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By Phil Harvey Mar. 15--S helly Petersen, principal of Shellsburg Elementary, dressed like a 6-foot-tall No. 2 pencil. In front of a gym full of students on Feb. 2, she duked it out with a walking, talking test booklet, played by fifth-grade teacher Nathanael Brandt. "They just went crazy," Petersen said of the student reaction. Since the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002, schools in Eastern Iowa have taken various approaches to preparing students for the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) -- the standardized tests that measure student achievement. "There are two camps out there, and they have completely different approaches," said Pam Ehly, director of instruction in the Iowa City school district. In one camp are those who use extracurricular incentives to encourage academic performance. In the other camp are those who believe such incentives are ineffective, if not counterproductive. The split in Iowa is about 50-50, according to a 2008 report by the Center for Evaluation and Assessment at the University of Iowa. Fifty-one percent of Iowa schools offer incentives of some kind in connection with the standardized tests. Student scores are compared to state goals, as required by No Child Left Behind, the federal law that aims to have all children proficient in core subjects by 2014. Incentives surveyed included trips to amusement parks, gift certificates, free parking or snacks in the hall. "I think it's the wrong motivation," said Ehly, who believes it's better to foster an internal desire than to offer external rewards. Shauna Dennison, principal of Springville Secondary School, agrees. But, she says, there's nothing wrong with recognizing a job well done. At the end of Springville's 2007-08 school year, Dennison gathered Springville students in the gymnasium and surprised them with awards. Students who maintained or improved their standardized test scores got T-shirts. Students who improved by 20 percentile points were given sweat shirts. And Adam Lentz of Springville, who gained more than 30 percentile points from the previous year, was awarded an MP3 player. "We decided we're going to reward students for doing their personal best," Dennison said. Back at Shellsburg, no prizes were given. It was just a big pencil in a boxing match. But pep rallies are incentives, too, says Kris Waltman, associate director of the UI Center for Evaluation and Assessment, who administered the study with UI graduate student Joann Moore. She wasn't fond of the boxing match's message -- "It has been communicated that the test is a bad guy." Petersen disagrees. The rally communicated that the test was important and warranted a good effort, she said, not that it was a thing to be afraid of. "If you gave 100 percent, you beat the test," Petersen said. Did it work? The kids liked it, Petersen said, and it seemed to increase motivation. When the Shellsburg third graders finished the test, she said, "they walked in with their test booklets, they looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I beat the test!' " Waltman concedes the line between innocuous and counterproductive incentives is not always clear, especially because students might respond differently to different things. But if there is a need for incentives, Waltman says, it's likely that the best remedy is communication about the tests' importance, not performance-based incentives. The ITBS and ITED, Waltman says, are just one way to measure student strengths and weaknesses, and they should be treated with the same importance as any other assessment. "I think that's absolutely right," Dennison said. "It's just one tool among many. But if you can get your kids to dotheir personal best, what's the harm in trying?" Dennison and Petersen both say they're sensitive tothe pitfalls surrounding incentives, and both feel they can be used effectively. And, they say, they would use themagain. "If I'm doing right by kids and you don't like the pep rally, so be it," Petersen said."I did what I felt was best for the kids." |
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