Reading, Writing And Raking It In

(CBS)  Fourth grader Roy Rivera couldn't believe it when his teacher told him he would be paid to take tests.

"I was hoping she wasn't joking," he told CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.

Rivera and seventh-grader Brianna Tan are part of an experiment that pays some students for academic achievement.

Brianna told Pinkston she has earned close to $50.

It's called the "Spark Program." In New York, 8,000 randomly selected fourth- and seventh-graders earn for learning.

Fourth graders can earn up to $25 for scoring well on 10 English and math tests for a maximum of $250; seventh graders can make $50 per test - or up to $500 a year.

Similar programs are underway in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

"It is getting kids on the right path to do the things that we want them to do," said Harvard economist Roland Fryer.

The controversial privately funded program, the brainchild of Fryer, is drawing high-profile attention - even from Stephen Colbert.

Formal analysis is due this fall, but the anecdotal evidence is promising.

Last year, just 60 percent of Roy Rivera's third-grade class met state math standards. This year, with cash rewards, 84 percent made the grade.

Despite positive preliminary results, critics say the very idea of paying students to study is risky business.

"Once you create this expectation in students, how do you unwind it?" said Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. "When do we stop paying them? We're just bribing students to do something they should do on their own."

But advocates say the two-year pilot program is intended to teach kids early that hard work pays off.

"During that year, kids develop habits. They see what they can do when they apply themselves with more energy and focus, and that carries over," said Mary Pree, assistant principal at P.S. 188 in New York.

They are habits that educators hope will last a lifetime.

[koko98-2009]

When California was awash with money, Dana Hills High School offered cash awards to any student who improved their test scores. Test scores went up, but when the state ran out of money no awards were paid. The next year with no offer of rewards the test scores crashed. It's all about incentives.

[Beyond-The-Spectrum]

If this isn't the most idiotic idea they've had about public schools since expanding the definition of "special education."


http://beyond-the-political-spectrum.blogspot.com/search/label/Entitlements

[j_flood]

We are embarking on a new 'entitlement' for the future....must be more choices to encourage learning...... look to the past

[endurorob]

This is just pathetic. It only teaches these kids that everything in life needs an immediate reward.

[rliss]

Paying for grades is a bad idea. A far better one is to do what my wife and I have done: instill in your children the wish to succeed without money or gifts as rewards. This is so simple to do you probably won't believe me. When they were young I told each of my children that I didn't care how well they did in school, if they got A's or C's, just that they put in their best effort. I told them that I wasn't going to pay them or give them gifts for getting good grades, because they weren't doing it for me, they were doing it for themselves, so they could succeed in life. I told them that if they didn't do well in school it wasn't going to hurt me, it was going to hurt them. I believe that they got the message. I now have one son in medical school, another taking electrical engineering and another who just graduated from Georgetown summa *** laude Phi Beta Kappa and who has been accepted at Oxford for graduate studies. Too often we underestimate our children. The simple truth is if you have high expectations of them they will generally perform to the best of their abilities. Children intuitively want to please their parents. Showering them with praise, not presents or money, is the reward they really want.

[pw08-2009]

Wait, I've got a better idea...pay them a little less, but trick them into thinking they'll become movie stars and rap artists if they pass a test!

[pw08-2009]

Sounds like an early path to government assistance. Why don't you parents teach your children to learn for the love of learning. This is very "ebonoic-like"