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Paying for grades: Impact of merit‐based financial aid on educational quality
Author(s) -
Henry Gary T.,
Rubenstein Ross
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.1042
Subject(s) - commit , standardized test , incentive , test (biology) , class size , scholarship , scale (ratio) , quality (philosophy) , merit pay , test score , point (geometry) , psychology , mathematics education , medical education , political science , economic growth , economics , medicine , paleontology , philosophy , physics , geometry , mathematics , epistemology , quantum mechanics , database , computer science , biology , microeconomics
In contrast to education reform efforts that target teachers and schools, merit‐based financial aidfor college increases the incentives for high school students and their families to directly affect the qualityof education by investing more time and effort in schoolwork. Large‐scale merit‐based aidprograms, such as Georgia's HOPE Scholarship, seek to improve education by encouraging students to meethigher standards, in this case by obtaining a 3.0 grade point average in high school and college. Since the HOPEprogram began in 1993, the number of high school graduates qualifying for the aid has steadily increased to morethan 38,000 graduates in the class of 1998, or 59.5 percent of the graduating class. At the same time, therelationship between grades and achievement has remained consistent or, in some cases, improved since HOPEbegan. In fact, African–American males and females with a 3.1 high school core course grade point averagehave increased their average Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores by more than 20 points. Thisindicates that merit‐based aid has improved the quality of K–12 education in Georgia and reducedracial performance disparities by motivating students and their families to commit greater effort to schooling.© 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.