Schools paying for Grades

Today I heard in the students in (poorer) some areas are getting paid for grades. They are even paying them to do (standardized) tests. Even if these standardized tests are not required (to say, students can be exempt by their parents) and used to size-up how students are doing I must say my compulsion is to say students should not be paid for doing these tests. Do not get me wrong I fully understand that if students are not encourage by some means to write these tests then the chances are that only those that feel that they are going to do well will write as well as only those students from families that see education as realistic away to achieve (financial) success: this often means low-income families may see post-secondary as unreasonable because of the expenses. However, what about paying for achieving grades?

I can certainly see how this may motivate students. Is this practice fair: are students simply getting paid for the higher grades (e.g. As, Bs) or are they getting paid for achieving better grades each time (even if its by percentage increase)? Is there a specific amount that a student will earn if they get a C-, C, C+, B, A? Personally, I think paying them for achieving better each time is the best approach because it encourages them to improve themselves rather than just doing a minimum work. Granted some students are only would try to do the minimum and as such would not like this approach (or should I not even take part), but is the minimum behavior really is what we want to be encouraging: that is, do we what to encourage minimum as being counted as achieving more? More to the point of this fair ness issue is that there are some students regardless of how hard they try will only be able to achieve so high in terms of grades or for some reason it is unreasonable to expect them to be A or B student (such as those with cognitive or mental health problems).

Grade Inflation

Watching CBC News and it reports that in Toronto, Ontario's teachers are meeting to try to come up with solutions to prevent Grade Inflation. Good for them! However, I think a key point is responsibility: from teachers and principles (whom are responsible for ensuring that students are assigned grades they have earned) and parents that need to realize that understanding the material leads to better grades as well as that their children should earn their grades and not because parents make complaints.

I am in all support for creation of programs such a tutoring programs that students will be referred to, by teachers, to help students understand the material better (and even to the point that if these programs are open to all students, not just those that are referred by teachers) to allow students to re-challenge exams and assignments at no grade penalty (a limit of one re-challenged as well I would suggest the re-challenged is marked by someone other than the original teacher/marker and that the student’s identity is kept confidential and that the two teachers/markers are unaware of whom each other are).

Furthermore, if teachers are feeling pressured into Grade Inflation I would suggest if they want to be considered professionals then they do not grade inflate (as much people may pester them into doing so); as well, teachers should be more readily reprimanded for Grade Inflation then they already are. Similarly there should be an increase in consequences for principals and others whom try to pressure teachers into Grade Inflation and a reporting method for teachers whom feel they have been pressured.

Parents Paying for Grades

The question is should parents pay their children when they achieve better or high grades. There are three points that I would like to rise here. Many people think that paying their children for grades amounts to giving a bribe; others state that in life we get paid for the work we get done so you should not this lesson be taught early. Those of the later would also point out most of us do not have the luxury of living a life based on what we want to do for a living therefore trying teach children the value of doing work for the enjoyment of the task is not practical. Those against paying for grades, however, my state that some parents may not be able to afford paying their children for grades, and any parents that pays for grades may be putting pressure on parents that cannot afford to pay. I would also like to add to this discussion the issue of if one child is capable of high achievement while another child is not capable; certainly it is unfair to award only one child (who achieves the high grade) if both children put in high amounts of equal effort. This problem is not really fixed even if the parents resort to an effort or/and ability based system as children often do not view things in terms of merit (i.e., effort, ability, etc.), but rather instead results (i.e., grades) as such the higher grade achieving child may become upset that their sibling is getting equally paid even through there is a grade difference.