原文：

The relative decline of American education at the elementary-and high-school levels has long been a national embarrassment as well as a threat to the nation’s future. Once upon a time, American students tested better than any other students in the world. Now, ranked against European schoolchildren, America does about as well as Poland, behind at least 10 other nations. Within the United States, the achievement gap between white students and poor and minority students stubbornly persists.

For much of the last half century professional educators believed that if they could only find the right pedagogy, the right method of instruction, all would be well. Yet in recent years researchers have discovered something that may seem obvious, but for many reasons was overlooked or denied. What really makes a difference, what matters more than the class size or the textbook, the teaching method or the technology, is the quality of the teacher. Much of the ability to teach is innate— an ability to inspire young minds as well as control unruly classrooms that some people instinctively possess and some people definitely do not.

参考译文：

中小学教育水平相对滞后的问题长期以来一直困扰着美国，并且威胁着国家未来的发展。曾几何时，美国学生在考试中总是领先于其他各国的莘莘学子。而如今，在与欧洲国家学子的角逐中，美国只能与波兰平起平座，并远远落后于其余十多个国家。在全美，白人学生与贫困家庭学生以及少数民族学生之间的成就差距始终是国家教育中的顽疾，久治不愈。

过去大半个世纪中，教育专家们纷纷认为，老师一旦掌握正确的教育方法，懂得如何教导学生，一切问题将会迎刃而解。而近几年来，研究学者则发现了另一个因素，它貌似明显却又由于种种原因而受到忽视、遭遇摒弃。能使教育发生实质蜕变的，不是课堂人数，不是教科用书，不是教学方法，不是科学技术，而是教师水准。教学能力很大一部分是天性使然的，这种能力体现在激励每一颗萌动的心灵，这种能力体现在驯服每一位不羁的学子。这种能力，有人与生俱来，而有人望尘莫及。