Social mobility: why does private school give you such a leg up? 社会流动性：为什么私立学校能助你一臂之力？ 作者：Matt Dickson @ 2015-8-18

译者：沈沉（@你在何地-sxy）

校对：小册子（@昵称被抢的小册子）

来源：The Conversation， https://theconversation.com/social-mobility-why-does-private-school-give-you-such-a-leg-up-45739 Ever since John Major declared his shock at the dominance of the privately educated throughout Britain’s “upper echelons of power”, there has been a brighter spotlight shone on the way top professions in society are dominated by a selective elite.

约翰·梅杰曾对私立学校毕业生在英国“权力梯次上层”的支配地位表示震惊，自此以后，优选精英如何占据社会顶层职业就受到越来越多的关注。

Addressing this problem has never been more important for UK social mobility. With the re-shaping of the economy towards services, it’s predicted that four out of five future jobs will be in these professions, making them key to the future of social mobility.

对于英国的社会流动性而言，处理这个问题的重要性前所未有。由于经济正在向服务业转型，预计未来有五分之四的工作岗位将来自这些顶层职业，因此它们就成为未来社会流动性的关键。

Alan Milburn’s 2012 report into fair access to the professions showed 43% of barristers, 54% of chief executives, 51% of top medics and 54% of leading journalists attended private schools. Nationally, only 7% of children attend private schools.

Alan Milburn 2012年关于公平职业机会的报告显示，43%的高级律师、54%的行政总监、51%的高级医生以及54%的新闻行业领袖念过私立学校。而全国范围内，现在只有7%的儿童在私立学校读书。 Research from the UCL Institute of Education and the University of Cambridge found that in a raw comparison, graduates who had attended private schools were 32% more likely to gain a “high-status” job – defined as the “higher managerial, administrative or professional” occupations – than state-school graduates from similar family types.

伦敦大学学院教育研究所和剑桥大学的研究发现，以来自相似家庭类型的大学毕业生做粗略比较，曾念过私立学校的比只念过公立学校的毕业生，找到“高等”工作的可能性要高出32%。该项研究将“高等”工作界定为“管理上、行政上或专业性上较高的”职业。

Even when accounting for other factors that could be driving this difference – such as a person’s grades in school, the university they attended, the course and qualification they got, or their age and gender – people who went to private school were still 8% more likely to access a high-status job after leaving university.

有一些其它因素也可能促成这一差异，比如在校成绩、所念大学、所修课程和专业资格、以及年龄与性别等。但即使将这些因素全都考虑在内，念过私立学校的学生大学毕业后获得高等工作的可能性仍然要高出8%。

A new report from the Sutton Trust and upReach charities has taken the analysis a step further. The report found that six-months after finishing university, private school graduates in high-status jobs are earning £670 per year more than those from the state sector in the same high-status positions, even after taking into account any differences in age, gender, university attended and degree obtained. Three years later, this gap has grown such that a private-school graduate is on average earning £2,198 per year more than the comparable state-school graduate.

Sutton Trust和upReach两家慈善机构新近发布的一份报告对此问题做了进一步的分析。报告发现，大学毕业6个月后，即使将年龄、性别、所念大学及所获学位的差异都考虑进去，从事高等工作的私立学校毕业生，年收入也比从事同样职业的国立学校毕业生多出670磅。三年之后这种差距拉得更大，相比于国立学校毕业生，私立学校毕业生平均每年收入要多2198磅。 Elite firms look for ‘soft skills’ 精英公司想要“软技能” What is it about private schooling that causes this to happen? When it comes to getting a job and progressing up pay scales, there are always other factors apart from grades that are difficult to measure, such as self-confidence, assertiveness, ambition, determination or communication skills. These may differ between the average private and state school students and may be driving the difference.

念私立学校有什么不同，以至于出现上述差异呢？在找工作和提高收入等级时，除了成绩之外，总还有一些其它难以衡量的影响因素，比如自信、坚定、抱负、决心或沟通能力等。私立和公立学校学生一般在这些方面可能有些不同，并可能因此导致了上述差异。

This is consistent with other research from the Sutton Trust which has found that applicants to high-status jobs from less-privileged backgrounds lack self-confidence. Recent research from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (SMCP) looking at recruitment to elite law, accountancy and financial services firms also identified that the differences in the non-academic skills of graduates from different school types played a key role in explaining different access to jobs and career progression.

这与Sutton Trust的另一项研究发现是一致的：出身弱势群体的人在申请高等工作时更加缺乏自信。社会流动性与儿童贫困委员会近期对法律、会计和金融服务等精英公司的招聘进行了研究，他们同样发现，在解释找工作和职业发展机会上的差异时，来自不同类型学校的毕业生在非学术技能上的差异是一个关键因素。

These elite firms look to recruit and promote “talent”. Their definitions incorporate the sort of non-academic skills that are not lacking in private school students, but can be lacking even among the most academically able state-school students.

这些精英公司想要招聘和提拔的是“才干之士”。在他们对“才干之士”的定义中，包含了私立学校学生从不缺乏的那些非学术技能，而在这些方面，即便是学术上最为杰出的公立学校学生也可能存在不足。 Gap in grades remains stark 成绩差距依然显著 There are policies that can help break down these barriers. The first requirement is to close the gap in attainment between different types of school. IFS research comparing the pay of state and privately educated people across all professions, found a 12% pay gap, half of which can be explained by prior attainment and the university subsequently attended. So, much of the gap is down to what happens in school.

