Get an A? Here's $50.

Main Story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-money-for-grades-11-sep11,0,4916582,print.story

The idea of paying students for good grades is an interesting idea that I believe has the possibility to help motivate students, especially those of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Upper and middle class parents may already use this method to motivate their children. According to an article in USA Today dated September 11, 2008, the majority of business CEOs use monetary rewards for their own children. (http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T4628079387&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T4628079390&cisb=22_T4628079389&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=8213&docNo=5)They claim that in the real world, professional world, bonuses, raises, and stock options are used to motivate employees to excel. Similarly, rewarding students with money or trips will provide a goal for students to reach for. By Chicago Public schools offering money to inner city students, they are leveling the playing field so to speak. Inner city families cannot afford to reward student for their grades as the upper classes do. (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/08/our-opinion-on-.html)

Another benefit provided by Green for Grade$ besides motivation is that students can learn money managements. According to Rufus Williams, the Chicago Board of Education president, "This program not only provides incentives to keep students focused on making good grades, it also teaches financial responsibility" (http://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/2008/Pages/09_11_2008_PR1.aspx). This benefit is backed by the fact that the earnings will be directly deposited into the child's saving account.

Some fear that paying students to learn is wrong because learning should just be an intrinsic goal in every student, instead of a job. However, the program only pays for the first 2 years, when students are in the most danger of not graduating. After those 2 years, students will be transitioned to using their own future goals to motivate them to keep their grades up. The may also receive rewards for ACT test prep. And if their future goals are bright because they kept their grades up for the first two years and have great possibilities of going to college, they now have some money saved to put towards that goal that they earned through their hard work at school.

The reason why I believe this form of motivation would work is something I read on Mr. Olson's (no relations) blog (http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/5035.aspx). He instituted a system using fake money which can be earned and turned in for homework passes, bathroom passes, and such. He says that kids are so interested in getting these rewards that they ask to do something to earn "Olson bucks" everyday. Imagine if students received these for good grades and as a reward got candy, extra credit, or homework passes. This should help motivate students. In my future classroom, I would love to instill a similar system. However, I would somehow still want to keep grades confidential or reward improvement instead of A's and B's. The last thing I want to do is hurt my student's self confidence. This may pose a challenge.

I would like to see this program in practice, since there are a few possibilities that worry me if it doesn't succeed in motivation. Number one is that the student-teacher relationship will be jeopardized because now teachers have more "power" with their grades. I have already heard students blame bad grades based on the fact the teacher "didn't like them." Imagine if you had to turn down students money because of a grade they earned that might be a very subjective grade. I'm also worried that, like I mentioned above, it may cause lower achieving students to lose even more self confidence if they don't receive any money and their peers receive a couple thousand. Low achieving students may be the ones who need the money the most...