In article
<14338f60-9142-4edc-8d61-ecb1ecc1c263@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Dom <DRosa@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 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,"
An interesting book, that. I particularly liked the psych experiments
which demonstrated that providing extrinsic rewards for a task can
damage someone's internal motivation towards it.
> 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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