Legters, McDill, and McPartland (1993) note that recognition of incremental improvement can motivate students:
"In addition to restricting the ways in which students demonstrate what they have learned, traditional assessment methods can be insensitive to the actual achievement or progress of individual students, particularly students at risk. As MacIver (1991) asserts, 'traditional evaluation systems often do not adequately recognize the progress that educationally disadvantaged students make, because even dramatic progress may still leave them near the bottom of the class in comparative terms or far from the percent-correct standard needed for a good grade' (p. 4). Individualized incentive and reward structures that value students' incremental improvements can motivate students to try harder, foster an intrinsic interest in the subject matter, and improve performance.
The Incentives for Improvement program is implementing such an evaluation and incentive system in four Baltimore public schools. Through the program, teachers help students develop 'specific, individualized, short-range goals that are challenging but doable' based on the students' past performance (MacIver, 1991, p. 5). Students receive certificates and other awards for improvement as well as for high levels of achievement. Using a nonrandomized, matched control group and a pre-test/post-test design to evaluate the program's effectiveness for student performance and each student's motivation to learn, students participating in the program on average received higher grades and had a 10 percent higher probability of passing than did control students. A modest positive impact on students' perceptions of the intrinsic value of the subject matter as well as overall student efforts also were found, although no effects on students' self-concept of their own ability were shown as a result of the program." (pp. 70-71)
