in 2005 vs.fourth-graders in 2004. Many state leaders don"t like the current system of comparing two different years of kids because it doesn"t recognize changes in the population or growth by individual students. Frustrated states have been pleading for permission to measure growth by students, which may make it easier for schools to meet their goals and avoid penalties.
Other recent changes have dealt with testing, teacher quality and students with disabilities. Yet student progress is the cornerstone of the law. How it is measured has big implications. Schools that receive federal poverty aid but don"t make "adequate yearly progress" for at least two years face mounting penalties, from allowing students to transfer and providing tutoring to poor children to eventual restructuring of the school and its staff.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said it makes sense to give schools credit for progress that students make. The states that win approval for the new flexibility, however, must do more than show growth. They still will have to get all children up to par in reading and math by 2014, as the law requires, and show consistent gains along the way.
The Education Department has not chosen the 10 states that will be part of the experiment. In practical terms, many states won"t qualify because they don"t have the kind of data systems to track individual students across grades. And others may not find the change helpful. To start, states that gain approval to measure student growth will also be required to chart progress the old way, comparing this year"s students with last year"s. The Education Department wants to see that data to help determine whether charting growth is a fair, accurate measure.
Patricia Sullivan, director of the independent Center on Education Policy, praised federal leaders for showing flexibility and clearly outlining what states must do to get it. A growth model could benefit not just struggling students but also gifted ones who may be challenged again to show their own yearly progress, beyond the school"s standard benchmark. "This is clearly what states have been asking for," Sullivan said. "It"s so discouraging for teachers when students make tremendous gains but don"t get the credit because they don"t get all the way over the bar."

单选题 The chief intention of the Education Department policy is to ______

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 第一段提到，政府又在调整“有教无类”的教育法的实施，他们计划让某些州根本改变衡量学生每年进步(程度)的方式。有一项实验过去几个月一直处于设计中，参加这项实验的十个州将不仅被允许来衡量学生的表现，而且要衡量这种表现如何根据时间的变化而变化。这两句话陈述的内容(尤其是第一句)就是教育部这项新政策的目的。这里，所谓the government当然就指后面提到的主管教育的教育部。

单选题 States are not contented with the present system because it ______

单选题 Under the current system, teachers may be dismissed from their posts if ______

单选题 The result yielded from comparing two different years of students will still be needed to ______

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 第五段第四、五句提到，获得批准(用新方法)衡量学生成长(即他们进步的程度)的那些州，也会被要求用旧方法记录学生的进步程度——即把今年学生的情况同去年的相比较。教育部想要看看这种数据，以便有助于确定(用新方法)衡量成长是一种合理而准确的尺度。这里的意思是：将新方法和旧方法测定的数据做一个比较，以便确定哪个更加合理，能更全面地衡量出学生的进步程度。

单选题 Sullivan criticizes the current practice of measuring student progress for ______

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 最后一段提到，在Sullivan看来，(新的)成长模式不仅有益于那些拼命上进的学生，而且有利于那些有天赋的学生，后者可以不断接受新的挑战，拿出自己每年最好的成绩，取得超出学校标准基点的进步。Sullivan说：“这显然是各州所想要看到的。当学生取得巨大进步，但仅仅是因为他们没有能够一直超越设定的标准而得不到肯定时，老师们都感到很丧气。”结合这两句话来看，Sullivan的意思显然是：由于新衡量方法能反映个别学生的进步，所以学生(无论是后进的还是先进的)有了进步就能获得及时的肯定，使师生感到鼓舞。而旧的衡量方法就不能做到这一点。注意：该题提问的是旧方法(目前用的)，而不是新方法(将要采用的)。