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High School Kills Color-Coded ID Program
theodp writes "Anaheim Union High School District has killed a controversial incentive program that assigned students color-coded ID cards and planners based on state test scores, required those who performed poorly to stand in a separate lunch line and awarded the others with discounts. The program was designed to urge students to raise scores on the California Standards Tests, but it also raised concern among parents and students who said it illegally revealed test scores and embarrassed those who didn't do well."
christ forbid that any american should feel ever feel bad about being stupid
Separate lines for lunch? Who could ever think this was a good idea. Sure, let the students doing well get some perks, just don't go around printing "Dumb" on the lesser achieving kids' foreheads. At least they wised up, even if it did take some external pressure to scrap the idea.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Anything and everything to motivate them. Coddling children doesn't do them any favors.
It's unwise to upset the natural order of things. Nerds, get to the back of the bus where you belong.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Here's another thought. Do better on the tests, and you won't have to worry about being "embarassed." It isn't like they printed the actual score on the ID card or planner. It's a shame that, in this country, we let the bottom of the barrel bring everyone else down, rather than force them to either catch up or fall off the radar. It isn't just schools, but raising the children that way means that it will carry over into everything that generation does as adults. What's next? Musical chairs with enough chairs for every student so no one feels bad about not having a chair?
They want to stop kids from being publicly humiliated in high school? Good luck. The point of the program was to use the only effective stick they have in public school nowadays, peer pressure, and for a good cause in this case. I'm sure none of these kids are going to regret working at McDonald's for the rest of their life as long as it saves them a little embarrasment at school. Nut up California.
It prepares them for future. I mean don't they do shit like that in prison? You do what you are told and you move up to lower security tier, where life is oh so much sweeter. You get to live in in less cramped accommodations, have different time in the exercise yard, and you only get raped once a week instead of 6.*
*Disclaimer: I have not gone to prison, all rape statistics are rough estimates.
;) .. sometimes reality is more surreal than anime can ever be.
"Classification RED, friend computer!"
"I'm sorry, that information is not available at this time."
Well in any case, effective education is a huge problem, especially with No Child Left Behind screwing things up even more, and something needs to be done. That something should be to stop passing everyone and making tests so easy a rhesus monkey could come out with a HD. This is a rather misguided way to address the problem. Rather than humiliating every kid who doesn't do terribly well, what about providing more support and time? Did they consider that?
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I've read studies in the past that have shown that children, whether intelligent or struggle to learn, benefit greatly from encouragement rather than either reward or punishment. I truely believe in this.
By all means reward children for doing well, but certainly not punish those who struggle. Everybody is different and will excel at different subjects and it's entirely possible that some may be undiagnosed dyslexics or even have eyesight issues.
In any case, children should be praised for the work they do whether it is better than others or not, but then encouraged to learn how to improve themselves and nurture their enthusiasm for it.
Everyone is special in their own special way. Think of the children(*)
(*) Unless of course you've been arrested for it, in which case stop thinking of the children.
Let's go back and have the argument over "How much can we raise IQ scores" again. Arthur Jensen hasn't gotten nearly enough press coverage since he died. Or we could bow to the superiority of Lake Woebegone which -- as far as I know -- is the only place on the planet where all the children are above average.
For the same reason kids wear their pants around their asses, if it makes them look "bad," they would revel in it. These are the same kids flunking out already anyway. Perhaps if you just come right out and call their behavior 'stupid' instead of trying to coddle them, perhaps if you worry more about their futures instead of worry about offending them, it might help some tiny fraction of them.
In today's culture, I picture the kids in the "smart" lines being bullied and ostracized instead of the other way around, though.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
"revealed test scores and embarrassed those who didn't do well"
Sheesh! That will happen soon enough. "Do you want fries with that..."
'nuf said.
(A) Test scores are heavily correlated with demographic factors such as race and social class. In fact, there's some evidence that they're correlated more with those sorts of demographics than they are with factors like time spent studying. So whether it was intended or not, it's quite possible that the effect of this would have been to separate out, with official sanction, the generally wealthier white and Asian-American kids from the mostly poorer black and Hispanic kids, and treat the first group better than the second group.
(B) For kids who's friends are generally anti-intellectual, they might be more embarrassed to be in the "smart" line rather than the "stupid" line. If you're in a crowd where most everybody is heading nowhere in life and knows it, they will often single out the people who are going somewhere for bullying to try to make themselves feel better about their utter lack of prospects.
