Making the Grade
Should Texas pay students to learn?
Sean S says: I think that everybody is missing two critical pieces of information here. 1-Who cares if kids go to school "just to get the money"...if the point of the proposed idea is to keep kids in school and help them get a better education...and it works, who cares if it’s strictly due to financial motivators, this happens every day in the corporate world and will be a continuing theme in these teens’ lives, why not start it now. 2- Forget the difference between offering this to Ninth vs Tenth...or Eleventh graders, whatever... I think that a proposal like this would get struck down if you only offer these incentives to kids at poorly performing schools. It could be said that there are likely more financially underpriveleged youth attending these schools but this wouldn’t seem fair to, say a kid (already doing his or her part) at even an exemplary school. How is it right that kids that are already doing poorly would get rewarded while a child that is putting forth maximum effort isn’t offered the same benefits. Additionally, there are many financially destitute kids that could and probably would make use of this program, even though they may attend a much higher performing school. I’m not opposed to the idea, I just think that it may need some re-thinking. Pepe (June 15th, 2010 at 10:06am)
If you want someone to do something, you have to make it worth the struggle. This is the idea that steers our capitalistic society. So why not install this philosophy in younger generations by paying them for good grades? What if money is the only thing that works to keep our kids in school? This has yet to be seen, but in an attempt to lower the dropout rate, Representative Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont) is proposing to use stimulus money for a pilot program in which ninth grade students at low-performing schools would be paid fifty dollars for receiving an A, thirty-five dollars for a B, and twenty dollars for a C on their report cards.
After hearing of a similar program in Chicago, Deshotel filed a bill requiring the help of community organizations to give additional influence to the student, and rewards based on performance.
“We believe that this cash incentive, working along with some mentoring program, may save some from dropping out,” Deshotel said. “We don’t know if it’s going to work. This program hasn’t started, and there are some programs that are just starting around the country so we don’t have any empirical evidence other than the assumption that incentives pay off.”
Incentives, of course, are nothing new. We give bonuses to teachers and business executives for exceptional performance. Although cash incentives for students are unchartered territory, educators have tried other motivational tactics before, such as gift certificates and days off from school for good grades. This could be just another tool.
“You say children are supposed to be self-motivated, children are supposed to do what’s right because it’s the right thing to do” Deshotel said. “That’s good and fine but there’s a whole segment of the population that may not have anyone in their immediate circle with a high school diploma, so when they hear things like study and you’ll be successful or good grades pay off, they’ve never seen any tangible evidence of that. Those are the people we’re trying to reach.”
So why just ninth grade students? Although statistics show that the high school dropout rate is highest in ninth grade when students transition to high school, Superintendent Jonny Brown of Port Arthur School District says he would like to see the program reach all grade levels. With fifteen schools in his area—three of which failed the national No Child Left Behind rating, five which failed the state rating and seven that passed—Brown is afraid that students doing well will sink to a lower level of performance just to get the money. But if applied to all schools, it would create a learning environment that would strengthen the concept of education.
“It’s a very positive incentive program to help students prepare for college, and to get them thinking that the college path is something they can achieve,” Brown said. “A lot of kids don’t think about college because they know they can’t pay for it, but this ties short-term success to long-term plans for college.”
Perhaps desperate times call for desperate measures, and cash incentives will provide a different kind of value to education. Deshotel seems to think so.
“We believe that different things motivate different people, some are self-motivated, some are motivated by titles, some are motivated by money, and some by achievement. And you have to find what motivates various kids to get them to stay in school.”
My Library
