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The REACH program, recently launched by the Council of Urban Professionals in partnership with the Pershing Square Foundation, seeks to motivate the most impoverished minority students not only to take Advanced Placement tests, but to do well on them. Students at 31 participating New York City schools can receive cash incentives based on their AP scores. Starting this school year, students earning a score of 3—the first passing score—stand to make $500, a score of 4 earns $750, and a top score of 5 will be worth $1,000.
This is not the first time pay-for-performance initiatives have been tried in education. In some districts, teachers are offered monetary rewards for earning additional certification, serving in high-needs schools, or boosting student test scores ("Teacher-Pay Experiments Mounting Amid Debate," Education Week, October 3, 2007). The REACH program, however, has sparked a debate about the extension of financial incentives to the students themselves.
Those in favor of the REACH program applaud it for providing a direct and palpable reward of a student's hard work and study. Without the promise of a paycheck, the assumption is that many of these students would spend their after school and weekend hours in a part-time job to help themselves and their families rather than buckling down with challenging coursework.
On the other hand, some believe that the promise of monetary incentives diminishes the moral value of education for students. Critics argue that students will come to expect financial reward for everything they do in school. Still others dislike the idea of money flowing directly into students' pockets. They say programs that award academic scholarships or provide competitive internships would be better served by the funding.
"There is little doubt in my mind that we will see a multifold increase in the number of our students who take and pass rigorous AP exams and who will gain acceptance into competitive colleges."
—"Cash Awards for Students Who Score on AP Tests," Associated Press, October 16, 2007
"The REACH program rewards excellence and is teaching our youth that there is no limit to the things they can accomplish... I am pleased that there are two schools in our district participating in this program. Myself and the members [of the NYS Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus] plan hard to expand this program to all schools throughout New York City."
—"Launch of New REACH Program," Norwood News, November 1, 2007
"While this privately-funded program will provide assistance to students in [some] schools, the city needs to increase its commitment to Advanced Placement and other college-prep coursework in all of the City's middle and high schools."
—"UFT President Randi Weingarten on Student Cash Awards for AP Scores," Press Statement, October 16, 2007
"Opponents argue that this program weds the cultivation of knowledge with a market-mentality not fit for the classroom. But in schools where the teachers are underpaid, the classrooms are overcrowded, and students are more focused on earning money for basic necessities than their studies, it is frivolous to cite the destruction of the culture of knowledge as a counterargument to this type of solution…
The program does not spend money without measurable achievement. Unlike an underperforming teacher or an expenditure on unnecessary supplies, which both represent sunk costs for a school district, here, a student has to perform before money is spent."
—"Pay for Performance," October 18, 2007
"I am offended by this concept... that people from poor or minority backgrounds would only want to learn if there was some kind of monetary reward involved. The real incentive to do well should be the success that comes along with getting high school and college degrees... Instead of money, competitive, challenging, exciting internships and opportunities of the sort should be given to these high-achieving students in order to inspire them."
—"Cash for Kids Update," NYC Students Blog, October 15, 2007
"We believe that rewarding hard work and high achievement will result in even higher motivation. These students are not children—most are savvy young adults, about to go off to college, and have held jobs and know what it’s like to earn money in exchange for hard work. But almost all of them are poor and thus don't have the same opportunities and resources that most other students do.
They have very real and pressing financial needs to, for example, pay for college visits and applications, books, class trips and the senior prom, so in many cases they are forced to make a choice no student should have to make: between committing to their studies or taking a job (usually a low-paying, dead-end one)."
—"Harvard Crimson on REACH," Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog, October 22, 2007
"Once you start paying people to do things, there's no way of backing down from that expectation. This principle is going to spread—why not pay people to go to class or pay people to turn in homework?"
—"NYC Offers Monetary Incentives for Scores," The Daily Tar Heel, October 22, 2007
"It would be wise to ensure the money is allocated toward higher education since that is what the monetary rewards are trying to encourage. However, enforcement of such a policy might have to submit to the 'honor code' unless college fund accounts are set up. After all, that's what AP scores are there for: to help you get in to college and then to get credit once you are there. It only makes sense to put this money toward the college of the students' choice."
—"Invest in Learning," October 24, 2007
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