Paying for grades . . .

I found an interesting study on Larry Cuban’s site about paying students to do well in school. Cuban uses this paragraph from the 107 page report to pretty much summarize the result. I encourage you to follow the link and read his short summary and thoughts.

What did the researchers find out when it came to these incentives? “Remarkably,” Fryer says, “incentives for output did not increase achievement (p.5).” This occurred across all grades, across cities. However, “paying students to read books (Dallas) yields a large and statistically significant increase in reading comprehension (p. 5).” Ditto for students in Washington, D.C. who improved their test scores when they were focused on improving the “inputs” (attendance and behavior) to achievement.

After the obligatory remarks about just one test and rigor of the design, he then raises the question about whether the results would be any different in pay for performance or teacher merit pay models. Even if we could design models where all parties could agree on the data sources and measurement tools I question whether the results would be different. I believe that the intent of those systems is to eliminate those teachers whose students do not meet the imposed “standard”, not to support all teachers over time to reach a standard that arises from conversation about shared vision for all students. I prefer to continue moving toward a shared vision of what Classroom 10 looks and sounds like that includes holding ourselves accountable for achievement of all students.