Mayor Bloomberg defended a controversial proposal to pay kids for high test
scores yesterday, but said there are no specific plans to make it happen."As one
of the new approaches to try to tackle the intractable problem of poverty, we
have said that we would raise ... $50 million privately to encourage people,
using economic incentives," Bloomberg said. Money for test scores is "one of the
possibilities."The Daily News reported exclusively yesterday on a plan to pay
fourth-graders as much as $25 and seventh-graders as much as $50 for high scores
on so-called interim assessments, which, beginning in September, will be
administered in all city schools. The tests will help teachers determine what
kids know and what they still need to learn.The mayor's Opportunity NYC plan
also would give poor families cash rewards for actions like taking their kids to
doctors' appointments and attending job training.
I'm not convinced that paying students to achieve higher scores will work in the long run ....
Not every child is capable of earning an "A." Someone has to fall below the norm to establish a standardized scale .... How the heck do you think scores are averaged???? Will the Mayor offer a sliding monetary reward scale based on actual scores? And at which percentile rank will scores be rewarded?
Talk about depression and loss of esteem. Try to convince the child who scores below the mean or below the average that he's "worth" something. Go ahead. Try. You'll pay much more in rehabilitating him.
