From Texas to New York, principals say giving students cash for better performance buys higher test scores and more enthusiasm.
That link heartens supporters of Baltimore?s plan to offer cash rewards to students who perform better on state exams.
Principal Gregory Hodge credits his students? high scores on college-level Advanced Placement exams to the $150 rewards he?s doled out for five years at his majority-black school in Harlem, in one of New York?s poorest neighborhoods.
Now, thanks to philanthropic hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, Hodge?s Frederick Douglass Academy is among 31 New York high schools participating in an initiative unveiled this fall that will pay students $500 to $1,000 for high Advanced Placement test scores.
“A lot of people are not willing to try new things, and if you aren?t trying new things, you aren?t helping kids,” Hodge said.
About 20 percent of the black students in New York state who earned a perfect five on the AP statistics exam last year and the 10 percent who passed attended Frederick Douglass, test results show.
Hodge first hatched the idea of rewarding students with cash when he decided to give students money for improved attendance and grades while working at a Bronx school a decade ago. The bonuses turned truants into students who attended 98 percent of the time, he said.
“I?m going to get money for college expenses and help out my mother with financial stresses,” said Elliott Garcia, 17, a senior at Frederick Douglass taking AP U.S. History and English.
“I had to work part time, but now I can focus on school.”
Harvard economist Ronald Fryer and New York schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein rolled out another program this fall paying fourth- and seventh-graders up to $500 for perfect scores on state tests.
Ten Dallas schools have paid students for passing AP exams since 1996, a practice that expanded to more than 40 schools in Texas.
“We are asking kids to make a choice: All are low income, so they can work flipping burgers at Mickey D?s or they can commit to their studies and earn money for their hard work,” said Edward Rodriguez, director of the project paying New York AP students.
“Don?t knock it until you try it.”
