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."

I bet some kids revel in being in the "bad" lines.

[gfxguy]

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.

Re:Wow, just write an 'F' on their forehead

[Anonymous Coward]

How 'bout this. Starting with 5th grade give $1000 cash per year to each student in the top 5%. Then, the best might have $8000 ready for college and stand a fighting chance of actually being able to pay for it.

Re:Those that don't do well should be embarassed

[Inda]

Yeah! Stand them in the corner with a pointy hat with the word "Dunce" on it! That'll teach them!

Rewarding is far, far better.

In my daughter's school they offer reward cards; they're a bit like loyalty cards. Instead of the old gold stars, they are now given points that can be exchanged for material goods. A point for handing in homework, an extra point for handing it in early, points for winning competitions, be they sports or academic.

By the end of the first year, if you do the minimum, you'll have enough for a Wii remote, cheap mobile phone, or little MP3 player. By the end of the fifth year, if you are a grade A++ student, attend all the after school clubs, etc, you'll have enough for a netbook.

Sounds good to me.

This is one of the new UK academies, if anyone is interested. And, one year in, is the highest ranking school in the somewhat deprived and poverty stricken area we live in.

Re:It's about money

[L4t3r4lu5]

I've worked in a secondary school with performance based pay, and I've heard at least one member of staff tell a disruptive student that in the performance based pay scheme, there is room to let one or two children utterly fail in order for the rest to achieve, and that he was one of the "acceptable failures".

Not sure if she has that job anymore.

Re:Those that don't do well should be embarassed

[Glothar]

So you hate immigrants and poor people.

But then you say: No, that's not what I said. I said we should punish the people with low-achievement.

And this is where intelligent people point out that you have proposed a policy that would continue to ensure that poor people receive fewer opportunities to improve themselves to improve their path in life and to help make sure that as many immigrants as possible are funneled into that "poor people" bracket regardless of their actual intelligence. Sure, it's not targeted directly at those people, but it includes them far more often than other groups. It's subtle, but you're blind if you can't see it.

So yeah... that's a great plan for furthering the dominance of rich, white, corporate America. And thank God (just the Christian one, of course), because those rich, white, corporate Americans need help right now.