美国学生的困扰：数学渣怎么破？

美国学校的坏消息：据周三全美教育进展评估成绩的发布，美国学生数学和阅读成绩呈下降趋势。

Bad news for America's schools: Student achievement in math and reading is on the decline, according to National Assessment of Education Progress scores released Wednesday.

全美教育进展评估项目——又称国家报告卡——这是由美国教育部分支——国家教育统计中心，给到全国所有四年级和八年级学生的一项考试。

The National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP -- called the Nation's Report Card -- is an exam given to fourth-grade and eighth-grade students throughout the country by the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the U.S. Department of Education.

20世纪90年代的学生成绩是总体上升的，但是2013-2015年的学生成绩呈下降趋势。

While students' scores have increased overall since the 1990s, results released Wednesday show a slight decline between 2013 and 2015.

2015年，阅读成绩上，只有36%的四年级学生和34%的八年级学生取得的成绩达到了精通或以上；数学成绩上，有40%的四年级学生和33%的八年级学生所取得的成绩达到了精通或以上。

Only 36 percent of fourth-grade students and 34 percent of eighth-grade students in 2015 scored high enough to be considered proficient or above in reading. In math, 40 percent of fourth-grade students and 33 percent of eighth-grade students scored proficient or above.

尽管2015年成绩不理想，但专家还是提醒大家，这并不意味着是一个下滑趋势。

While the 2015 results are disappointing, experts caution that they should not yet be interpreted as a downward trend.

国家教育统计中心的代理总干事，佩吉?卡尔说成绩下降这一趋势是“没有预料到的...这不是我们所看到的模式。”

Peggy Carr, acting commissioner of NCES said the drop in scores was "an unexpected one. ... This isn’t a pattern that we saw coming."

美国教育部长阿恩?邓肯接受记者电话采访时表示，在分析这一成绩趋势时要保持慎重。他也指出，尽管2015年的分数下降了，但是高中毕业率却呈上升趋势。

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pushed for caution in interpreting the latest scores on a call with reporters. He also noted that even though scores dropped in 2015, high school graduation rates have been on the rise.

2015年，核心国家课程标准已经在美国很多地区推行，正处于初步阶段，这在一定程度上会影响到最近的全美教育进展评估成绩。

The Common Core State Standards were in their beginning phases of implementation in many places in 2015, which could have impacted the latest NAEP scores.

核心国家课程标准是一套已经被大多数州采用，并全面改革读写和数学教育方式的全新教育基准。邓肯在电话中说道。

The Common Core State Standards are a set of new education benchmarks that have been adopted in most states and have overhauled the wayliteracy and math are taught. Duncan alluded to this on the call.

相比过去，如今学校学生构成愈加多元化，有低收入家庭小孩，也有英语学习者。但这些是如何影响评估成绩的还不是很明确。

Schools are also educating a more diverse group of students than they have in the past, including more low-income kids and English language learners. But it is unclear how this might be impacting scores.