1
2011
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6
鏈堝ぇ瀛﹁嫳璇叚绾х湡棰?/p>
Part
鈪?/p>
Writing
(30minu
tes)
1
锛庣幇鍦ㄨ澶氫汉鐑》浜庡悇绫昏瘉涔﹁�冭瘯
2
锛庡叾鐩殑鍚勪笉鐩稿悓
3
锛庡湪鎴戠湅鏉?/p>
鈥︹�?/p>
The Certificate Craze
Part II
Reading Comprehension (Skimming and
Scanning)
(15 minutes)
Minority Report
American universities are accepting more minorities than ever.
Graduating them is another matter.
Barry Mills, the president of Bowdoin College, was justifiably proud of
Bowdoin's efforts to recruit minority students. Since 2003 the small,
elite liberal arts school in Brunswick, Maine, has boosted the
proportion of so-called under-represented minority students in
entering freshman classes from 8% to 13%. "It is our responsibility to
reach out and attract students to come to our kinds of places," he told
a
NEWSWEEK
reporter. But Bowdoin has not done quite as well when
it comes to actually graduating minorities. While 9 out of 10 white
students routinely get their diplomas within six years, only 7 out of 10
black students made it to graduation day in several recent classes.
"If you look at who enters college, it now looks like America," says
Hilary Pennington, director of postsecondary programs for the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, which has closely studied enrollment
patterns in higher education. "But if you look at who walks across the
stage for a diploma, it's still largely the white, upper-income
population."
The United States once had the highest graduation rate of any nation.
Now it stands 10th. For the first time in American history, there is the
risk that the rising generation will be less well educated than the
previous one. The graduation rate among 25- to 34-year-olds is no
better than the rate for the 55- to 64-year-olds who were going to
college more than 30 years ago. Studies show that more and more
poor and non-white students want to graduate from college
鈥?/p>
but their
graduation rates fall far short of their dreams. The graduation rates for
blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans lag far behind the graduation
rates for whites and Asians. As the minority population grows in the
United States, low college graduation rates become a threat to
national prosperity.
The problem is pronounced at public universities. In 2007 the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
鈥?/p>
one of the top five or so prestigious
public universities
鈥?/p>
graduated 81% of its white students within six
years, but only 56% of its blacks. At less-selective state schools, the
numbers get worse. During the same time frame, the University of
Northern Iowa graduated 67% of its white students, but only 39% of
its blacks. Community colleges have low graduation rates generally
鈥?/p>
but rock-bottom rates for minorities. A recent review of California
community colleges found that while a third of the Asian students
picked up their degrees, only 15% of African-Americans did so as well.
Private colleges and universities generally do better, partly because
they offer smaller classes and more personal attention. But when it
comes to a significant graduation gap, Bowdoin has company. Nearby
Colby College logged an 18-point difference between white and black
graduates in 2007 and 25 points in 2006. Middlebury College in
Vermont, another top school, had a 19-point gap in 2007 and a
22-point gap in 2006. The most selective private schools
鈥?/p>
Harvard,
Yale, and Princeton
鈥?/p>
show almost no gap between black and white
graduation rates. But that may have more to do with their ability to
select the best students. According to data gathered by Harvard Law
School professor Lain Gainer, the most selective schools are more
likely to choose blacks who have at least one immigrant parent from
Africa or the Caribbean than black students who are descendants of
American slaves.
"Higher education has been able to duck this issue for years,
particularly the more selective schools, by saying the responsibility is
on the individual student," says Pennington of the Gates Foundation.
"If they fail, it's their fault." Some critics blame affirmative action
鈥?/p>
students admitted with lower test scores and grades from shaky high
schools often struggle at elite schools. But a bigger problem may be