(C) Threats only get kids to fake learning, not to really learn stuff. You can get kids to pretend to go to study groups but really just hang out with friends. You can get kids to cram for the next exam and promptly forget everything the next day. You can get kids to cheat on their test to avoid school or parental consequences. But you can't get kids to really learn and internalize what they're supposed to know with threats - for that you need to actually give them a goal that their learning will help accomplish.
I am officially gone from
This is what comes from tying performance to pay. I know schools here are awarded more money from the state as well as teacher performance bonuses for better scores on standardized tests. It's had this kind of push here as well. Lots of schools have even been caught cheating to get their scores up. Desperation brings on this kind of craziness.
Every day I see more and more items coming out of our educational system that make me ask 'where the heck are the parents' when these dumbass policies are being implemented?
This is the big disconnect between us and our children. They live the first 18 years of their life under constant, state-mandated praise, being told they are special no matter what, and that they can do no wrong.
Then, when they are older and out of the house, they wake up to the harsh reality that those who do not perform are not constantly showered with praise and reward.
The ability to cope with failure and disappointment is a lesson we have completely abandoned and refuse to teach our children anymore, and is one of the major reasons children in the rest of the world are beating the snot out of ours when it comes to achieving success.
This program is a good representation of real life. While they may need to come up with a way to deal with Privacy Act of '74 issues, the program is definitely in the right place. Teaching kids that there are consequences to underperformance is a necessary step in childhood development.
Let's start by color coding the ID's of the people who thought of this plan to a bright red banning them from using the lunchrooms altogether.
AFAIK, the most effective way to motivate children to perform better in school is to actually treat them the same as better performing children; people tend to behave in the way you treat them.
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As a parent I'd be more worried about my kid being targeted for being smart than stupid. Maybe in addition to a nice bracelet they should give the good scorers Jujitsu classes as well so they can protect themselves from the jocks.
So they think it is wrong because it reveals the test scores? Are they insane?
First let's say why it is really wrong: because it identifies the student with the his performance and starts to dehumanize him, it could be mortifying and alienating if the student does not have a really strong character. Even more, who is to say that failing badly would not give you a BETTER reputation with students? In a school for lower class childrem having good scores could become a stigma, could lead to cheating, harassment and god knows what else.
But peer pressure IS important for education. I dream of a school where students think it is cool to have good scores, where a student can learn the importance of culture in a relatively innocuous way before his first job interview bites him.
"[...] illegally revealed test scores [...]"
What, test scores are secret now ? So much easier to manipulate them in that case...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Actually fail them when they fail? Rather than slow a senior English class down to the level of the kid with a third grade reading level, just fail the people that can't keep up. That is motivation in itself. There are no one worries about bad grades or failing anymore because they know that they will be babied through school and not have to lift a finger to get their diploma.
If it weren't for No Child Left Behind then schools wouldn't have as much need to come up with off the wall programs like this.
Wow, a school district trying to uphold some standards! Letting the Geeks get to the front of the line for doing well at academics, and letting those who don't do well go to the back?! It almost sounds like the school was holding kids accountable for their actions and rewarding the hard work that students put in! No wonder the program is going away.
The students w/ poor grades. Nobody else did it to they. Reminds me of when I was in highschool freshman football: We had a BLUE team & an ORANGE team (school colors), for whatever reasons (I think it MAY have been initially based on what middleschool/junior high you came from)
Then, one day, they switched the teams players around (i.e. -> The best players went to blue, like me (lol) as a DB, & the "not so good players" went to orange).
Our "new blue team" was winning every game we played, but the "new orange team"? Hey - They lost every game.
Nobody did that to they, but they. In the end? Some parent complained & the teams went back to their original team member setup.
* Needless to say, that when Junior Varsity tryouts came around next season as we got older? MOST of the "new orange team" didn't make it...
(They just weren't good enough, & NEVER were, period.)
