An Interesting Idea to Keep Students in School

This morning I was listening to a radio show and the host was talking about a huge amount of kids dropping out of school in Quebec (something like 40% of boys don't graduate). I tried looking up the statistics, but I couldn't find such numbers (maybe I'll look later again and post them), but the idea (pushed by the radio host) of solving this problem was very much out-there, so I thought I would write about it, discuss it a bit, and see what other people and educators think.

The pilot project was initiated in Chicago Public Schools this past fall. Here is a quote from the Chicago Tribune (Sept. 11, 2008):

Some might call it bribery. But Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan says the time has come to pay students for getting good grades.

Under a program debuting this year in 20 Chicago public high schools, straight A's can translate into earnings of $4,000 and straight Cs can yield kids $1,600. The money can be earned in increments of $50 for each A, $35 for each B and $20 for each C in English, math, science, social science and physical education. The money would be paid in five-week reporting periods.

Qualifying students will get only half their earnings up front. They have to graduate to get the other half.

Duncan says the program is an incentive, not bribery as some have called it. He said the program, funded through private donations, is intended to discourage failure and to encourage kids to graduate.

I have to say that I was impressed with the simplicity of the solution as well as the out-of-the-box thinking. (I always think that simple works best.) And then I tried to picture my own high school students... the hard ones, the ones that had trouble at school, the ones that might fail out of school and never come back. And I could totally see them fall for this, love the idea, put in more effort at least to get a C - for that $20.

I have to admit, that this past year I had a class that was full of "hard" kids. At first I was able to capture their attention and I loved the class and really liked the kids. After a while, as all trouble making students do, they got bored of school, and I lost them. I had to think of ideas to keep them on task, listening, doing their work, etc. With some consultation, I thought of a "reward" system: For every 10 classes that are "good" to my standards (no talking out of turn, listening, learning going on, all students paying attention, no fooling around, etc.) I would give them a "free class". This usually ment going to the gym and letting them blow off steam - playing sports, whatever. This system worked remarkably well. They needed something to motivate them, because they did not have the internal motivation that "good" students have.

I think this idea is brilliant. Money for marks - exactly what those kids want. How many times have my students asked me: "We don't get paid for this, but you do!", or something to that effect.

Not only does it not cost the tax payers a cent, but also it is a reward system instead of a punishment system (as is the case in many schools). This system won't change the attitude of "good" students - they'll always do good, because they have the intrinsic motivation. It won't harm them, it'll just give them some extra cash during their schooling days and for college when they graduate... awesome! But this idea is ideal for the lower achieving students, the ones that don't have the ambitions to get high grades. By the time kids reach high school, they understand the value of money, and the $20 for a C or $35 for a B will speak a lot more to the kids than the grades themselves.

It is possible that the kids will get the grades for the wrong reasons (as some critics state), but as the radio host pointed out, maybe along the way they'll get interested in something, and instead of joining a gang or getting a minimum wage job after they graduate, they might become radio hosts, or teachers themselves!