Between 2000 and 2010, the nation's high school dropout rate has fallen from 10.9 percent to 7.4 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. While this is a definite improvement, far too many students are still giving up on their education and entering the workforce without a high school diploma.
In some cases, students' lack of reading skills can influence their decision to drop out of school, Your Houston News reported. For this reason, Houston Independent School District Superintendent Terry Grier and other education officials are considering offering teachers in the Texas-based school system incentive pay to boost students' reading scores.
"Research tells us that students who are not reading on grade level are at the highest risk of dropping out of school," Grier told the news source. "This is why it is so important that we give our great teachers the resources they need to get all of our students back on a path to college readiness."
The District's school board is currently considering the idea of incentive pay in an effort to target sixth- and ninth-grade students who fail to score above the 50th percentile on the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT-10). Right now, around 175 teachers could receive up to $10,000 for the assistance they provide.
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