Cash for doing better on state tests?

To students in Baltimore, the new “bonus” will provide a strong incentive.

To teachers, it seems more like academic bribery.

“You get rewarded for doing good work,” said Gary Gilchrist, a junior at Dunbar High School.

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Gilchrist and the rest of his Class of 2009 will be the first required to pass the High School Assessments to graduate.

“People like money, and this will get them to pass,” said Trenae Livingston, 17.

But others, especially teachers, criticized city schools CEO Andres Alonso’s plan to give students up to $110 for boosting test scores.

“We want students to think they are learning for their betterment, not because will we pay them,” said Mamie Green, Dunbar’s science department chairwoman.

Mayor Sheila Dixon also denounced the cash rewards.

“It sends a bad message: We will pay you to pass,” she said.

Instead, Dixon said she supports more tutoring for struggling students. That’s another component of the school system’s $6.3 million plan to make sure the 5,000 students who have failed at least one graduation exam in biology, government, English or algebra get the help they need.

In an era of high-stakes testing, school districts throughout the nation, including California, Illinois and New York, have paid students for their test performance.

“Schools are under so much pressure, but teachers are reluctant because it makes education a commercial enterprise,” said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a Washington nonprofit that advocates for public education.

“Teachers want students to love to learn so they’ll learn during their lifetimes.”

Alonso defended the $935,000 plan for financial incentives.

“Any strategy that makes a difference in the life of a child we should be using,” he said. “Notions of idealism of how a child is learning are great as long as the child is learning. We are dealing with thousands of students who are at risk of dropping out. We shouldn’t hold up an idealistic plan that isn’t working.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com