The National Math and Science Initiative, a nonprofit organization that provides lab equipment and training for teachers, is now offering students in low-income areas cash incentives to score a certain level on the AP exam, as well as offering cash bonuses for teachers who can help these students pass the test.
A teacher in Worcester, after the implementation of the Initiative’s plan, now teaches his AP Statistics class to eight times as many students as he did before, according to The New York Times. When 43 of his students passing the exam, the teacher received a check for $7,300, and those who scored a three or higher on the test were awarded $100 each by the Initiative.
The recent spread of the Initiative’s tactics has sparked debate as to whether or not students should be offered monetary incentives to learn and whether or not teachers should be compensated for their additional effort.
This money is coming from a nonprofit organization who volunteered their services, and since its implementation at South High Community School in Worcester, 70 percent of students who took the test scored high enough to obtain college credit, as opposed to 50 percent from the year before. One in four students achieved top scores, a statistic which far surpassed the worldwide norm.
More programs like these would only be beneficial in the world of education. Many low-income students are not raised in an environment that would encourage them to think about their future in education or consider the benefits of getting college credit for high school courses. Many simply do not have the disposable income to take the test, which cost almost $90 per exam. Giving them a check for $100 would just catalyze their interest in education and allow for a more immediate payoff, and most of it would just go toward compensating them for taking the test in the first place.
Moreover, teachers are already grossly underpaid for the amount of work they do, and cash incentives for them to bring their kids up to a high achievement level should be a practice of normality, not an anomaly in the education system. Most Americans agree that our education system needs serious and immediate reform, and the National Math and Science Initiative is just jumpstarting a process that would benefit all participants in the system nationwide.
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