Cash for Good AP Exam Scores?
Wednesday August 20, 2008
The New York Times reported this week that students at 31 New York City high schools were offered $1,000 dollars if they could get high scores on Advanced Placement exams. While the number of students scoring 5s (the highest score) on the exam went up slightly, the number of students passing the exam actually declined.
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The $2 million initiative was aimed at improving the racial gap in Advanced Placement results. While the results fail to show compelling evidence that cash can actually improve test scores, New York City is not alone in offering financial incentives to students. As the New York Times reports, Texas, Ohio, and Arizona have all used financial incentives to motivate students to perform better academically.
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Comments
Money for getting great scores on AP exams is an intriguing idea. Some students are not encouraged to push on to take more challenging courses, perhaps this is the motivation they need. As stated in the article, it may not really change the number of high scores, but will probably motivate more students to attempt AP courses.
Studies have shown that a student who has attempted an AP course even while not doing well on the exam does better in college than students that did not attempt any AP courses. The trick for schools is to not change the expectations of the class as more students take the class.
Most school’s Advanced Placement Programs are growing as the classes become available to more students. It will be interesting to see how this affects the quality of the courses over time.
Mike
Total Registration – providing online AP exam registration services for high schools