Test Incentive Cynicism to the Max

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

KA-CHING! FILLS EVERY CHAIR AT MANUAL FOR CSAP
PRINCIPAL TOLERATES CASH PAYOUT TO ENSURE ATTENDANCE
Rocky Mountain News -- March 13, 2008
by Nancy Mitchell

A plan to pay Manual High School students to take state tests this week 
has paid off - with 100 percent attendance.

Manual Principal Rob Stein is hardly the first metro-area educator to 
use enticements to get students to take part in the Colorado Student 
Assessment Program.

Other schools - particularly high schools - have used movie passes, 
fast-food certificates and chances to win raffles with prizes such as 
televisions and iPods.

Stein and his staff went the more direct route of cold, hard cash. For 
each test taken, $5. For good behavior, such as arriving on time, add 
another $1. Private donors will pay the bill.

With nine tests over the past three days, Tuesday through Thursday, that 
equals about $50 per student.

"I don't believe in it, but it works," Stein said Thursday.

The Manual alum with a doctorate from Harvard took over the struggling 
school in north-central Denver last fall, after eight years spent 
running the prestigious and private Graland Country Day School.

"The reason why I think I was willing to make the exception is there's 
no benefit to the kids in the CSAP," Stein said. "They don't learn from 
it, it's not intrinsically motivating, they don't get results in a 
timely way. There's just no benefit to them."

The CSAP exams are given annually to students in grades three through 10 
in reading, writing, math and science.

Test results are used to rate schools, but they don't count for 
individual student grades or graduation.

"It's simply a chore they have to do that's unpleasant," Stein said. "I 
don't think paying them to do an unpleasant chore is the same thing as 
paying them to learn."

Students also will be rewarded if they perform better than expected, 
based on past test performance, when CSAP results are returned this August.

"We wanted kids not just to be present but to try," the principal said.

Of Manual's 160 students - all ninth-graders - only a student who ran 
away from home a month ago did not take any tests. Another student must 
make up two of the nine tests given.

Otherwise, attendance was perfect.

In spring 2006, the last time Manual students took the exams, absence 
rates ranged from zero to 15 percent on tests. DPS leaders shuttered the 
poorly performing school in 2006-07 to plan its current reform.

"Having 100 percent attendance is tremendous," said DPS Superintendent 
Michael Bennet, who heard about the plan on Thursday morning.

"I do think we have to look at all kinds of incentives and disincentives 
to get the behavior we all want," he said. "Whether it's appropriate for 
all schools, I don't know the answer to that."

Stein said the school also had other strategies, including collecting 
student cell phone numbers and calling those who were running late.

Teachers also emphasized that "we really want to rally as a community."

But the money definitely helped. Altogether, he said private donors can 
expect to pay out about $8,000. Students will be paid next week.

"It's not part of my educational philosophy," said Stein, who believes 
learning should be intrinsically motivated.

But, he added, "I'm obligated to go with the data on this one. One thing 
we've learned is, it works."


  
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/13/school-pays-students-take-test/