Teachers and administrators are becoming more creative when developing student incentives for learning. What are the pros and cons of the programs in which students can earn cash or even MP3 players and prepaid cell phones in return for good grades and better scores on tests?
The Earning by Learning (EBL) program in Dallas, Tex., uses cash incentives to encourage children to read, paying participants for each book they read and report on. Since 1996, when the program began, 66,000 student participants have read a total of more than 650,000 books (an average of 10 books per student), according to EBL's Web site. EBL's founding director, Thelma Morris-Lindsey, believes that cash-based incentive programs are key to motivating students and helping them rediscover their passion for reading. "Most children come into schools wanting to read," Morris-Lindsey says. "They are natural scientists and ask thousands of questions. Somewhere along the line, we [the education system] dull that spark and enthusiasm for reading. Education, like all other formal systematic disciplines, must continue to create innovative solutions to address 21st century demands both nationally and abroad."
Morris-Lindsey is not alone in her belief that providing students with cash-based incentives will improve student learning and achievement. Similar incentive programs are popping up throughout the United States. Although the programs may differ slightly in the type of rewards they offer and the grade levels and subjects they target, at the core of each is an incentive structure that awards students cash or, in some cases, items such as MP3 players and cell phones in return for good academic performance.
The Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP), first implemented in Dallas in 1996, can now be found in schools throughout Texas. Participating students are eligible to receive up to $500 for each advanced placement (AP) exam score of 3 or above; teachers also earn cash bonuses based on student performance on the AP tests. The National Math and Science Initiative is replicating the APIP program throughout the country—for example, in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington.
The cash-based incentive programs receiving the most national attention are in New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and are being led and studied by Roland Fryer, a Harvard economist and the chief equality officer of New York City's Department of Education. According to theWashington Post, New York's program awards 4th–7th graders at select city schools up to $10 for their achievement on each of 10 periodic tests. (New York City has also experimented with providing MP3 players and prepaid cell phones to students as incentives.) In Chicago, freshmen and sophomores at 20 high schools get $50 for each A awarded in a five-week marking period, $35 for a B, and $20 for a C. In fall 2008, Chancellor Michelle Rhee of the Washington, D.C., school system implemented another program developed by Fryer, which gives 3,300 middle school students in the city the chance to earn up to $100 every two weeks for good grades, behavior, and attendance.
Why Cash Incentives?
Proponents of cash-based incentives point out that these programs are currently being offered in lower-income schools where a number of students have to hold jobs to help support themselves and their families. The 15-week Learn and Earn pilot program in Fulton County, Ga., last year paid middle and high school students $8 an hour (up to $32 a week) to attend after-school tutoring sessions. Programs such as this one are designed to help reimburse students for missing work due to academics. When surveyed for a 2008 poll conducted by The Principals' Partnership, a program created by the Union Pacific Foundation, some principals who support the concept saw giving monetary rewards as a means of allowing students to focus on their studies by compensating them for wages lost because of time devoted to school assignments.
In addition, proponents contend that lower-income students do not receive the same monetary incentives for academic performance that students from middle- or high-income families frequently receive, such as allowances, trips, or cars. Along the same lines, Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, argues in a 2007 Slatearticle that the motivation to do better than just pass their classes is often seen more in economically advantaged students because they view "attendance at a four-year college as a real possibility." These students, he argues, "see evidence all around them of the importance of doing well academically." Kahlenberg cites the views of Albert Shanker, head of the American Federation of Teachers from 1964 until his death in 1997, who maintained that the incentive structure in American public education is biased in favor of upper-middle class and white students who strive to attend selective colleges. Shanker said that most of the students who either do not plan to go to college or plan to go to one that accepts virtually everyone have little or no motivation to perform well in school. Kahlenberg contends that cell phones and money "might seem like a poor substitute for that sort of motivation. But they're a whole lot better than almost entirely abstract notions of success." When contacted for this article, Kahlenberg said he still agrees with his 2007 position on the topic that cash-based incentive programs are at least worth a try.
What Opponents Say
Paying students for academic performance has also received strong criticism. Although more than half of 74 chief executive officers, chairpersons, and presidents surveyed by USA Today in September 2008 think paying for grades is a good idea, the 45 percent that were opposed were adamant in their opposition. The newspaper points out that the perspective of business leaders on this topic is important because funds from businesses will help support many of these pay-for-grades programs, such as the National Math and Science Initiative, funded by the foundations of Exxon Mobil, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Michael Dell.
Some opponents of the initiatives are also worried that rewards will change student behavior only on a short-term basis. "I see no benefits to cash incentives for performance," says Julia Steiny, the Sunday education columnist for theProvidence Journal and a former member of the Providence school board. Steiny says her main concern is that once the incentive goes away, the behavior will as well. In her Providence Journal column, she wrote, "Americans have grown so test-score obsessed that schools and districts will do anything, even bribe, to get a short-term bump in the almighty scores."
In the poll conducted by The Principals' Partnership, more than 82 percent of the 438 principals who responded opposed the idea of paying students for grades. Most felt that students should be naturally motivated to succeed in school and that a monetary reward would not help students develop the necessary motivation for success in higher education or the workplace. Many respondents also felt that individual families—not schools—should be the ones who decide whether or not to pay students for good grades.
What Research Says
Research on the effect of cash-based incentives on student performance is currently as mixed as individual opinions on the topic. C. Kirabo Jackson, a Cornell University economist, found that students participating in the APIP program in Texas earned higher ACT and SAT scores and were more likely to enroll in college. The research, which appeared in the fall issue of Education Next, also found that the APIP program appears to have the biggest impact on African American and Hispanic students. "These outcomes are likely the result of stronger encouragement from teachers and guidance counselors to enroll in AP courses, better information provided to students, and changes in teacher and peer norms," Jackson explained in a press release issued byEducation Next.
Other research results are more ambiguous. Results from an experiment in Coshocton, Ohio, to pay elementary students for scoring higher on state exams show that 3rd–6th graders improved their math scores, but the incentives had no effect on reading scores and only a minimal effect on science and social studies scores. And a preliminary study of a New York City program that offers students at 31 high schools cash for scoring well on AP exams found that, although the number who passed declined slightly, the number of test takers rose, which can be viewed as a positive result.
Overall, the jury is still out on whether or not cash-based incentives benefit students; much more research is needed. But proponents are encouraged by preliminary results and are moving forward. In the New York Times, Fryer echoed EBL's Morris-Lindsey's sentiments: "I'm not saying this is going to fix everything, but I am saying it's worth trying. What we need to try to do is start that spark."
Resources
Earning by Learning of Dallas program:<LINK URL="http://www.eblofdallas.org">www.eblofdallas.org</LINK>.
The 2008 Principals' Partnership Poll:<LINK URL="http://www.principalspartnership.com">www.principalspartnership.com</LINK>.
Jones, D. 2008. CEOs split on paying for good grades.<LINK URL="http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2008-09-10-pay-for-grades_N.htm">www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2008-09-10-pay-for-grades_N.htm</LINK>.
