Paying for failure: If at first you don't succeed, you get a try-again bonus

Philadelphia students who fail the state's algebra exam will be paid to take an eight-week refresher course and retake the test. How much? The district isn't saying. Students won't have to pass algebra on their second try. They have go through the motions. A private nonprofit is funding the experiment.

Only 27 percent of Philadelphia students tested as proficient in algebra last year, down from an unimpressive 30 percent the year before.

Paying students isn't a new idea, writes Alina Adams, the author of Getting Into NYC Kindergarten and Getting Into NYC High School. It's been tried in many places. Research in the U.S. by Harvard's Roland Fryer suggests that paying low-income students for higher test scores increases attendance, but not test scores.

(Paying Dallas students $2 for every book they read and understood -- typically 10 books per participant -- led to roughly two and a half months of academic gains compared to those in the control group,, Adams notes.)

Students achieve more when they're encouraged to do things they believe are under their control, says Bentley University’s Jeffrey Livingston, she writes. They may not know how to do well on a test, but rewards for “inputs instead of outputs” can work if they do more note taking, studying or, as in Dallas, reading.

That's why Philadelphia program is paying for attending extra tutoring sessions, not for how well students do on the exam, writes Adams. "It is similar to a program in Detroit, where students were promised $200 gift cards for every two weeks of perfect attendance between winter break and March, maxing out at $1000 per student."

She worries about the future of young people who don't have academic skills -- or the motivation to show up and make an effort without being bribed. Adams also suspects that students will notice there's a cash reward for failing algebra on their first try, and no reward for getting it right the first time. It's "kind of like when those who act up in class receive the special treat of getting to leave and spend time with an administrator who feeds them candy and offers undivided attention, while those who behave have to stay behind and keep grinding—with no candy, to boot!," she writes.

She suggests offering the largest reward "to those who pass the first time" with diminishing rewards for each retake. Or, Philadelphia could offer the same reward for a passing score, whether it took one try or many.

I think many students are motivated by the hope of getting a "good job," but don't know what schooling, skills and habits they'll need to qualify. Someone should tell them, perhaps in sixth or seventh grade, that math skills pay off in the job market.