Students at 20 schools in Houston ISD may soon get paid to learn.
HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said he wants to pay "students performing below grade level in reading and math seven to eight dollars an hour" to attend tutoring sessions.
The program, dubbed "Apollo 20," would include four failing high schools HISD has to create new operating plans for beginning next school year, ranging from shutting down the schools to replacing staff. Five middle schools and 11 elementary schools would also be included in the Apollo 20 program, Grier said.
HISD is expecting to receive federal funding of between $1 million to $1.5 million per failing school from the federal government, Grier said during a press availability Tuesday.
Previously, Grier and HISD trustees have discussed providing tutoring to struggling students at the failing schools across the district. Grier said the tutors would be paid and although no dollar amount has been finalized, it could be around $15 an hour.
The tutoring staff would be made up of retired teachers, college students or other individuals with similar backgrounds, Grier said.
According to Grier, the federal money will cover the transportation costs, the addition of 10 extra school days to the academic calendar and tutors.
Grier said he is not sure if the federal rules allow the money to be used to pay students to attend tutoring sessions, but HISD is currently searching for the answer.
If federal money cannot be used to pay the students to attend tutoring sessions or if there is not enough funding to do so, Grier said HISD will be looking to businesses and individuals in the community to fund the remainder of the program.
Texas Watchdog asked Grier whether it is fair to pay some students but not others. View his response below (and read more after the video).
"Bribing" students for good grades, attendance or even reading books has seen mixed results across the country. An article published last month in Time magazine looked at the results of a Harvard researcher's study of money-for-performance models in school districts. The school districts he tested were in Dallas, New York City, Washington and Chicago.
"In New York City, the $1.5 million paid to 8,320 kids for good test scores did not work — at least not in any way that's easy to measure. ..."The (Dallas) experiment produced the most dramatic gains of all. Paying second-graders to read books significantly boosted their reading-comprehension scores on standardized tests at the end of the year — and those kids seemed to continue to do better the next year, even after the rewards stopped."
It's worth reading the full article. Readers can also learn about the Texas ties of the researcher, whose work Grier referenced to reporters in explaining his plan to pay students.
The possibility of paying students in HISD to attend tutoring lessons is in the hands of HISD trustees. Grier said the administration would finetune the proposal and then present it to the board for approval.
Grier said the schools being considered are Lee, Jones, Sharpstown and Kashmere high schools, and Fondren, Dowling, Ryan, Key and Attucks middle schools. Grier did not name the 11 elementary schools under consideration, but we're asking HISD for a list, and will update the blog when we hear back.
Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Follow HISD news on Twitter via @texaswatchdog. Search #hisd.
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