Seventh-graders at MS 302 in The Bronx. November 8, 2007 — It’s payback time for the seventh-graders at MS 302 in The Bronx.
The Longwood students joined thousands of their counterparts across the city yesterday in enjoying cash rewards of up to $100 doled out by the city for their performances on two periodic assessment tests in English and math.
As participants in a new 61-school pilot program that pays fourth- and seventh-graders, students at the high-poverty school said the cash has been a serious motivator for them to study harder.
“I was thinking if I studied more, I’d get all the answers right, and I’d probably get more money,” said Catherina Soto, 12, who’s earned $73 so far. “For everything in life, you need money.”
More than 200 students in the school had at least $20 - the minimum for simply taking both exams - deposited directly into no-fee savings accounts set up for them at Washington Mutual in the past week.
They received the good news - on white certificates bearing their names, test scores and the amount they earned - at a recent, smile-filled assembly.
“I felt like, wow, ecstatic!” Erika Santana, 12, said of her $89.10 haul, which she wants to put toward a digital camera.
Students in seventh grade can earn up to $500 per year, and fourth-graders can earn up to $250, in the program, which covers 10 tests annually.
The program, part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Opportunity NYC initiative, is privately funded and run by the Department of Education. Started this year, that initiative pays low-income families for positive actions such as going to health checkups and parent-teacher conferences.
MS 302 Principal Angel Rodriguez said he had no qualms about signing on to the controversial plan to pay students for test scores, and that students and parents were just as excited to participate.
In a school where 22 percent of students met standards on state English tests last year, Rodriguez said he now has seventh-graders asking how soon they can take the next assessment, and sixth-graders impatient to advance a year.
“My seventh-graders are out-performing all my other classes,” Rodriguez said - no small feat considering that students often come to the school with more baggage “than you could ever imagine.”
The assessments don’t count toward a school’s progress report, on which MS 302 earned a B this year. Rodriguez refers to the program’s creator, Harvard economist and Department of Education Chief Equality Officer Dr. Roland Fryer Jr., as “Dr. Hope.”
Not everyone agrees.
“Paying children is about the worst thing I’ve ever heard,” said Jane Hirshmann of the anti-testing group Time Out From Testing, who added that children from low-income homes have noted the pressure to contribute to family income.
But Fryer, in a speech last month, emphasized the need for new initiatives because the old way of doing things hasn’t worked equally for everyone.
“It’s a shame we have to give them something for academic improvement,” said MS 302 parent-association president Madelyn Sanchez. “But if that’s what it takes to get them to improve in this neighborhood, that’s OK.”
Several students said they’ve always tried hard at school, and that the money wouldn’t change that. They’d like to stow the dough for college or for emergencies, they said.
Why is that a song comes along and just blows you away?
Seriously there are few songs these days that make you wanna do anything other that smash the damn radio into 79.5 pieces. So I have been anxiously awaiting Alicia Keys to drop her CD b/c I kinda liked the “No One” and b/c there have not been any leaks - I said damn this must be some good shit…then comes along this song “Like You Will Never See Me Again” - first of all it has a little Prince tang to it - which is ALWAYS a plus. And it really sounds like a combination of hearfelt songs that you boooooo when they play it in the club.
But seems like the song is catching on every damn where b/c I have heard this song ON THE RADIO no less than 10 times this weekend. Her shit sounds good, sounds like she likes what she is doing, sounds like R&B is on the grind without having to dig deep in myspace to find some real shit. And AKeys has a great gift and there are 100’s of other R&B peeps out there are hella gifted but there are only a few that break through and in the beginning I must admit I thought she was a gimmick - girl with the piano - but she has lasting power and this new song….wheeeewwwww there is nothing out there like it right now!
Since I’m the ONLY person in the office today, and nobody cool in this town within a 5 mile radius, why not another open thread?
Shit y’all can talk about:
*The GAME OF THE CENTURY on Sunday
*The REAL reason why that cop got shot in Philly on Wednesday.
*Why Jim Jones and Jay need to just shoot a fair one and stop all this talkin to the press.
*WTF is Brat’s problem?
*How there is NOTHING of value in this office to “bring home”…
*How these rap niggas beat murder beefs and continue to make songs about how they’ll kill a nigga (see Cassidy album track 3)…
I just caught the latest episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm last night, ironically titled ‘The N Word’.
In it (besides ’stabbing’ Auntie Rae with his dick, 0_o) Larry overhears someone in the restroom refer to a black dude as a ‘nigger’. So Larry is tryin to explain what he overheard as a black doctor is walking by and overhears him say ‘nigger’…
Sounds complicated already right? HAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Go read the full synopsis for yourselves. Here’s a teaser clip.
After the discussion we had yesterday over Nasir, this shit had me ROLLIN!
Ya’ll need to get up on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Did I mention Vivica Fox is in it this season?
…Damn on the way to work, you get a lot of school kids on the train with you. WTF are these kids eating? I have a daughter (who will be taller than her midget ass parents, LOL) and I can’t imagine pulling a Robert Kelly (no homo), but you take the uniform off these broads, and put some on grown up shit, you’d swear they old enough to meet the working class skeet requirements.
…and how in the fuck you 15-16 years old w/ tatoos? I get loved ones who passed, but Baby Phat logos and hearts can wait, lil Fatima from 8th street. Take your ass to school!
…I’m working in Conshohocken (in the burbs) until I start the real gig in November. I saw 1 other darkie Monday, and 3 today…I’m eyeballin white broads just to tide me over ’til I get back to Philly every day. It’s bad when you gotta say…”damn her ass ain’t THAT FLAT…”
…white folks whine more than us, they just get their shit taken care of, so it’s just “suggesting”. I work at a real estate licensing school, and the class comes in and I got like five complaints about random ass shit beyond my control:
*”Someone took more than one cookie…I want another cookie”
Bitch…apparently you dont’ get that if you GET another cookie, the next muthafucka will say the same shit-maybe just maybe we had enough to feed the class not a greedy ass broad who enjoys desert snacks-plenty of fruit and salad available Marybeth!
*”It’s soooooo cold (rubbing arms) in here can we adjust the heat-I’m a warm person and this is too cold for me”
Apparently you don’t get that because you are built like a fuzzy barrel, you’re warmer than us humans. Shouldn’t you be hibernating or some shit?
…they gave me the keys to the office and to cabinets…and there ain’t NOTHIN to steal, LOL. And at this point I’m about to break the record for most days at a temp job this year, so I’ll just be easy.
Seventh-graders at MS 302 in The Bronx. 
November 8, 2007 — It’s payback time for the seventh-graders at MS 302 in The Bronx.
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