Paying Students for Achievement?

I had a friend in high school whose parents paid her generously for any As and Bs she earned.

One semester, when the girl – who consistently posted weaker grades than I did – raked in a whopping $125 – I went to my parents and made the case for a similar rewards system in our house.

“I work hard, too,” I told my mother. “It seems fair I should be paid for it.”

My mother – a lifelong housewife fluent in five languages and known to study anatomy and physiology or European history just for fun – launched into a lecture about the beauty of working hard to improve yourself.

“Say all you want, I am not going to take that joy from you by saying it is worth money,” she said, waving her hand. “You should work hard and learn because you want to – and because you know it’s important – more important than a few dollars.”

And so that, my friends, was the end of the Harrison household’s cash for grades initiative.

And while the proposal lived a short life back in the early ‘90s in my household in semi-rural Mississippi, paying students for good grades and other measures of achievement is gaining momentum in some education circles.

A number of schools across the nation have or are considering paying students for everything from grades to school attendance to behavior to participation in after-school and Saturday tutoring sessions.

So far, research on the effectiveness of these programs is mixed. One study done by Harvard University professor Roland Fryer showed that kids with a history of behavior problems raised their reading scores 0.4 – the equivalent of about five additional months of schooling – when they received cash incentives. Results were less conclusive in other schools.

But in another city, where Fryer actually expected to see the biggest test score gains, no bumps were seen.

Some experts, though, passionately argue that the results don’t even matter – but that we should resist paying for school achievement for the same reasons my mother did – because it does not encourage learning for the joy of learning. And in that, students never develop a lifelong appreciation for education.

Others say the ultimate goal should be a love of learning, but that maybe the financial incentives can provide a hook until struggling students learn to be more motivated to learn.

What do you think? Would you support a program that paid students for grades and other academic achievement? Do you pay your own children or other family members for their performance? What about paying for other achievements, like performing well in athletics, music or art?

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