I read this Time magazine article about a program used in Chicago, NYC, Dallas, and DC in which students get paid for various achievements in school. It's an interesting article, and the program has had varying levels of success in different cities. What do you think about programs like these? Do you support paying students for achievement or do you believe strongly that learning is incentive enough in itself? Is this any different than other incentive systems that schools use with pencils, dress down days, or trips? Would you support a program like this in your school, and would you support a program like this in your child's school?
today, i bribed my students to do their homework with candy. i do not like bribing them like that, and it made me feel dirty.
ReplyDeleteYou should check out Daniel Pink's book "Drive".
ReplyDeleteIn it he cites research that really makes sense to me. Incentivising performance tasks supersedes the inherit incentive (thrill of achievement, fun of learning, whatever). The new incentives provide a short-term boost but have a long term consequence. They need to keep ramping higher and higher to provide the same impact.
Student pay is about short-term gains, though, because it's all about politics. We all want to see a short Action/Reaction cycle, so it looks great -- until it doesn't.
Thanks Sarah and Jeff.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your comment Sarah, do you see a significant change in homework completion when you give candy? I'm interested to hear how it worked today. And, is that true all the time, candy=completion?
Jeff, do you think a system similar to the one that was used at DC Prep, where students earn incentives for achievement and behavior, but as they progress also learn about character and integrity resolves this issue of incentives achieving only short term gains? Is it okay to incentivise (which may not be a word) if you have a strong character component as well?
We use a paycheck system. They can't "cash out" until the end of each quarter when they can redeem their $ for things such as MATCH t-shirts, fleeces, calculators, gift certificates to Foot Locker, Wet Seal, Borders, etc. Each student gets a weekly pay of $4. Their $ accumulate throughout the quarter. The $ even rolls over from quarter to quarter. Students can also lose them. For every demerit they receive, we deduct $1. If they have perfect attendance, they receive an extra $1. If they have perfect homework completion, they receive an extra $2. Although we have this system, I never hear kids say, I'm going to do all my homework so I can get an extra $2. I almost always hear kids say that they're completing homework because they don't want to serve homework detention. However, kids get really excited when they can "cash out". They literally hunt our principal down to make sure they can cash out. So I know they like being rewarded. At the same time, I believe MATCH does a good job at drilling into our students' minds that education is what they need, college is the goal, and what they'll receive in the future are OPTIONS if they work hard at MATCH. So, I believe a combination of incentives, consequences, and character education/culture works.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, if Newt Gingrich supports something, I just assume it was handed down by God himself.
ReplyDeleteI would like to echo Jeff's sentiment: cash incentives are a short-term solution but what are the long-term consequences? Is it an entitlement? Is this the message we want to send our children? Of course, most of us who have done well in school were motivated by some kind of external incentive, such as not being harassed by parents, getting into a good college, and ego-nurturing accolades.
On the other hand, there is a crisis occurring in our urban schools and I'm sympathetic to the "by any means necessary" approach. It's well-intentioned but poorly misguided. There are too many people desperately bending backwards to make an antiquated and mediocre form of education work. We don't need school reform. We need new schools.
I'd also like to add I support incentives like those described by Sarah and Joanne. When dealing with children, it's those novel things that get them used to making good decisions.
ReplyDeletei'm with jeff. i work really hard to guide my students to locating their internal sense of accomplishment. i think teachers often think that having that internal sense is either something that kids have or they don't (or that it just has to do with the kid's family values), but i have quite a few students that i think i have been able to teach it to. i teach it explicitly--"how do you feel now that you finished your work/brought in your homework/read that book/didn't punch your friend? doesn't it feel good??!" and in the long term i think this has really paid off, especially as a part of my classroom culture and management. i hope it's something that stays with them. when i do set up reward situations, i try to think of incentives that also build that internal sense as apposed to material incentives. one of my fav incentives is having lunch with me (which for some reason they love and will give up their recess for) or reading a book to a friend/teacher from anther class or (and this is best of all) erasing the whiteboards. i have found candy treats to be good incentives in two cases: #1 getting kids initially excited about something (like i gave them candy for bringing their homework notebooks for the first time, but i haven't given it since and instead play up how good it feels to be responsible blah blah blah) and #2 for getting kids to learn their phone numbers and addresses (it was just a really effective something so discrete and rote). and when i give candy/material treats, i always go to lengths to give all of the kids multiple opportunities to earn it. maybe it's just in my head, but offering multiple opportunities seems to mediate the dirtiness of bribing the kids with candy. ha.
ReplyDeleteand in direct response to jamie's question: i did see a big increase in kids who brought in their homework the second day. they were clamoring for their piece of candy. but i did not give candy again to the kids who got it the day before. each kid had the chance to earn a candy for the first day they brought me their homework notebook. does that make sense?
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