Motivating High School Students to Score Proficient on State Tests

Abstract

The researcher interviewed two groups of eleventh grade students, in a rural Appalachian setting, who tended to score low on the state mandated high stakes/low stakes test to discover their efforts on the test, specifically in reading, and to obtain their opinions concerning the effects of a specific incentive or consequence. Before the eleventh grade test, the first group of students was asked if they had or had not tried to do well on the tenth grade test and if they had not tried to do well, what would motivate them to try on the eleventh grade test. After the eleventh grade test, the second semester group of eleventh grade students was asked if they had tried on the eleventh grade test and why or why not and if they had tried on the tenth grade test the previous year. Responses from both groups of students indicated incentives or consequences would make or had made a difference in their motivation to try on the test. While almost 35% of the students indicated they had not tried to do their best on the tenth grade test before the incentive, 100% of the second semester students indicated after the incentive, they had tried to do their best.