APK
P.S.=> I.E.-> If you can't "cut it"? Get into something else then, OR plan your future accordingly to be doing something else (non-academic related, or, tech-trade related etc./et al instead), because that's just life showing you that you "can't make the grade" in that particular area is all (for WHATEVER reasons & yes, there are avenues for academic review, in case 1 particular teacher is unfairly grading a student (lol, for whatever good those are for that is)) & not all of us are "I can do it ALL, and WELL, 'supermen'". In this case, on "making the grade", & literally in this case, in that particular area? Hey - it only shows these kids it's time to move on to something else that you CAN "excel" in is all...
... apk
Sounds like a pretty wildly assumption stemming from underlying psychological damage.
... will be embarrassment enough.
If you aren't motivated enough to try in school, you will always be last in line. That is life. It's probably one of the only fair things in life you can depend on (unless politicians flip it upside down for more votes).
wasn't horrible enough as it is, they try to make it even more gruesome.
Alfie Kohn's body of work makes good reading for a sensible approach to education based on how kids actually learn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_Kohn
In this instance, his book "Punished by Rewards" is required reading.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=alfie+kohn&x=0&y=0
Essentially, when we reward for high scores (instead of focusing on improving actual learning), we get these kinds of decisions and further reinforcement of counterproductive outcomes.
The highly broken culture of education continues in a downward spiral.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
No Lunch Left Behind?
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
Really, the reason this was nixed is because of fear about illegally revealing test scores? That is even more incredible than the original idea of color-coded IDs. A school where decision-makers do not immediately reject the idea as obviously ludicrous is seriously broken.
The district should have run a pilot program with some volunteer students to get an idea of the projected improvement in scores so reluctant parents would have been convinced. Run a pilot and look at the numbers and you can show parents a simple graph of scores before the program vs scores after it.
That way the parents would have had an idea how their kids were going to benefit from it. It removes all the emotion from it and all the "good kids deserve perks" or "humiliation works to make things better" which are both just big generalizations. If it worked to improve the average score, go with it.
It's also the same with other incentive programs. They ran a test between three programs and the one that performed best was paying kids to read a book. Paying them to improve scores didn't do as well because it's difficult for kids to see a direct connection between their actions and test scores. Can't find the article right now. Google is not being my friend.
Schools should bill the parents for their time/resources spent if their kids flunk... for wasting taxpayer money. Now that's the way to balance taxes fairly!
what's the next step, send them to concentration camps?
alphas, betas, gammas and deltas. dont let them play with each other. we might breed a letter in the middle and we dont have any letters in the middle.
They revel in it as a defense mechanism. They're not going to sulk in the line. They're going to find people like them and claim that their area is better by virtue of them being there. It's called being human.
Take a bad kid, teach him/her well, let the child show mom/dad/grandma/social worker how amazingly hard they've worked in school and you'll see that attitude change. But it won't change without that special attention... the special attention the high achievers receive from advanced elementary school classes through AP classes in high school.
You are right about the "smart" lines getting bullied and ostracized, though (in most schools). That's because most schools only have sufficient funds to afford a couple good teachers, small school supply allowances, and open class rooms for a select few students that, according to their records, already look like they're going to succeed. It makes the smart kids in the smart lines a very small minority-- easy for picking.
So basically, they wanted to implement a "caste" system, eh? :-/ ---- my shocked face
Must have a lot of awfully good medicinal herb out there in Anaheim.
that's why we have State Universities and Community colleges. Maybe PRIVATE colleges, yes. There is a difference, ya know. But never let facts get in the way of blind faith in capitalism, right?
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Have gnu, will travel.
fundamental error here is the assumption that school is for educating. it isn't, and not by a long shot. it is designed to brainwash children into conforming adults. educating and creating new generation of critical thinkers has nothing to do with state sponsored education system.
to that end, punishment and reward based system fits the intend perfectly.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
... but the plain bellied sneetches had none upon thars.
Just another way to make them their sneetch....
Why go to the trouble of testing the kids and then separate them in this ridiculous and ostracizing manner?
Why not do like other countries and assign the dumb, average, and smart kids in each subject to their own class and teach them at a more appropriate skill level?
In fact, we're near the top for the amount of money we spend per pupil.
The problem is much of that is wasted: bloated administrations, feel-good PC courses that don't help core education, and teachers unions that flat-out admit they don't give a damn about students.
Add to that apathetic parents, and you have a crappy school system that won't get better no matter how much money we pump into it.
