Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Payment for taking AP Exams


There was an article in today's Newsday that said some public schools would be paying high school students for scoring high grades on Advanced Placement Exams. As an Advanced Placement teacher, I take great offense at this new policy. Taking an AP class is a privilege that is earned through hard work and mastery of prerequisite skills. The rewards for doing well in these classes include college credit. Even more important than the college credit is the study and thinking skills learned in these classes. The students taking these exams will be going to college. No one will (or should) pay them for doing well in college. They should not be paid to do well on these exams in high school.

6 comments:

mathmom said...

I have to agree with you 100%. If the kids are not internally motivated by this point, they shouldn't be taking the class. Then again, I don't agree with parents who pay their kids to get A's on their report cards either. Or maybe I'm just jealous because my parents never paid me for getting A's. ;-)

JUSTICE not "just us" said...

Since Bloomberg is multi-billionaire it makes sense for him to promote a system in where you can buy anything and anybody.
I am sorry to say that in my opinion we have sank so low that money or the making of money at any cost is what drives us in this country. The world has followed our example making the few very "happy" and vast majority miserable.

"Self-interest over community"
"Better you than me"(in terms of experiencing pain)
"Get Rich or die trying"

Those are the motto of many young people. It used to be you couldn't trust anyone over 30. Today beware of those just out of college they will kill if they have to to get ahead and why shouldn't they it what we have taught them through our popular culture.

Anonymous said...

I'm a math teacher at one of these schools where they have this incentive for math, science and language arts, and I have mixed feelings about it. Our school has over 2500 students with about 50% free and reduced lunch and about 50% Hispanic with the other 50% a mix of white, black, other.

In the past 4 years the number of students taking calculus has been (in order) about 5, 28, 41, & 41. It's not yet in the "culture" of our school to see that they can take the higher math classes and succeed. For a school our size, we should have at least 6 or so classes of calculus, and we have 2 (so far).

This payment of kids is one of the attempts at getting more kids to take the courses, and then maybe as more and more take it and others see that people like them can succeed, maybe that will encourage more to try.

I also think you shouldn't be paid for doing school, but someone likened it to a $300 scholarship per passing score. Still of mixed feelings, but if it gets more kids to take calculus, I'm grudgingly for it.

S.D. in Texas

LSquared32 said...

How about a real scholarship: if you have a B or above in the class, the school will pick up the tab for taking the AP exam, and maybe even thow in a free study guide or lunch out after the test. That seems like it would make more sense.

Pissedoffteacher said...

I agree with lsquared. This payment assumes that The kids I teach are a mixed group, some middle class and lots of immigrants. They succeed (or don't succeed because fo what is inside of them, not because of some promised monetary reward. My kids that need the money could use it while they are taking the courses. Many must work to help put food on their tables. Some live without parents. Money at the end will not pay the bills now or afford them the study time they now need.

Anonymous said...

I've had kids ask me personally to pay them to do things. As if it were for *me* and not them.

It's the poisonous culture we live in. I hate it.