The reformers didn’t stop there, either. Using Florida’s A-Plus designations, which assign letter grades to schools based upon overall student performance, One Florida provides an additional school bonus of $500 per student passing an AP exam for schools rated “D” or “F.”
Florida’s education reformers set high expectations and created rewards for success. The results have been extremely impressive.
The National Math and Science Initiative recently collected data on the number of Hispanic students passing an AP test per 1,000 Hispanic junior and senior high school students in each state. Florida led the nation with 78 out of every 1000 Hispanic students passing an AP test.
Do schools respond to incentives? You bet they do. Between 1999 and 2007, the number of Florida students passing AP tests increased by 154 percent. The number of Florida Hispanic students passing an AP exam more than tripled, from 5,611 to 18,882 students. The number of African American students passing AP exams also more than tripled, from 1,314 to 4,401. Florida achieved these results in response to what amounts to a tiny portion of the K-12 budget.
The next time the public school establishment in your state calls for additional resources, the question should be, “in return for what?”
In Florida schools and teachers make more money the old fashioned way, they earn it. The days of “provide money first, hope for results later” must come to an end, both in Washington and in our state capitals.