有一些政策可以打破上述壁垒。第一个必须要做的，就是缩小不同类型学校在学业成就上的差距。英国财政研究学会对公立和私立学校毕业生在各类行业的薪酬水平进行了比较研究，发现其间存在12%的差距，该差距有一半源于早前的学业成就及随后所念的大学。因此，差距的很大一部分来自于在校经历。

The SMCP research also supports previous work that suggests attending “elite” universities and the course studied is becoming more and more important for access to top professions and higher pay. If we look at the difference in A-level attainment in the sort of “facilitating” subjects (such as maths, sciences and languages) that are preferred by the elite institutions, there is a suggestion that the gap between state and private school is narrowing.

前引社会流动性和儿童贫困委员会的研究结果也支持早前的一项研究，后者认为，接受“精英”大学教育及所学课程对于进入顶层职业和获得更高报酬的重要性与日俱增。精英机构更为偏爱那些使得进一步学习变得容易的“促进性”科目（比如数学、科学和语言等），如果我们去看中学高级水平考试中这些科目上的成绩差异，似乎有迹象表明，公立和私立学校之间的差距正在缩小。

Among 18-year-olds in 2004, 7.8% of state-school students had A*-B in three or more of these A-level subjects, compared with 21.6% of private school students. By 2010 the gap had closed slightly, largely due to a dip in independent schools' performance, but the proportion of state-school students attaining the grades required to access elite universities remains constant.

2004年的全部18岁学生中，有7.8%的公立学校学生在三门以上的中学高级水平考试“促进性”科目中得到了B或以上成绩，与之相比，私立学校学生则有21.6%。到了2010年，这一差距已略为减小，主要是因为独立学校的表现有所下滑，但取得精英大学最低录取成绩的公立学校学生比例并没有变化。 Unsurprisingly then, there is little evidence that the gap in attendance at elite universities has changed over time for students from comparable family backgrounds who attend state and private schools. The proportion of children who go to elite universities from the highest income group (which it is assumed includes private school attendees) was approximately 28% in 2010-11, compared to 12% for the next highest income group. However, this 16 percentage point gap is all but eliminated when researchers take into account how students did at A-level.

因此毫不奇怪，现在也没有什么证据表明家庭背景近似的公立和私立学校毕业生之间的精英大学录取差距有什么变化。2010-11年，最高收入群体的子女（假定包括私立学校入读者）就读精英大学的比例约为28%，与之相比，次高收入群体则为12%。不过，一旦研究人员将学生们在高级水平考试中的表现也考虑进来，这个16个百分点的差距也几乎完全不存在了。 More mentoring, earlier 更多、更早的辅导 So, the big question is how to improve the A-level results of students from state schools. After examining what can help predict better performance at A-level for bright but less advantaged students, research from Oxford University has suggested a series of policies to help boost performance by bright but less advantaged students.

因此，最大问题是如何提高公立学校学生的高级水平考试成绩。牛津大学一项研究考察了哪些因素有助于预测那些聪明但出身弱势的学生在高级水平考试中取得好成绩，并提出了帮助这一类学生改善表现的一系列政策建议。

These range from access to high-quality pre-school, daily homework, encouraging reading for pleasure, and educationally enriching activities outside of school, to greater guidance regarding the choice of subjects at GCSE and A-level likely to pay the highest future dividends in university access and beyond.

其中包括接受高质量学前教育的机会、每天做家庭作业、鼓励出于兴趣的阅读、开展具有教育意义的课外活动，还包括在普通中学教育证书和高级水平考试中为学生的科目选择提供更多指导，以帮助学生选择那些在未来的大学经历及以后人生中回报最大的科目。

The need for greater guidance, advice and mentoring for state-school pupils is also endorsed by the Sutton Trust research into recruitment for the financial services sector. These policy recommendations are now being implemented in a project that began in 2014 in which four major banks – Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Lloyds – are providing “end-to-end” support to young people from state schools. They will get help to develop non-academic skills both at school and university and then receive mentoring while in the job.

公立学校学生需要更多的指导、建议和辅导，这一点也得到了Sutton Trust关于金融服务行业招聘的一项研究的支持。这些政策建议现已在一个始于2014年的项目中得到实施，四家大银行——巴克莱、德意志银行、汇丰以及劳埃德——通过该项目向公立学校的年轻人提供“从头到尾”的支持。这些年轻人在中学和大学时都能得到培养非学术技能方面的帮助，工作以后还能得到辅导。

These closer links between state schools and professions was also identified by Milburn, who suggested that work experience placements, internships and university sandwich-year courses can all be routes to improve the transition for state students from school, through university and into the “upper echelons” of British society.

Milburn也发现了这种公立学校和职业之间的紧密联系，他建议通过工作经验职位、实习期以及带“三明治年”的大学课程【 译注：英国大学一种学制，大学期间有一年为实习期，通常为第三年 】等途径，来帮助公立学校学生更好地实现从中学到大学最后进入英国社会“梯次上层”的转化。

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