Should we pay students for good test scores?

American Teacher, Mar 2008 by Bennett, Jackie, Arnold, Dolores

NO

Test fixation isn't worth a dime

BY JACKIE BENNETT

SOME EDUCATION REFORMERS think that if we tempt kids with a little money from the pockets of schools or private foundations, their enthusiasm for cash will morph into a love of books. But placing a dollar value on something that has an intrinsic value does not generally increase our appreciation of it. And it isn't just idealists who balk at paying kids to write a story or to discuss the Bill of Rights. Most of us send our children to school so they will be able to enjoy the same private and communal satisfactions as other educated people, such as the ability to think and speak without ignorance about the human questions, the social questions and the universal questions. We want children to treasure knowledge. Paying cash for learning degrades that treasure, the same way paying cash for love would, or getting paid to take a long walk in the woods.

Paying kids to learn is bad enough; paying kids for test scores is much worse. Hard work does not always translate into great grades, and great grades do not necessarily reflect a great education. By placing value on the test, we are saying that what matters is the test-and little else.

That's especially troubling because it is children of poverty, and only children of poverty, who will be paid for scores. We can all decide for ourselves how we feel about inspiring rich kids with the richness of ideas while poor kids are busy jumping for a biscuit, but we should not fool ourselves into thinking that their education is the same.

Granted, we have not closed the achievement gap. Granted, closing it is the most pressing education issue of our time. But if richer children do better in school, it may be because they arrive at kindergarten with broader background knowledge, a wider vocabulary and none of the practical problems that stem from poverty. For these lucky children, school can be an adventure. For their poorer counterparts, classes can become places of struggle and failure. Who can blame them for wanting to drop out?

One can understand why policymakers, in their endless quest for higher test scores, would want kids on board. But paying for scores threatens to undermine both the higher pleasures of education and our resolve to address obstacles to achievement through anti-poverty programs, early childhood education and great curricula.

There are no quick fixes. Let's not be deluded into thinking that there are.

Jackie Bennett has been a high school English teacher for 19 years and currently teaches at Lincoln High School in New York City.

YES Money doesn't just

talk, it works

BY DOLORES ARNOLD

DEAN WAS (and continues to be) a phenomenal dancer, and his body, not the use of language, controls his being. During the first week of school, he and his mother wanted him to drop AP English III because of studio and performance demands on his time. My reply to Dean was, "Just work with me; you can pass this class, and I bet you can pass the exam. Remember, English students who make a 3,4 or 5 on the exam will get a check for $ 100 given by a private donor and managed by the AP Incentive Program. Think how that extra $100 will brighten your December."

Dean struggled through every class period and every tutoring session often with an exhausted body and dark circles under his eyes. He even struggled through the exam, telling me later it was "soooo hard." Summer came and went Then on the first day of the next school year, I heard his cries: "I passed. I passed the AP test!"

This excitement does not come from students who make the 4's and 5's, or even those who know they will make a 3. No, that true sense of joy comes from students who consistently make 2's throughout the year, who come to every tutoring session, Saturday after Saturday, who want to prove to themselves that they, too, can get a check before winter break.

Does the Incentive Program work? Of course, it does. The program gives students, especially those from lower socioeconomic groups, a reason to ride the bus or the train even in bad weather to get to school to become a better learner. The idea of receiving a monetary reward for anything to do with education entices them to try a little harder, to work a little more diligently. This monetary "carrot," distributed the following December, allows students to pay college application fees, to buy college textbooks, to buy a really special gift for Mama or to have spending money during the holidays. It has a ripple effect Younger students who see those checks immediately say, "I can do that too. I'm going to really work hard. I intend to pass my AP exam so that I can get a check next year."

My greatest delight is to see a struggling AP student go from "I'll never pass the test" to "I'm beginning to understand what all this means" to "I think I can do this" to "I can do this" to "I passed; I really passed!" We've all heard, "Money talks," but in the case of our Incentive Program, money also works.

Dolores Arnold teaches in the AP Incentive Program at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.