SHOCK QUIZ PAYS GUINEA-PIG KIDS
By ANDREA PEYSER
W HO says public education doesn't pay?
Hundreds of Manhattan sixth-graders are being recruited — in their classrooms — with $25 cash payments to serve as guinea pigs in a psychological study that some parents are calling blatantly racist.
The study's 11-year-old targets are asked questions so potentially upsetting, researchers say they've put shrinks on call in case kids freak out.
What is this study? Well, the content is kept secret from parents and taxpayers. But I've obtained a copy.
It's called "Project RAP," short for Real Adolescent Perspectives. Armed with a $2.5 million National Science Foundation (news - web sites) grant, researchers at NYU are using public schools to enter the heads of preteens.
But at what cost? Here are a few questions your kids are being asked during school hours:
* How much does your father or mother like or love you? 1) Little or none 2) Somewhat 3) Pretty much 4) Very much 5) The most
* How often do you feel that adults treat you like you're NOT smart because of your race or ethnicity? 0) Never 1) Rarely 2) Sometimes 3) Often 4) All the time.
* We have given you a list of the names of all the kids in your grade. Who gets picked on a lot? Who is not liked by teachers?
Some of the multiple-choice questions don't even permit a positive response.
Mothers and teachers can get in on the action. Moms get paid up to $180 to dish on their kids. And teachers rake in $3 a head for writing student behavioral evaluations — illegal if done during school hours, an education official warned.
Professor Diane Hughes of NYU's Steinhardt School of Education, one of two lead researchers, defended the teacher payouts as "respectful of their time."
Some parents are not happy. Bonnie Wan, whose son Alex attends sixth grade in MS 104 on East 21st Street, told me her boy came home from school bugging her to sign a permission slip — so he'd get paid $5 for the first batch of research questions, another $20 for a follow-up interview. She signed.
Then her son told her about the study.
"One question was, 'How often do you spend time with your father?' " Wan said. "My son said only two days — because my husband is a restaurant worker, and he's at work when my son gets home.
"What kind of question is that? It seems like they are aiming at mostly a minority population." She withdrew her consent.
Granville Stevens forbade his daughter from joining the study. Stevens, who is black, objected to the racial tone of questions.
"They reinforce social stereotypes," he said.
Hughes admitted that "race is a large component" of the study.
"I think [schoolkids] do experience discrimination in certain ways," she said. She stressed that the study is "not only of black and Latino kids."
So why does the consent form tell parents: "If at any point your child feels upset or uncomfortable, we will provide a list of phone numbers where (s)he can talk to someone about her/his feelings"? Hughes said no kid has taken the counseling offer so far.
About 500 sixth-graders have signed up from these schools: Booker T. Washington, Tito Puente, Sun Yat-Sen and MS 104. Researchers hope to study 1,000 kids and follow them to eighth grade.
Another sore point is that participants get pulled from class. At first, math and social-studies classes were interrupted.
But parents rebelled, and now the study is performed during gym class.
Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said city officials approved the study — but taking kids from any class is not OK: "If students were filling out questions during math, social studies or even gym, that would not be part of the agreement."
By ANDREA PEYSER
W HO says public education doesn't pay?
Hundreds of Manhattan sixth-graders are being recruited — in their classrooms — with $25 cash payments to serve as guinea pigs in a psychological study that some parents are calling blatantly racist.
The study's 11-year-old targets are asked questions so potentially upsetting, researchers say they've put shrinks on call in case kids freak out.
What is this study? Well, the content is kept secret from parents and taxpayers. But I've obtained a copy.
It's called "Project RAP," short for Real Adolescent Perspectives. Armed with a $2.5 million National Science Foundation (news - web sites) grant, researchers at NYU are using public schools to enter the heads of preteens.
But at what cost? Here are a few questions your kids are being asked during school hours:
* How much does your father or mother like or love you? 1) Little or none 2) Somewhat 3) Pretty much 4) Very much 5) The most
* How often do you feel that adults treat you like you're NOT smart because of your race or ethnicity? 0) Never 1) Rarely 2) Sometimes 3) Often 4) All the time.
* We have given you a list of the names of all the kids in your grade. Who gets picked on a lot? Who is not liked by teachers?
Some of the multiple-choice questions don't even permit a positive response.
Mothers and teachers can get in on the action. Moms get paid up to $180 to dish on their kids. And teachers rake in $3 a head for writing student behavioral evaluations — illegal if done during school hours, an education official warned.
Professor Diane Hughes of NYU's Steinhardt School of Education, one of two lead researchers, defended the teacher payouts as "respectful of their time."
Some parents are not happy. Bonnie Wan, whose son Alex attends sixth grade in MS 104 on East 21st Street, told me her boy came home from school bugging her to sign a permission slip — so he'd get paid $5 for the first batch of research questions, another $20 for a follow-up interview. She signed.
Then her son told her about the study.
"One question was, 'How often do you spend time with your father?' " Wan said. "My son said only two days — because my husband is a restaurant worker, and he's at work when my son gets home.
"What kind of question is that? It seems like they are aiming at mostly a minority population." She withdrew her consent.
Granville Stevens forbade his daughter from joining the study. Stevens, who is black, objected to the racial tone of questions.
"They reinforce social stereotypes," he said.
Hughes admitted that "race is a large component" of the study.
"I think [schoolkids] do experience discrimination in certain ways," she said. She stressed that the study is "not only of black and Latino kids."
So why does the consent form tell parents: "If at any point your child feels upset or uncomfortable, we will provide a list of phone numbers where (s)he can talk to someone about her/his feelings"? Hughes said no kid has taken the counseling offer so far.
About 500 sixth-graders have signed up from these schools: Booker T. Washington, Tito Puente, Sun Yat-Sen and MS 104. Researchers hope to study 1,000 kids and follow them to eighth grade.
Another sore point is that participants get pulled from class. At first, math and social-studies classes were interrupted.
But parents rebelled, and now the study is performed during gym class.
Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said city officials approved the study — but taking kids from any class is not OK: "If students were filling out questions during math, social studies or even gym, that would not be part of the agreement."
