http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121928822683759447.html,
I read the NCTE Inbox article entitled "When Schools Offer Money As a Motivator" with great interest. I had previously never heard of such a thing being done, in fact the idea seemed very odd to me. After wrapping my head around it for a while, I decided that the idea has some merit. Basically, students in schools are offered cash incentives to do well on tests or in the classes they are taking.
The chief reason I think that this is a good idea as compared to say, decreasing class sizes, is that the gains are much larger compared to the gains of hiring a new teacher (and slightly cutting the size of certain classes). I think that one of the biggest problems with today's education system in America is the problem of motivating the students, especially those from low income areas and schools. This program is most effective to those who need academic guidance the most, because low income students are more likely to respond enthusiastically to a cash incentive.
For those critics who say that cash incentive will make students have less desire to learn for reasons not tied directly to money, I would then ask them if they are an opponent of scholarships, and further than that, of performance-based pay in the workforce. The idea behind this program is not a new one, it is the same idea that motivates the workers and business people of our nation and the world, it has just never manifested itself so directly in our schools. The direct line of money tied to good academic performance will help students understand the way things work in "the real world", and at the same time motivate them to do better work in their schools.
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I firmly agree with Matt. Normally, if I heard schools were handing out money to their students based on their test scores, I would have thought it was a ridiculous plot to waste their money on but after reading the article, my opinion swayed. It brought up the idea that money is an enormous motivator for students, especially in the lower income schools. Offering a type of compensation for a job well done to all students who take Advanced Placement Exams definitely increases the interest in taking the tests. Students who take AP Exams tend to move on to college and by offering this program in schools, can essentially increase college enrollment.Although in the article, Barry Schwartz brings up the point that students may decrease their desire to learn for non-financial reasons, Matt brings up the idea of scholarships. Scholarships have been around for a while and they are good motivators for students to do exceptionally well.
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