美国学生的数学、阅读呈现下降趋势

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.
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。
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. While students' scores have increased overall since the 1990s, results released Wednesday show a slight decline between 2013 and 2015.
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。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。
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.
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。
While the 2015 results are disappointing, experts caution that they should not yet be interpreted as a downward trend. Peggy Carr, acting commissioner of NCES said the drop in scores was "an unexpected one. ... This isn’t a pattern that we saw coming."
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。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。”
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.
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。
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. 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.
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。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。
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.
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。