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中文翻译在英文后面

School systems in the poorer areas of the United States face challenges that are reminiscent of those in rural China; high drop out rates, weak academic performances, a dearth of teaching talent and leadership expertise, insufficient material resources and problems within families and communities that adversely affect students’ well-being and achievements. In the US., non-profit NGO’s are at the forefront of tackling these problems in new ways. RCEF’s Diane Geng interviewed representatives in the following organizations to learn how their approaches might be relevant to RCEF.

New Leaders for New Schools
(www.nlns.org)

New Leaders for New Schools selects, trains, and places new principals in some of the toughest and low-performing school districts in America. After a highly competitive application process, trainees take graduate school courses on leadership and education and undergo a yearlong “residency” where they get hands-on practice in daily school management and leadership techniques. They receive ongoing coaching from veteran principals and are plugged into a community of practice with other “New Leaders” from the program. RCEF has also seen how crucial school principals are to implementing educational reforms so there are many things we can learn by observing how NLNS cultivates and supports its excellent school leaders.Teach for America
(www.teachforamerica.org)

Teach for America selects, trains and supports high-achieving college graduates (most of whom have no teaching background) to teach for two years in struggling schools and raise their students’ academic achievement. This model has been quite successful in influencing the world views of participants and turned many into life-long advocates for addressing inequalities in education, even if they do not remain teachers after their two year commitment is up.

Over the last two decades, TFA has also refined their training and professional development model for teaching novices. TFA has shared some of their training materials with RCEF as well as lessons learned in how to help inexperienced but highly motivated outsiders make a difference for students in disadvantaged schools.

TFA’s new international initiative, “Teach for All,” aims to help organizations in other countries set up local operations similar to TFA. RCEF has given “Teach for All” some input on the viability of the model in China. RCEF currently works to build capacity in both local, “homegrown” rural teachers as well as non-local volunteers and teaching fellows. Thus, TFA’s experiences with the latter group in America has useful lessons for us as well.

New Schools Venture Fund
(www.newschools.org)

New Schools Venture Fund invests in schools or other educational organizations with effective models for improving academic success of disadvantaged students. They require that grantees meet measurable milestones and provide close consulting and support to help grantees meet those goals, especially in management and operations. They regularly collect and analyze data from each grantee which is then made accessible to all grantee organizations so that they can benchmark their progress against one another.

The Fund also organizes “community of practice” tools and events so grantees can share experiences and, in some cases, collaborate. Like the Fund, RCEF also invests in multiple innovative educational ventures in rural China (including in their management) and wants to foster interaction and learning between the organizations. Thus, New Schools Venture Fund’s mixture of expertise in raising capital, vetting ventures, and providing tailored support to grantees is a powerful set of services that RCEF may be able to offer in rural China, as we gain more experience and expertise in the coming years.

外联部

在美国，贫穷地区的学校系统也正面临着和中国农村地区同样的挑战：居高不下的辍学率，糟糕的学习成绩，师资力量的匮乏，领导能力的欠缺，物质资源的不足，以及其他各种影响学生成长和进步的家庭和社区问题。
美国的非营利NGO都在探索以新的途径处理这些问题。通过对以下机构的采访，RCEF的耿欣悦希望从中摸索出值得RCEF借鉴的一些经验。

New Leaders for New Schools （NLNS，www.nlns.org）挑选并培训一批新的学校校长，并派遣他们就任于一些难于管理，表现不佳的地区学校。通过竞争激烈的申请后，学员将会接受一些关于领导和教育的大学课程的培训，并经历为期一年的“驻地”实习，以获得学校日常管理，领导技巧方面的第一手经验。他们接受有经验的校长的训练，并与同一计划中的其他“新领导”们进行交流。RCEF也认识到学校领导对于教育重组的重要性，所以我们应从NLNS中学习怎样栽培并支持学校高层管理人才。

Teach for America (www.teachforamerica.org) 挑选，培训并资助有能力的大学毕业生（尽管他们多数之前都没有教学经历）到一些困难的学校进行为期两年的教学活动，以提高学生的学习成绩。这一模式在某些方面相当成功，包括影响参与者的世界观，促使他们成为教育平等的终身拥护者等，纵使他们很多人在两年以后不再从事教学活动。在过去的二十年内，TFA不断改进他们针对新手供的培训与职业发展模式。TFA已向RCEF共享部分培训材料以及如何帮助那些有很强进取心但缺乏经验的新人在弱势学校开展教学。TFA的新项目，“为全球教育”(“Teach for All”)，旨在帮助世界其他地区的教育机构建立与TFA类似的地方组织。RCEF已将中国的一些具体情况反馈给“为全球教育”以帮助他们评估这个形式在中国的
可行性。RCEF现今以本土乡村教师以及非本地志愿者为重点目标。TFA的经验将有助于RCEF对于非本地志愿者的培养。

New Schools Venture Fund (www.newschools.org) 对一些学校和教育组织进行投资，主要看重它们的模式能否有效地帮助弱势学生获得学业上的成功。它要求投资对象达到某些具体的量化指标，并为它们提供相关物资与支持帮助它们实现目标，特别是在管理和运作方面。它也会定期从投资对象方采集和分析数据，并向所有的投资对象公开，便于它们之间进行相互比较。基金会还开发了一个“实践社区”平台并组织相关活动，促成投资对象之间的经验共享，有时甚至可以促成新的合作机会。与这个基金会相似，RCEF也在对多个中国农村的创新教育进行投资，并期待促成它们之间的交互与学习。因此，NSVF在募款、投资以及向投资对象提供可定制服务等方面积累的专业经验，或许会对RCEF今后在中国农村提供类似服务有所帮助——当然，提供这一系列服务的前提是RCEF必须积累更多的经验和资历。

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