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Achievement test (Module 12, Education)Intermediate level

Variant 2Reading

Part 1Read the text and decide if the following sentences are true or false.

1 Newark is the poorest city in the US.2 Pupils at the North Star Academy are better at maths than kids in the local neighbourhood school.3 If a pupil doesnt hand in their homework by 8am, the school calls their parents.4 More boys apply to go to North Star than girls.5 The UK is planning to start academies like the US charter schools.

Extreme education

For some people it is extreme education: 10-hour days, contracts with parents and very strict rules behaviour in small, 200-pupil academies. The result in a new type of school in the US is 100acceptance of college, test results as good as those in private schools, and teenagers from New YorkSouth Bronx district who play the viola like their neighbours in Manhattan.

James Verrilli, principal of the North Star Academy in Newark, Americas second poorest city, saThese kids know drugs. These kids know crime and violence. Their fathers are in jail. We have a schoculture here which is very different from the attitude they have when they first walk through the door. Ia culture that tells them they can go to college.

At the North Star Academy children like Charism and Queen-Ama smile politely as they shake yohand and welcome you in. About 85% of pupils are African-American and 90% get free school meaLast year 80% got proficient or advanced grades in maths, compared with just 28% in the locneighbourhood school. This was above the state average. Pupils work in silence with a professionalisthey have learned during a three-day process. From the beginning pupils are taught to speak clearanswer questions in full sentences and look the teacher in the eye.

Parents have to sign a three-way contract with their child and the principal, and must promise participate themselves. When a childs homework isnt handed in by 8am, there is a phone call homWhen the parent doesnt turn up for a meeting, their child is not allowed back into school until they tuup. There are signs saying No excuses on the walls. I was working until 11 last night. Im tired, buknow Ive got to work, says one 11-year-old, as she finishes up her homework over breakfast. Even mmothers gone back to school since Ive been here. Pupils are tested every six weeks and their resulare examined carefully.

As a principal of a small school I know how every child is progressing and how they are behavingsays Mr Verrilli. He also sits in on classes himself, observing the students and writing notes for thteachers. North Star and other small schools like it have developed from the charter school movement

the US. The 3,500 charter schools are independent schools, funded by the state, and allowed mofreedom to set policies, including their admissions procedures.

North Star runs a lottery for admissions and has 1,800 children on the waiting list. Parents have to ptheir childs name into the lottery; three times more girls apply than boys.

Mr Verrilli strongly rejects the idea that his students might not be the ones most in need. Its quwrong to say that parents from disadvantaged backgrounds dont care about their kids education. 95of parents just want a better education for their children. Were not taking the best kids. Im defensivabout that. Its something a lot of people say. How hard is it to put your childs name down on a piece paper? he said.

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Every child who attends the Kipp (Knowledge is Power Programme) academy in south Bronx, NeYork, plays in its orchestra, the best school orchestra in New York. Every child can read music. ShirlLee, a director of the Kipp academy in the Bronx, says the school works because there is a consistestructure throughout the school. The truth and reality is that kids like structure, she said. Its abotelling them whats appropriate and them learning when to use it. I wouldnt talk to you like I am now iwas out in some of these areas. But if we teach them to look in my eyes when Im speaking to them, thewill use that if they get stopped by the police and that will protect them.

In the UK, there is a growing political debate about the differences in academic achievement betwe

rich and poor in schools in big cities. A recent report highlighted the growing gap in achievement and thgovernment is trying to deal with this problem. Three London academies are experimenting with smschool principles and last week a group of British teachers in training visited the US looking for methothey could use to deal with the problems of complex urban education. Ark, a UK educational charity, taking key components of the small school model into London academies. Lucy Heller, managidirector of Ark, says: Its small schools, strict rules on behaviour and a firm belief that inner city childrcan be just as successful. The UK schools minister says small schools can teach disadvantagchildren the skills that middle class children take for granted: High ambition, zero tolerance of failure, expectation that children will go to university and that schools will give them the education to go university.

Ark is also helping to fund the 30 Future Leaders group on the school leadership training schemvisiting the US. The trainees are expected to take some of the ideas they experience in the US bachome to the UK. Many of them think it will be difficult to transfer the model to the UK, however. They taabout the fact that most of the US schools are middle schools, for 1014 year-olds. The model has betested less in the secondary school age group (1118). They also ask where the money to fund smallschools will come from, though others point out the fact that in the US facilities are basic. They doeven have interactive whiteboards, says one of the groups mentors. They just teach. Small schoomight not be practical in the UK, but what I really want these new school leaders to take back is thsense of culture in these schools.

