Budget cuts and an increased focus on testing have made field trips,once a popular way to get students out of the classroom,increasingly rare.
“Local school districts don't have the funds (money kept for particular purposes) anymore”’ says Stephanie Norby,director ofthe Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies in Washington, D. C. The Smithsonian museums are some of the most popular field trip destinations in the country. Although there is little hard data to definitively prove that schools are taking fewer field trips,Norby says it seems as though fewer schools have visited the Smithsonian in recent years.
Money once spent on field trips is being spent to help students prepare for standardized tests that might make or break a teacher's evaluation,according to Randi Weingarten,president of the American Federation of Teachers,a union that represents more than 1 million educators nationwide.
“In school these days,if people have a dollar to spare,they spend it on test prep because they get regulated there,”she says.
Field trips provide students with a window to the real world that they don't get in the classroom,and they can help students . understand real-world applications of seemingly abstract topics in math and science,says Weingarten.
Susan Singer,CEO of Field Trip Factory,an organization that has spent the last 18 years designing free field trip outlines for schools nationwide,says she thinks schools are merely scheduling around testing.
“During testing periods,we don't see a lot of field trips,” she says. “Either right before or right after a standardized test,we get a shut door.”
Spending time outside the classroom doesn't mean students aren't learning knowledge that could show up on standardized tests. Several studies have shown that students acquire more information and skills through the type of experience-based learning that field trips provide when compared to in-class learning.
A field trip should be relevant to topics students are studying in school. That way,the Smithsonian's Norby says,it will have a lasting effect.
32. Why is it difficult for schools to take field trips according to Norby?
A. Students dislike the trips.
B. They are short of finances.
C. They have fewer destinations.
D. Field trips are harder to organize.
33. What do we learn from Weingarten?
A. Standardized tests can measure student learning.
B. Money for field trips is used for test preparation.
C. Schools’ education budgets are properly regulated.
D. Schools encourage students to know the real world.
34. In the author's opinion,field trips .
A. may lead to lower test scores
B. sometimes waste a lot of time
C. help students gain more knowledge
D. are less important than in-class learning
35. The text is mainly about .
A. the advantages of in-class learning
B. the effect of standardized tests
C. the problem of budget cuts
D. the decline of field trips
