courant.com/news/education/hc-schools0412.artapr12,0,4467040.story
Courant.com
Students At 9 Conn. High Schools To Get Financial Incentives
By LYNN DOAN, Courant Staff Writer
April 12, 2008
EAST HARTFORD --
Students enrolled in nine high schools named Friday will soon be
offered $100 for every Advanced Placement test they pass in math,
science or English through a new privately funded program.
Teachers at the nine schools will also receive financial incentives
based on their students' test results. The amount has not been set.
Ansonia High School, Bulkeley High School in Hartford, Coventry High
School, East Hartford High School, New Britain High School, New London
High School, Putnam High School, Westhill High School in Stamford and
Wilby High School in Waterbury will receive a total of $4 million for
the incentives and to train staff members.
The schools, the first in the state to receive the grants, were
selected based on the quality of their application, their low AP
course enrollment and their demographics.
The tests cost $84 to take, although low-income students can apply for
a waiver.
Although the program, known as Project Opening Doors, has been
successful in Dallas, it has drawn critics who say such "pay-for-
performance" programs are only a short-term fix with detrimental long-
term effects.
"Setting up a system of bribes and bounties for both students and
teachers might help in the short run," said Bob Schaeffer, public
education director of FairTest, a national center for fair and open
testing based in Cambridge, Mass. "But what happens when kids get to
college, and they're not paid for their grades?"
Alfie Kohn, author of "Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold
Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes," described
Project Opening Doors as "an almost guaranteed bad technique, relying
on crude behaviorist psychology, married to a terrible goal, which is
about passing bad tests."
"It's superficial from the get-go," he said. "You do something in
order for you to get the goodie, and that devalues the act itself."
The program, paid for with a $13.2 million private grant from the
National Math and Science Initiative and funded by ExxonMobil, is
intended to prepare high school students for careers in science and
technology by encouraging them to take AP courses in math, science and
English. Students will receive cash rewards for every math, science or
English AP test they pass with a score of three or higher out of five.
High school students are "falling behind" in math and science, partly
because teachers are finding it difficult to draw them to the
subjects, said Gregg Fleisher, national director of AP programs for
the National Math and Science Initiative.
"I have two teenage daughters, and it's hard to engage them," Fleisher
said at Friday's press conference. "Sometimes, it requires some
stipends."
The first nine schools to participate in the program were announced
during a press conference Friday at East Hartford Middle School. The
Connecticut Business and Industry Association Education Foundation, in
partner****p with the state Department of Education, plans to expand
the program in the next five years to include at least 25 to 30
schools that have low enrollment in AP courses.
"It's a way to ensure that Connecticut maintains that competitive
edge," foundation President John Rathgeber said.
State Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan described the program as
"a blessing" that would help "transform our secondary school system in
a very significant way."
"If we raise our expectations of students ... our students will rise
to that challenge," he said.
The foundation has established goals for the first nine schools that
require them to double enrollment in AP courses and passing scores
within 18 months. After five years, the schools are expected to have
quadrupled enrollment and passing scores, said J.A. Camille Vautour,
who recently retired as superintendent of Rocky Hill's school district
to become president of Project Opening Doors.
Ten selected schools in Dallas, where the project began, were able to
increase the number of students passing AP exams from 157 to 1,470 in
the 12 years they've participated in the program, according to the
National Math and Science Initiative. The number of black and Latino
students who passed AP exams has risen from 29 to 664 in those
schools, he said.
Contact Lynn Doan at ldoan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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