examnation do more harm than good 英文辩论稿

examnation do more harm than good 英文辩论稿

MATHEMATICALLY the exam league tables published last week still don't add up - and it is easy to understand why.Take a small school in the Western Isles where 20 pupils might take standard grades in any given year.If just one of those pupils botches their exams,the school's exam "performance" dips by 5% instantly.For a large urban secondary school,20 pupils would need to fail to bring about a similar fall.No statistician would tolerate comparing the two schools' achievements on this basis.
There are many other reasons why publishing comparative tables of school exam performance may initially appear of use while they are in reality largely invalid.Parents who plan to use such data to help them choose which school to send their child to should pause to think.What will really determine your child's achievement?Is it your child's ability and/or background?
Those teachers whose schools are winners in this annual beauty contest may be reluctant to admit it,but the research we publish today in the news section shows pretty unequivocally that exam success is best predicted by the relative wealth of a pupil's parents.
This is the reason the league tables provoke a mixture of fury and depression among teachers and parents alike,especially in poor areas.
The real message of the league tables is that they highlight the deprived neighbourhoods.So when education minister Cathy Jamieson allows the national figures to be published each year,she might as well phone up teachers and families at the bottom of the lists and say:"Just called to let you know - you're still poor!"
It is not good enough for the Labour politicians,who bitterly opposed league tables in opposition,to argue that they are stuck with them now.If that is the case why has the Welsh Assembly abolished them?
The Executive argues that the information is expected and demanded by parents - but according to the Executive's own research,most parents ignore the statistics.
They need not be completely abolished,and nobody interested in open government would argue that they should be.But they could be published in another form,allowing parents to see the results of schools in individual areas,but avoiding the skewed national emphasis.
They could be published in context,demonstrating the other factors which go to make a decent school - such as a wide variety of extra-curricular activities,an atmosphere of creativity and respect,low levels of truancy and good discipline.League tables measure none of these,not even crudely.
But it is simply hypocritical for a government which prides itself on attempting to tackle social exclusion to continue to allow this annual distraction in its current pointless and divisive form.Left alone,the lists will simply serve to bump up property prices in prosperous areas while slowly undermining much of the urban renewal so badly needed in our big cities.It's an easy call and simply requires some basic joined-up government thinking.
According to Cochrane Collaboration,an international organization that evaluates medical research,self examination of the breasts is not recommended,and may do more harm than good.
The authors in Tuesday鈥檚 issue of The Cochrane Library say,鈥淒ata from two large trials do not suggest a beneficial effect of screening by (BSE) but do suggest harm in terms of increased numbers of benign lesions identified and an increased number of biopsies performed.At present,screening by breast self-examination 鈥 cannot be recommended.鈥
The study focuses on findings from a 2003 study of Russian women and a 2002 study on Chinese women.鈥淚t鈥檚 important to separate out the public health implications from the implications for an individual woman,鈥 says Dr.David B.Thomas,breast cancer epidemiologist at Seattle鈥檚 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington.He is also the author of the 2002 landmark study involving more than 250,000 Chinese women studied on similar lines.
鈥淚f a woman is highly motivated 鈥 let鈥檚 say her mother or sister has been diagnosed with breast cancer 鈥 then of course she should practice breast self-exam.But that鈥檚 a different situation than trying to reach women on a mass scale.Our study shows that that鈥檚 probably a waste of time.You鈥檙e not going to get women sufficiently motivated to practice it well enough and frequently enough to make that big of a difference.鈥
Cindy Geoghegan,executive advisor for scientific community relations at the Susan G.Komen Breast Cancer Foundation says,鈥淲hat this research does is [say] breast self exam by itself doesn鈥檛 increase survival and it never did.But as part of a comprehensive plan for women for early detection鈥 that includes maintaining a healthy lifestyle and knowing your medical history,鈥渨e鈥檙e not going to say don鈥檛 do it.鈥
While the study finds no benefits from breast self examinations,they are not indicating that these should not be performed.The authors say,鈥渢hat the lack of supporting evidence from the two major studies should be discussed with these women to enable them to make an informed decision.鈥