Money for better AP scores?
The magazine, Education Week, has a thought-provoking piece in its fall issue saying that cash incentives for teachers and students given out for each passing score earned on an Advanced Placement (AP) exam has been shown to increase the percentage of high ACT and SAT scores earned by the students.
In addition, the program increases the number of students enrolling in college, according to new research by Cornell University economist Kirabo Jackson.
The incentives have the biggest impact on African American and Hispanic students, boosting participation in AP courses and exams.
The program is successful among largely poor and minority students in Texas public schools. The researcher reports that there is a 22 percent average increase in the number of students scoring above 1100 on the SAT or above 24 on the ACT. The increase rises each year the student is in the program. There was an 8 percent increase in the number of students who enroll in a college or university in Texas from those schools that participated in the cash incentive program.
This raises a lot of questions about what motivates students and teachers and whether it is proper to pay students to do better in school. For more information on the research check out Education Next at hoover.org.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
No students should not be paid for doing what is expected of them to do,
this is their education.
Posted by: johnsonj3 | August 22, 2008 2:39 PM
I guess the novelty of free education has worn off.
Posted by: Davis | August 22, 2008 4:41 PM
a student incentive is already in place for ap courses: the college credit you receive if your score is high enough. the payoff for that is probably far greater than what is being proposed when you think about per credit costs at college.
Posted by: jwteach | August 22, 2008 9:15 PM
To those above...
You're right, we should always do things the way we have always done them because that's always the right answer. On that note, let's move back to horse & buggies, outhouses, and log cabins. I mean that's how it used to be. People were meant to walk, that's why they have legs. Right?
Situations, basic fundamentals, and foundations change. It's the nature of humanity. We can either adapt to evolving standards by embracing them with strategies that are effective... or we can simply deny what's staring us in the face and pine for the days of old.
Incentives work. They have throughout written history. These incentives and reward structures have changed over time, but the basic premise that people will maximize their own utility will always win out, regardless of whether you recognize it or not.
I'm in law school, but not really because I love learning about the law. I'm in law school because it's a means to maximizing my long-run utility in the end. So, I ask, is that wrong? And, if not, why is it so horrendous to think that students and teachers are motivated by similarly maximizing their own long-run utility?
Posted by: Bill | August 24, 2008 5:34 PM
So my school doesn't have blinds, clean desks, decent food, books published after 1983, or a working copier, but there's cash money in the AP dept.? Sign me up!
Yeah, I know I've been teaching basic math, but who needs to teach those losers?! Not me! Before, I was inspired to be a teacher because I wanted to help my students become better people, but now I see teaching is all about the dollar bills, y'all!
Twenty bucks if you don't go over your copy paper limit. Fifty bucks if your parent call log is over 10 pages long. Fifty cents per period/per day/per student who raises their hand with the correct answer. Okay, the person who can fit the most content standards into one lesson plan could win 5s, maybe even 10s of dollars!!! Yaay Teaching!
Posted by: Steph | August 25, 2008 7:58 PM
Was the "love of teaching" sufficient beforehand? I would venture to say that the 50% graduation rate would indicate otherwise. Clearly, something hasn't been working. Time to look for new solutions.
Posted by: Bill | August 26, 2008 7:56 PM