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  3. The following article is about the "parent trigger" laws in the US. The basi

The following article is about the "parent trigger" laws in the US. The basi

游客2024-11-06  0
问题     The following article is about the "parent trigger" laws in the US. The basic concept of the policy is that parents have the ability to intervene in their child’s school if it is performing poorly. With enough signatures from parents, any number of actions can be taken against the low performing school. These can include converting it to a charter school, replacing some of the school’s administration and faculty, and closing the school altogether. From the following article you may find there are both assent and disapproval.
    Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
    1. summarize the development of the parent trigger law, and then
    2. express your opinion towards the law, especially whether this kind of law can really benefit students and schools.
        Parent-Trigger Efforts: At a Crossroads? A Standstill? A Dead End?
    Seven U.S. states have passed "parent trigger" laws, which give parents the ability to petition for changes at their children’s low-performing public schools. If more than half of the parents at a school sign the petition, the school district must comply with the changes. These can include hiring a new staff, hiring a public charter school operator to take over reforms, or closing the school altogether and sending students to better performing neighboring schools.
    Across the nation, the debate rages on among policymakers, teachers and education advocates: Do parent-trigger-type laws have the potential to turn around underperforming schools when bureaucrats fail to act? Or should they be dismissed as a flawed tool that can do more harm than good in already struggling school communities?
    Parent Revolution claims that support is building for parent triggers at local levels in several states, including Tennessee and New York. Memphis Council PTA Vice President Helen Collins said she’s ramping up efforts to build support for a stronger parent-trigger law among 53 schools in Memphis and Shelby County. "We really hope that the teachers and the administrators know that our goal is not to put them out of a job; if anything our goal is to make sure that they understand we’re there to help," she said.
    In New York, a loose coalition of Buffalo parents has been backing parent-trigger legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Tom Casey, campaign manager for We The Parents Buffalo, a group of parents, community members and faith-based leaders, said he does have some doubts about the parent trigger, including the difficulty of getting parents to reach consensus on the changes they want to see at a particular school. But he said he supports any tools that give parents more choices of schools, including charters, and believes too often teacher contracts get in the way of overhauling low-achieving ones. "You cannot change a school when you have tenured teachers and tenured principals," Casey said. "The only way to fix it is to totally restructure it."
    Critics argue the law is a corporate-backed privatization tool under the guise of parent empowerment; they are particularly concerned about using parent trigger to force charter school conversions, which could strip away from some schools the leadership of elected school boards. Opponents have further charged that parents have been bullied into signing petitions, though trigger advocates have also accused teachers unions and other opponents of similarly aggressive tactics. Opponents insisted that there are mechanisms already in place to intervene in low performing schools. They point to school accountability committees and local school boards as the existing means for parents to be involved in the operation of their child’s school. They also worry that parents may not be aware of the changes low performing schools have already made such as hiring new administration and teachers.
选项
答案             Parent Trigger Law Need Be Properly Implemented
    Parent trigger law, as a new legal means to enable parents to involve in school education, has been advocated by several U.S. states, which leads to a nationwide debate among people from all walks of life. Many people show increasing support for this law, hoping to provide better education for students by changing schools. By contrast, opponents maintain that the parties that sponsor the establishment of parent trigger law would take advantage of it to reach their goals, which may damage the school’s functional mechanism. Furthermore, they insist that the law is unnecessary because there are already existing solutions for dealing with underperforming schools.
    As far as I can see, I fully sanction the idea of parent trigger law, which can effectively drive the school to improve education quality and thus offer better education for students with the help of parents. Based on this law, parents are entitled to supervision on the school administration. When they find the school failing to meet the needs of students and no prompt actions are taken by the school, they can initiate any necessary action demanding the school make according adjustments on management or teaching practices. In doing so, education quality will be improved and students will be able to access better education opportunities. Yet, in order to bring the law into full play, it should be implemented in a transparent and justified way so that the suggestions for schools can be actually beneficial to schools and students. Therefore, it is also government’s responsibility to detail the parent trigger law and put it into real effect.
    To sum up, parent trigger law could be a good way to improve teaching quality with proper implementation. Only when it is conducted in a reasonable and justified way can it really benefit schools and students, eventually paving the way for the future of children.
解析     材料围绕“家长制动法”展开讨论，可分为三部分内容。
    第一段介绍了“家长制动法”的内容，这项条例赋予家长权利，允许他们请愿整改(petition for changes)表现不佳的学校，如雇佣新教职工(hiring a new staff)，甚至可以关闭整个学校(closing the school altogether)。
    第二段提出人们对这项法律的质疑，包括它能否改善表现不佳的学校(turn around underperforming schools)；它对正在面临困境的学校社区(struggling school communities)而言弊大于利，是否应当废除?
    最后三段分析了“家长制动法”的利弊。支持者认为，这项法律通过改变学校给学生提供更好的教育，是为教师和学校行政人员提供帮助(to help)，而不是遣散他们(put them out of a job)。反对者则认为这项法律是由企业赞助以牟取私利的工具(a corporate-backed privatization tool)；而且，当前已有处理表现不佳的学校的措施(mechanisms already in place)，这项法律没有必要存在。
    开篇：总结材料，从两方面概括社会对家长制动法的支持与反对。
    主体：提出个人见解——家长制动法有利于提高学校教育水平，但执行时需要透明化、公正化。并加以论述。
    结尾：总结全文，家长制动法有其存在的合理性，但只有恰当落实才能真正让学生与学校受益。
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