So we are having this “loss aversion” contest. The idea is that teachers will work hard to avoid loss than they will to win a bonus.
Roland Fryer and colleagues say that this works. Offer teachers a bonus at the beginning of the year and take it away if the scores don’t go up.
I thought we have a winner when a reader suggested taking away the teacher’s first born.
But that idea pales next to this one. This looks like a winner.
Don’t threaten the teacher. Threaten the kiddies!
What do you think?
This is for elementary students and would work particularly well when high stakes tests are pushed down to the K-3 grade band.
The mistake in the original plan is that it focuses on having teachers have to avoid loss. That’s simply one layer removed from the REAL target: the kiddoes being tested. After all, the threat of the teacher’s loss of $4000 means little or nothing to them.
So near the beginning of the school year, the teacher buys several lovable classroom pets. Perhaps a class bunny, kitty, and puppy would have maximum appeal, but the skillful teacher will be sure to find out in advance what animals are most beloved to the children s/he’ll be working with.
And then, after ample time has passed to ensure that every child is head-over-heels in love with at least one of the animals, signs go up over each pet’s enclosure that read, “If your test scores don’t go up, I’ll shoot this [puppy/kitty/bunny, respectively]. Love, Ms. Williams”
I’m confident that those students who don’t succumb to nervous breakdowns in short order will kick some serious high-stakes test bootay.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am almost too scared to comment. It would be guaranteed to work. But, Let’s not give them any ideas. Here in Louisiana they are already passing some pretty outrageous laws.
As a lifelong New Yorker who developed a grudging respect for scam artists, I’ve got to say that this Fryer guy has got some hustle going: one preposterous project after another, and he gets these rubes to keep paying for them.
As the Flim Flam men of old used to say, “Give the sucker nothing, but when you give him nothing, give him something!”
The possibilities are endless. Why not (physically) torture a teacher for test scores. We’re already mentally tortured and vilified. You could have the medieval rack, dunking tank, there is also shock-therapy, sensory deprivation and water boarding. Let’s see if the scores soar.
Send em to Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, eh???
Unfortunately, there’s nothing new under the sun.
http://www.google.com/search?q=if+you+don't+buy+this+magazine+we'll+kill+this+dog&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=z4kYUMqCNcaj6wG61oCACA&ved=0CDkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=672#biv=i|0;d|HgAAKN0kI1bhWM:
No recess for the next semester / year. This would simultaneously induce loss aversion in the kids — recess is my son’s favorite subject, and his friends surely feel the same way — and the teachers, who would have to stay inside with the kids all day, without even a 15 minute break. (And please don’t tell me that pesky union rules would prohibit this.)
Or how about no bathroom breaks all day until the scores rise??
They already implement that policy on testing days — no bathroom breaks until everyone in the room has finished the test… no, I’m not kidding.
Hey now Diane! I don’t want to sound like a sore loser but the original task was for the teacher to avoid the “loss aversion” not the children! This sounds like a trick the corp ed reformers/ politicians pull on teachers by changing the rules in the middle of the game! Ok I hope you know I’m being sarcastic. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of psychology knows that positive reinforcement works to encourage people to participate willingly while threats just turn people off. That’s just one of the things the politicians and ed reformers just don’t get. Or do they?
I know this is too late for the contest but here’s an idea that will force teachers to work harder. For every point decline on the class test scores, the teacher looses a vacation or sick day. Loosing time off gives teachers less time to feel guilty for being such crappy educators or less time to sit in a doctor’s office feeling sorry for themselves.
If we all passed the test, wouldn’t they just make a harder test?
Reading this from home in Houston where our local superintendent (Grier) is in love with Fryer… Please don’t let Grier see this idea… I’m sure he’s already trying to figure out how to get our local school board to okay the “loss aversion” for the teachers… The last thing I need are my kids to come home from school crying about their class pets being threatened… 😉
*banging head on my desk*
Yes, I get that the idea in the blog post above is meant to be sarcastic — but at this point, with all that I have seen with my own eyes in education, I don’t put anything past some of these “reformers” at this point… “loss aversion” — wow, just wow…