The only people that have the knowledge and ability to motivate the children are the parents. The problem then is how to motivate the parents. There are probably a hundred ways to do that but my ideology would suggest tax breaks/penalties for each child that does well on yearly SATs. I'd suggest that the incentives should be balanced by disincentives, so that its cost neutral, or nearly so.
Even if it did cost the government more upfront, hopefully that would get offset by higher tax revenue once the children graduate...
Setting up a system like this would be relatively simple. The tricky parts are properly handling the edge cases (learning disabilities, etc.) and hardening the system. (better motivated children might feel more pressure to cheat)
* http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2467658&cid=37660992
Embarrass them as much as possible. People don't learn when their coddled (Hence why the number of people on gov't aid keeps increasing and doesn't go away). Reward the top 10%, don't do anything extra to the next 60% and slap a dunce cap on the bottom 30%. Maybe they'll get mad and do better, maybe they will quit and go to work at McDonalds, that's where they're headed anyway.
And giving point, rewards, whatever for handing in homework is pointless. The assignment was to hand it in, the reward is a grade. Give point for above and beyond, like the kid that scores 10% above anyone else in the class, or the one who's research paper has more content than a masters thesis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave
Due to the poignancy of this post to the discussion, I believe I am immune from Godwins' Law.
As a parent, I encourage anything that might help the kids want to achieve.
Our society is so worried about hurting the esteem of the less gifted we hold the gifted back.
I'm frustrated as all heck that my kids comes home from school bored witless because his school work is too easy. According to the tests- he already is beyond the end of school goals for maths, english and science- yet because "everyone has to be the same" and "don't want to make the stupid kids feel stupid" he, and the other gifted kids have to go at the same plodding pace and be held back.
He is second grade and still being taught things that I taught him before he even started school. He learns quickly- let him progress.
Let all kids learn at their own rate. Let kids be encouraged to learn.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The best way to deal with the dregs of school society is to get rid of them. Ship them off to a remote Alaskan military school where the only things to do are push-ups and homework. Then the rest of the students will be able to learn without interference.
This is part of the reason I quit playing football in fact (I was pretty good as a defensive back Freshmen - Sophomore years playing & starting 1st string... Especially for being on a team that won championships every year for decades & has produced not only MANY pros, but also many top-notch ALL-PRO types too): However - I wasn't taking "roids" (but, I knew guys that DID, for a FACT, & 1 ended up going pro (All-American & All-Pro, every yr. @ both collegiate & professional levels no less)).
I don't care what anyone says, doing that & lifting with it IS a HUGE COMPETITIVE EDGE but, not one I was willing to take for the long run, nor was I able to get ahold of them anyhow!
I was also given a choice by my father on which sport I was going to be better @ in the long haul (meaning paying for education) & I chose Lacrosse instead, which ended up helping me out in college for room/board etc./et al, somewhat.
I also had to ask myself an HONEST question of:
"Am I good enough to be a pro ball player?"
The answer was no - Not unless I did roids & what-not (& barely ANYONE knew where or how to get that in my day (circa early 1980's)).
So, I had to make the very decision you quoted from me - work harder, & possibly fail (due to genetics etc.), or, work smarter on something I was good enough @ to capitalize on.
Same deal with grades really.
Now, I don't know about nowadays, but afaik in Europe? If you do NOT do well on academic placement tests, you basically relegate yourself to the world of trades (not a bad world either, there's big money in things like plumbing, electrical, etc. for example)... it should be that way in the USA also.
Are all of the "underachievers" really 'dumb/stupid' as those here are saying? By no means. They're either LAZY, or just know they can walk into another job/trade right out of school (say, due to a family business being in place already)... what they don't understand, especially the former, is WHAT YOU DO NOW INFLUENCES THE REST OF YOUR DAYS (in everything you do).
APK
P.S.=> In other words? "May the BEST MAN, win!" & don't drag down or SLOW DOWN those that are those 'best men' in whatever field of endeavor in question... apk
Nothing like forcing those not doing well to quit to lift your school scores.
Everyone loved the program. One parent complained and the project was shut down.
And you get paid for doing so. As compared to being a disabled kid going to school.
That is the single best idea I've ever heard about how to improve education.
While there are privacy concerns with revealing test scores. You SHOULD BE embarrassed about poor test scores. That's part of the entire problem the test scores are trying to fix!
A glaring example of the epic failure of the US public educational/economic/political system. A good education should be perceived as its own reward.
