Pay for Student Performance: Pass the AP Test in Connecticut and Get $100

Starting next school year in Connecticut, Project Opening Doors will pay students for passing advanced placement (AP) tests.  If students pass this difficult battery of tests, they are eligible for $100 for each AP test they pass.  Teachers can also earn $100 for each student passing the AP tests.

In Waterbury, Wilby High School students and teachers are excited about the program because they believe incentives work.  A prototype program is already working in Texas where a Cornell University study showed incentives improved student attendance and the number of students passing the SAT exam with 1100 or higher went up by 30 percent.

Dr. Cam Vautour, a former local Connecticut superintendent of schools, runs Project Opening Doors.  He said the $100 award is no different than parents rewarding their sons and daughters with increased car privileges for performing well on tests.  Incentives work.

The program is part of the National Math and Science Institute (NMSI) grant awarded to nine schools in Connecticut to improve science and math learning.  Washington was one of seven states chosen for an NMSI grant but because the Washington Education Association (WEA) would not allow the merit pay for teachers to be excluded from collective bargaining agreements, our state lost $13.2 million in grant money---money which did not come from taxpayers.   

The NMSI grants were funded by $15 million contributions from the Bill and Melinda Gates and Michael and Susan Dell foundations.  EXXON-Mobil added $100 million in an effort to increase the number of future engineers, scientists, and professionals in science and math reliant jobs.

In the past two weeks, Washington losing the NSMI grant is the subject of AWB President Don Brunell's columns. Check out this week's posting asking: What Went Wrong in Washington?