Gone are the days of the gold star, or the smiley-face on the graded test…now two schools are stepping up their good-grades game by offering a more serious incentive: 100 dollars in cash, the Huffington Post reports. NBC’s WAVY station reports AP students at Salem and Green Run High Schools will receive the cash for each Advanced Placement exam they score a “3,” “4,” or “5” on. AP exams are graded on a five-point scale. The program is made possible by a privately backed grant, and is meant to cover the cost of the exams, leaving likely only $20 for students. Although the incentive has garnered praise among education scholars, The Virginian-Pilot reports, some are arguing the money would be better spent hiring more teachers to reduce class size…
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Incentives for advanced work let pupils and teachers cash in
Joe Nystrom, who teaches math at a low-income high school here, used to think that only a tiny group of students—the “smart kids”—were capable of advanced coursework, reports the New York Times. But two years ago, spurred by a national program that offered cash incentives and other support for students and teachers, Mr. Nystrom’s school, South High Community School, adopted a come one, come all policy for Advanced Placement courses. Today Mr. Nystrom teaches A.P. statistics to eight times as many students as he used to, and this year 70 percent of them scored high enough to qualify for college credit, compared with 50 percent before. One in four earned the top score possible, far outpacing their counterparts worldwide…
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