Incorporating Standardized Test Scores Into Course Grades As A Student Incentive or Cutting Down the Christmas Tree

My school is in a tough situation this year. Bottom 10 in the state, and last in our district. We are an elementary school so we have a different set of obstacles, but even still motivation has been a huge issue. Here are some things we are planning on doing or are doing. Hopefully something will help!

- most children are not made aware of their past scores on standardized tests. We have "test talks" with them one-on-one. We make goals together asking them what they can do to reach their goals and what we can do to help them. we made a data wall with their scores ( no names) for the whole class. It makes the data real and visual for them.

- ask your students what they want. Of course we want our students to work hard because of the desire to learn within. The truth is, we all work for incentives and need extrinsic motivation sometimes in order for it to become intrinsic. When I've asked my students what I can do to show them that I appreciate their hard work, the answers are not far fetched or unreachable.

Hi Howard,

I tweeted your question out and got some responses...

@CherylGustafson We host all-school breakfast the day of the stand tests. Cook pancakes, sausages, scrambled eggs, etc. All share in the meal.

@cajacobson reward them by buying them a book and deemphasizing the test score

@puremik21 exemption to pop quizzes or exams! I'd work harder :)

Feel free to contact through Twitter.

I think MandybFlora made some great points. I wish that there were smaller classroom sizes for all teachers so that there is time for attention and motivation.

In regards to offering an increased course letter grade as an incentive, I think that is a tough question. I do believe though that there are alternative ways to motivate students to perform such as leadership and skills development, positive reinforcement, plus teacher, parent, and community org interaction and support.

This is a great polling question. =)

I recommend that everyone here watch Daniel Pink's TED talk on motivation. To sum it up, children aren't going to see increased motivation to do well on their state exams for extrinsic rewards. "Doing well" on those requires a high level of cognitive sophistication, and as you push yourself too hard for an external reward, your ability to complete the task actually diminishes.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

As for the data wall, I'm horrified. Spend less time teaching to the test, and more time focusing on literacy and numeracy, and experiential learning, and your students will do better on the state exam. My recommendation is to ignore the exam completely and focus on improving student engagement in learning.

When I taught 8th grade, and the lowest 25%, I did my best to talk to students prior to testing about their options if they show gains from the previous year and if they didn't. For many that meant they would not either progress to high school OR if they did, they wouldn't get any elective courses and have to take remedial courses instead. That was an external motivator to be sure. But no one really tells them what this all means. Including test scores in their course grades is similar to what states like NY used to do with their Regents exams. You had to have the course grades AND Regents' scores to be promoted.

Totally agree with David Wees! Early childhood children HAVE, are born with intrinsic motivation, we are killing it in our school systems. And a GREAT breakfast for "mind food" would not include pancakes (unless they are whole wheat)and syrup (empty hollow mind blowing carbs, that only last for 1 hour, then drop) stick to protein and whole wheat or oatmeal and a fruit (real ones, not canned)!!

To David Wees,

I agree about not teaching to the test, but I do think with all other stakeholders focused so much on the test, we should be honest with our students about their results. Whether I like it or not (and I don't), the results matter.

Other than our test talks, which are also focused on goals that will help them academically overall- not just on the test, the instrcution is not about THE TEST. It is about literacy, numeracy, experiential learning, etc.

If it were up to me, I would put less importance on the test. But when the state department comes in and says, if your
test scores don't raise- you'll lose your jobs. I don't know the balance between too much assessment and not enough accountability, but we haven't reached it.

If you get the time, check out Freakonomics. It talks about how we do work for extrinsic motivators.

I have to say I agree with MandybFlora. I am curious to see if David Wees has a response.

So many of my students have family units (or lack thereof) where they are struggling just to keep themselves from falling apart. They are not intrinsically motivated to do anything but fall apart. In a edutopian world we would explain to them how important these test scores are for their future and for themselves as an intellectual...but at our 7th grade level there really is no importance other than whether our school passes AYP and whether or not teachers get criticized. Great extrinsic motivation for teachers to try and "intrinsically" motivate our students.

And pancakes....why not....better than the energy drinks they bring with them in the mornings from home! ha! :)

Students aren't allowed to chew gum at our school and of course they love gum. So at the start of every testing session I give them some gum. Such a simple thing and it seems to put them in good spirits at least, before starting the test!