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Local and state education policy -- an anamorphic view from Mount Desert Island, Maine
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Transforming 'persistently low-performing schools': a modest proposalAs you know, the Department of Education has just announced that $12 million in federal dollars may be available for ten of Maine's “persistently lowest-achieving schools” which the Department has identified largely by students' relative performance on the SATs. A quick check of the enrollment numbers at the listed schools shows that this designation then is dependent on the SAT performance of 732 juniors. Naturally, it's irresistible to do the arithmetic. $12M divided by 732 is $16,300 per junior. So, in these days when the federal theme is performance and accountability, the solution to raising these SAT scores is unmistakable: Reward the students directly. $16,300 per student is handsome enough. But, given the harsh beauties of the free market, we know that half these kids, by definition, will always be below average, no matter how the group performs. Sorry, Bub, that's just life in the 21st century. So, really, for the most "incentivizing" bang for the buck, all we need to concern ourselves with is rewarding the 366 top performers from these schools. That's now $32,600 per student, let's say in cash, in a brown paper bag, and deliverable with a diploma at graduation. Does anyone doubt that the cut-throat improvement in metrics would be measurable? So, what are we dawdling for? |
A fifth model for the School Improvement Grant
I think Brian might be on to something here. Lets use market based policies to provide incentives for all of our students to perform and grow at their best rate through school. Using the ten lowest performing schools in Maine as potential pilot schools, I suggest a fifth model for turning around low performing schools.
Offer all students in the schools that adopt this model a $30,000 US savings bond that they would collect upon successful graduation and "Meeting the Standard" on the SAT (or whatever test replaces the SAT in the future). A student that completes these two items will have a nice nest egg to help pay for post-secondary education, make a down payment on a house or boat to live or work in.
Heck if it works for the big banks and Wall Street firms it also should work for our students as well. (Wait a minute, it was those banks and firms that got us into this recession in the first place.)
Well maybe our students will do a better job than the big banks and brokerage houses. It might provide better results than the other four models in rural Maine.