Part 2Read the text and for questions 6-10, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D.

Fast-track studies

Formula one motor racing is very much an international sport. Many of the leading formuone racing teams choose to base theiroperations in Britain, however.This is surprising becausBritain no longer has a car manufacturing industry of any great significance. So why do thformula one teams choose to work there?In part the answerlies in the long tradition ofmechanicengineering in Britishuniversitieswhich continue to turn out highly-skilled graduates in the subject.

At Birmingham University, forexample, the engineering department has specialized in preparinstudents for a career in themotor-racing industry. Students at the Universityhave designed and builtsingle-sweater racing car as part of their course. Each third-year student took sole responsibility for

section ofthe car, for example, the engine, bodywork orbrakes, and the work was assessed as paof the students' final degree mark. Even more exciting for the students isthe fact that the team buildinthe caralso gets to race it against teams fromother universities.

This October, Martin Corsham, thestudent responsible for the engine on last yearscourse,starting work as a trainee with one of the worlds leading formula teams. It is a dream job that makeevery other mechanical engineering student in the country feel more than slightly envious. Mosignificantly, its a job that 21-year-old Corsham is adamant he would not have got without thhands-on experience he gained at Birmingham.

Ive worked on cars since I was a kid, he says, 'but this was the first engine that I'd workeon completely on my own. I took what was basically a motorcycle engine and turned it into aengine for the racing car.

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Corsham is clearly a true obsessive. He worked on the engine for at least three hours a dathroughout his final year at university. The project finally came to a head the day before the carofficial test run on April 22nd. Until that day, the engine had never actually run in the car itseThey eventually got it going at dawn after a desperate all-night session. 'But what a nighCorsham says. 'I don't think I've got words to describe what it felt like, that feeling of great pridwhen it actually started. The most satisfying thing though was actually getting to drive the car.was the first person who got the chance to drive the car with my engine in it, it was wonderful.

Ian Stewart, who was responsible for the bodywork on the car, also found the whoexperience very valuable, if a little frustrating. 'It's difficult relying on other people finalizing thepart before you can do yours, he remembers. Stewart spent his whole Christmas holidayproducing a model of thebodywork at home. He returned to college to find a fewcrucial detaion other parts of the car had been changed and he had to start again.

The idea for the racing car programme originally came from the students themselveReading about an annual competition for racing-car builders in Detroit, USA, students on thcourse decided that they too would be capable of designing and building their own car. Thuniversity wasquick to see the value of the idea and gave its backing .

LastMay, the team took the car they hadbuilt to Detroit. Although the team was new to thcompetition, and had received relatively little funding compared to their rivals, their car impressethe judges. The university now plans to make the project a regular feature of the course. It haproved very successful, not only as a practicaldemonstration of the students' theoretical studiebut alsoin allowing them to get their hands dirty andimpress future employers.

6 Racing teams often base their operations in Britain becauseA of good manufacturing industry it has.B they live there.C it has highly-skilled mechanicals.D its tradition.

7 Which part of the project did Martin find most rewarding?A working with assistanceB the last-minute preparationsC the moment the engine startedD driving the finished car

8 What did Ian Stewart find most difficult about the project?A being dependant on other peopleB working in the holidaysC producing a model of the carD getting the details right

9 adamant describe a feeling ofA gratitude

B certaintyC satisfactionD modesty

10 What does it in the last passage refer to?A the carB the courseC the projectD the university

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Word formation

The argument is that an interest in classical music should bedeveloped in early (1)_______ . They reject the idea that CHILDchildren are (2)_______ in serious music or necessarily INTERESTfind it boring. The group goes into a school and gives a live(3)_______ of a short classical piece and then this is followed PERFORMby an (4)_______ of how the instruments work. These sessions EXPLAIN

have proved so (5)_______ that they have now become a regular SUCCESSfeature in some schools.

Key word transformationComplete the following sentences using the words in bold. Use two to five words.

1 You are not allowed to leave bicycles here.may You _________________ bicycles here.

2 It was necessary to go to Germany to get our new car.had We _________________ to Germany to get our new car.

3 It is forbidden to use mobile phones in the library.must You _________________ in the library.

4 Dont let younger brothers play with this guitar.allowed Younger brothers _________________ with this guitar.

5 Its advisable to pass exams in time.should You _______________ in time.