Schools try new tack: learn well, earn much

WASHINGTON - The inducements range from prepaid cellphones and MP3 players to gift certificates. But most of them are cash: $10 for New York City seventh-graders who complete a periodic test; $50 for Chicago high school freshmen who ace their courses; as much as $110 to Baltimore students for improved scores on the Maryland High School Assessments.

Desperate to ratchet up test scores and close the achievement gap separating white and minority students, school officials from Tucson to Boston are paying children who put up good numbers.

This fall, Washington, D.C. launched a one-year study of 3,300 middle schoolers who can earn up to $100 every two weeks for good grades, behavior, and attendance. On Oct. 17, the first payday for the Capital Gains program, students collected an average of $43.

The efforts vary widely in scope and objective. But nearly all trigger passionate arguments about the wisdom of monetizing academic achievement.

Critics denounce the initiatives as bribery and say the money could be better invested in ideas known to work, such as smaller class size. They point to psychological research suggesting that tangible rewards can erode children's intrinsic motivation. DePaul University education professor Ronald Chennault says there are ethical issues posed by the ventures, which are mostly experimental and dependent on private funding and local political support.

Although a flurry of incentive programs have started up in the past year, the idea is as old as gold stars.

The Capital Gains project in Washington, D.C. is part of what will probably be the most influential study of cash incentives for students. It is led by Harvard economist Roland Fryer, who has also set up incentive programs in New York and Chicago, with the help of the Broad Foundation as part of a larger effort to bring the rigor of private research and development to educational issues.