By Joani Gillam
Staff Writer
Though the goal of this program is reasonable, simply rewarding a small minority of students for its efforts on the standardized tests should not be the administration’s main priority and shafts other hard-working students.
The students selected were those that were closest to reaching a higher category in each content area on the test: advanced, proficient, basic and below basic. The administration hopes that by implementing this program, these students will have the incentive to move up to a higher category by getting better scores on the STAR tests, thus raising Mira Costa’s overall Academic Performance Index score.
It is understandable that the administration wants to improve Costa’s API score, but simply catering to the needs of 40 children is not equitable for all others. The current incentives program will not award the highest-scoring students or those that improve the most. Rather, it rewards the few students that just randomly happen to be near a higher scoring category.
The administration feels that because the majority of students are already performing well on standardized tests, it would be more effective to focus on key groups of students that have the potential to get better test scores in order to raise Mira Costa’s test scores as a whole.
Because Mira Costa received a high API score of 898 last year, which was calculated in part from Costa’s STAR test results, it is hard to deny that raising this score will be challenging; however, enticing 40 kids to do well is not the answer.
If the administration is going to implement an incentive program to improve test scores, all Mira Costa students must be included. It would be more effective and equitable if there was a reward for the homeroom class that scored the highest on the standardized tests. Giving the winning classroom a small prize, such as cheap gift cards, would be much more cost efficient and equitable than sending a predetermined few students to Disneyland.
However, disregarding the inequality of this program, providing incentives for students has a key downside: students will no longer be performing for learning’s sake, but rather for rewards. In the short run, incentives for excellent performance will provide an initial push for higher test scores, but the real question is: how much will students learn?
It is valid to argue that the incentive for performing well on the STAR tests is that high scores will benefit the community and, thus, the school. In order to continue raising the API score and receiving these benefits, Costa must find innovative new techniques. Incentives for all students and not just a small minority, incentives for teachers and preparation classes for students are possible solutions.
However, Costa should not have to resort to bribing 40 students to obtain higher test scores and should avoid this strategy.
Although it is a valiant effort to improve Mira Costa’s overall test scores and API score, the recently implemented incentive program for standardized testing lacks equality and is twisted effort in improving students’ learning.
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