... bad management. We start at the top with the stupidity of standardized testing and it trickles down into individual school stupidity. It's the race to average! At least, we will reclaim the arts as the domain of the privileged. :-(
"Should be embarrassed!" comments obviously come from stupidity. Is there any way we can color-code such contributors? The kids in the special needs classes (both below and above the average) are already being singled out for attention. Obviously if some kids fall into this category, there must be a wide range of intelligence in between. Sometimes trying your best will only get you a C. Sometimes the A students can't figure out how to make a lamp.
Yep, save the lines for AFTER school is completed and JOBS are set, some are in line, some are serving the line. Parents it is YOUR responsibility to determine which part the the line YOUR children are in.
It sounds like the school administrators are the ones that need to stand the lunch line for dummies.
Having slaved as an educator in a system that promotes mediocrity, I can tell you, anyone not doing well on a standardized test in the US, needs to be publicly shamed. The fact that this country wastes as many resources on the mediocre disgusts me. Our brightest students are being held back because we keep trying to shine turds and call them gold. It is past time people woke up and started expecting students to meet the standard, instead of lowering the standard to meet the students.
Seems pretty simple. They do poorly they fail and repeat the year.
I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta. I wouldn't want to be an Alpha, because they have to work very hard.
Oh no, I don't want to play with the Delta children, they can't even read.
Wouldn't it be great if the good performers had white cards, where the poor ones had colored cards, and the lines had clearly legible signs saying "WHITE" and "COLORED"?
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
Because only the poorer, and less intelligent people can be a waster or a criminal or dangerous! Oh wait....that's utter nonsense. Just like your comment.
Why color-code them? Just make the saggers and jocks... er.. 'anyone' who can't keep their test scores up and continually slips on homework wear fry-cook hats to school. Let them get used to their eventual career dead-end.
It's hard to look like a badass in a striped red white and blue Hot Dog On A Stick hat that's as tall as your head, and a hairnet under that.
This plan would have been totally counterproductive, and would more likely cause even more pupils to be disenfranchised, and disengage from, the education system. Far from raising the lowest, it would more likely cast them adrift!
My kids' school tore down their jungle gym because the insurance wouldn't cover it due to the possibility of injury litigation. Of course that one goes back to it being the fault of the parents who sue if their kid gets an owie.
Transportation is interesting. That fits in with the issue of a general public transportation system. In Germany at least kids ride the city bus.
Wages though can be extremely good. Initial hiring wages aren't that high, but a senior teacher can be rolling in the money, not even counting the extremely generous pension. Back in the Wisconsin debates, one high school teacher at the protests teacher was making about $90,000 per year in pay and benefits. A fourth-grade teacher was making in the mid 80s.
Of course this varies by state, but IIRC the pay doesn't correspond to performance.
The point is to get them studying so that worrying about college funding is even an issue. Cross a bridge when you come to it, if you do come to it.
Saying "Top 5%" is only helpful to students right near the cutoff. The top 1% won't try any harder, because they are in no danger of not being top 5%. Somebody at the 70th percentile won't try any harder, because he knows he can't reach the 95th percentile.
You need to turn class rank percentile into dollars, payable on a short term horizon. For example, multiply the class rank percentile by $10 and pay this out every week. Recompute class rank very frequently, using a running average (possibly exponential decay) that tends to consider the most recent couple months.
Note that it is OK if the parents confiscate this to cover family expenses. In that case, they will apply pressure to succeed as only parents have the ability to do. The kid might even gain better nutrition, full-time parenting, tutoring, etc.
Those crappy Washington D. C. schools are spending about $30,000 per year per student. Lots of ordinary not-well-off places are in the $10,000 to $20,000 range.
Since student/parent motivation is the #1 most important success factor, the majority of that budget should be going to incentives. Weekly cash payouts would be highly effective. Nothing, with the possible exception of weird social rules (such as "minimum class rank average for prom couple is 50th percentile" or "the lower your rank the more patdowns and drug testing you face"), can beat large immediate cash payments.
Budget shortfalls hitting teacher staffing, school improvements, etc.
But the growing administration overhead warranted a multi-million dollar new administration building.
It was in the news not long ago. But then it's a fairly common occurrence.
It's "rebuttal". Now get over there with kdemetter.
And stop pulling his ears!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."