PRINCIPALS OFFER BLOOMBERG AND KLEIN CASH REWARDS

June 21, 2007 (Gadfly News) In a surprising twist in the city’s increasingly tense struggle over the direction of its schools, a coalition of 313 New York City public school principals have banded together to offer Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein a schedule of cash payments if the two agree to rescind recent changes instituted by the Department of Education.

“We had no choice,” said a principal of a Brooklyn elementary school who asked to remain anonymous, as did all the principals interviewed. “The changes they were making were radical and extreme, but more than that, they were wrong-headed. It seemed as if they were deliberately designed to destabilize our schools.”

Another principal, who heads up an elementary school in the Bronx, seconded the sentiment. “I hate to do this, offer an award schedule,” she said. “As all of us who got our degrees in education know, doling out rewards to people can seriously undermine their intrinsic motivation to do something. It sends the message that the thing itself is not worth doing, not rewarding in and of itself. But we can only assume from the actions of the mayor and the chancellor that they have no intrinsic motivation to do the right thing by the schools. We’ve come to the conclusion that money is the only thing they understand.”

Students at this principal’s school did not seem as concerned about the direction of the schools as she was. When asked their opinions about some of the changes recently instituted by the DOE – the increase in testing dates, the proposal to pay students for passing scores – all of the students approached refused to answer unless they were compensated. “What’s it worth to you?” asked one student. “Show me the money,” demanded another.

A third principal in the coalition, this one heading up a Manhattan middle school, seemed near exhaustion when interviewed for this article. “I feel as if I’ve been on a reality survival show all year,” he said. “Every week the DOE has thrown a new ‘challenge’ at us, and now that it’s the end of the year we’ll have to look around and see which schools are still standing.”

When apprised of this principal’s comment, Chancellor Klein brightened. “A survival show?” he said. “Great idea! Who says we don’t listen to our professional educators? I’m going to have my people investigate the possibility ASAP!” He peeled a bill out of the wad in his wallet. “The last principal standing will win a grand!” he said. Then, “Can somebody run this ten spot over to the principal who came up with the idea, as a little incentive along the way?”

The principals representing the coalition, masked in order to conceal their identities and protect their jobs, gathered yesterday afternoon outside of Tweed, where the DOE is housed. In the opening remarks, the spokesprincipal apologized for the low dollar amounts of their rewards. “We realize that these amounts might not be ‘motivating’ to a billionaire,” she said, “but they were all we could raise in our bake sale.” The group then announced the schedule of rewards as they had structured them. The schedule included:

• Repealing the assessment tests: $100
• Reinstatement of the district structure: $500
• Revoking mayoral control of schools: Priceless

Paying for test scores

Harvard Professor Roland Fryer who intends to experiment on our students by giving them cash awards if they score high enough on their interim assessments is going to become "chief equality officer" at Tweed, according to the NY Times.

So much for these supposedly "no-stakes" exams.

The results of this experiment will be monitored by Fryer.

So much for independent evaluations.

The Mayor apparently loves the idea of paying kids cold hard cash for performance, just as much as he approves of the "pay for play" arrangement in his controversial Randall's island deal, now in court, in which exclusive rights to most of the fields in a public park would be granted to private school students for the next twenty years.

But what if you're a conscientious student and you are trying hard, but still can't make a perfect score? What about kids with disabilities, or ELL students?

Too bad for you.

Question: can anyone tell me why this experiment is likely to lead to more equality, rather than even more disparity between high and low achieving families and kids?

This and other similar experiments (in pdf) involving cash incentives to kids for high scores are being funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Robin Hood, the Open Society Institute (George Soros' foundation), and the insurance company AIG, as well as the Mayor himself.

Students who pass all five Regents would be paid $3,000. If the program is seen as "working" and is expanded, it could cost the city "hundreds of millions" a year, according to Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs in the NY Post.

DOE still mum about cash for kids who ace their "no-stakes" assessments

In his Daily News column on Thursday, Juan Gonzalez broke the story about the proposal to give cash awards to students in the empowerment schools who ace the new interim assessments. (Here is an earlier blog entry about these $30 million assessments to be given four to five times a year.)

More than a week ago, we posted a letter to principals from Roland Fryer, the 30 year old Harvard professor leading the project.

Students will be paid five to ten dollars for taking these tests -- and 25 to 50 dollars if they score a perfect score. Every empowerment school that buys into the project will also be awarded a $5,000 cash "gift."

This proposal severely undermines the official DOE claim that these are “no-stakes tests” See this headline on the Tweed press release from June 1 for example: "Customizable, No-Stakes Assessments to Give Teachers, Principals, and Parents Timely Feedback on Student Progress"

Or this, from the DOE website: "These assessments are solely tools for teaching and learning. There are no stakes attached to the results for schools, principals, teachers or students."

The new project was inspired by the Mayor’s poverty initiative. Bloomberg established a commission on eradicating poverty, and then ignored most of their recommendations and instead announced he would implement experiments to pay parents and students cash if they attend school regularly and get good results.

Of course, if the kids who score well are not poor, they will presumably get receive these awards anyway – so this proposal might even enhance economic disparities among students at the school level.

In the NY Times today, Ernest Logan, the president of the principals’ union, said that “We are troubled by additional pressure being placed on children to achieve perfection,” he said. “What really matters in education is continued student progress, not perfect test scores.”

Apparently, the project has not been formally approved by DOE, despite the fact that the Fryer has already held sessions with principals and signed up a number of schools. Eric Nadelstern, head of the empowerment zone, endorses the project, according to the NY Times:

“He has my enthusiastic support,” Mr. Nadelstern said in an email to principals.“I encourage you to give the program serious consideration.”

Bloomberg also likes the proposal: "If we aren't looking at everything, shame on us,” he said at a news conference yesterday, “I hope there are people thinking about how we would implement that and every other idea." (Unfortunately, they still aren’t thinking seriously about how to reduce class size – despite a new state law that requires them to do so.)

According to NY1, late Friday DOE issued a statement: "Performance-based incentives are one element in a range of strategies we are considering. We are still at a preliminary stage in considering how to implement such a program."

Does this reluctance to endorse the project signal a split within the administration?

Check the negative commentary from New York magazine, in a piece entitled "Mike Bloomberg wants to bribe your kids," the blog Ed in the Apple, and a column criticizing a similar program of cash incentives in Florida here:

“Gov. Charlie Crist was correct when, as the state's education commissioner, he said that the prospect of cash rewards for students who score well on FCAT made him “a little queasy.”

We spend loads of time and effort telling kids what's right about learning, that education is something inherently good and valuable. By using cash as an incentive for students to do well on state tests, schools act hypocritically, and they may even be undermining their core missions.”