PDF《2012 年6月大学英语四级考试试卷真题（文都版）》

100 schools had graduating Classes smaller than

100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly

250 schools on the full ,Newsweek list of the top 5% of schools nationally had fewer than

200 graduates in 2007. Although many of Hillsdale'

s students came from wealthy households, by the late

1990 average test scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate nickname ( 绰号) Hillsjail. Jeff Gilbert. A Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, remembers sitting with other teachers watching students file out of a graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment, How did that student graduate? So in

2003 Hillsdale remade itself into three houses, romantically named Florence, Marrakech and Kyoto. Each of the

300 arriving ninth graders are randomly(随机地) assigned to one of the houses. Where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years, before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. The closeness this system cultivates is reinforced by the institution of advisory classes Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents, so they are deeply invested in the students'

success. We'

re constantly talking about one another'

s advisers, says English teacher Chris Crockett. If you hear that yours isn'

t doing well in math, or see them sitting outside the dean'

s office, it'

s like a personal failure. Along with the new structure came a more demanding academic program, the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from

17 to 95. It was rough for some. But by senior year, two-thirds have moved up to physics, says Gilbert Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them. But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution. The Newsweek list of top U.S. high schools was made this year, as in years past, according to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it'

s easy for readers to understa........