Earn an A? Here's $50. C? Here's $20

[jeffrey]

Up to 5,000 freshmen at 20 Chicago public high schools will get cash for good—and even average—grades as part of a new, Harvard-designed test program that city education leaders are rolling out Thursday.

Students will be measured every five weeks in math, English, social sciences, science and physical education. An A nets $50, a B equals $35 and a C still brings in $20. Students will get half the money upfront, with the remainder paid upon graduation. A straight-A student could earn up to $4,000 by the end of his or her sophomore year.

Parents have been rewarding children for stellar report cards for decades. Chicago Public Schools officials are nodding to that tradition and saying the idea is to get students to stay in school and do well while they're there...

Earn an A? Here's $50. -- chicagotribune.com

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I predict the payments won't have much effect one way or the other.

A quote from the article:"This is the kind of incentive that middle-class families have had for decades." Pbbth. Some middle class families. A few middle class families. Or shall I say, not many middle class families?

[PrincessPerky]

Let me get this straight, I have to PAY thousands of dollars a semester so that my kid can maybe make 4 of it back at the end?

Why are the folks there if they don't care to earn As already? This is one more symptom of the broken education system, no longer are we learning, we are just earning letters and now cash.

I don't give one cent to my kids foir good grades, I also don't bother to give a grade, you either know it or you don't. If you do great, we get to move on, if not, lets work on that.

[red92s]

Let me get this straight, I have to PAY thousands of dollars a semester so that my kid can maybe make 4 of it back at the end?

You pay thousands of dollars a semester to send your kid to a public high school?

Why are the folks there if they don't care to earn As already? This is one more symptom of the broken education system, no longer are we learning, we are just earning letters and now cash.

last time I checked, it was required by law for them to be there?

[kork13]

I think Perky misunderstood.... sounds like she thought Harvard was conducting this program for its own college students, giving college students money for good grades, as opposed to sponsoring the program for the Chicago high schools (as is the case).

[PrincessPerky]

I think Perky misunderstood.... sounds like she thought Harvard was conducting this program for its own college students, giving college students money for good grades, as opposed to sponsoring the program for the Chicago high schools (as is the case).

Yep I apologize, my second statement still stands however. Being required by law obviously does not motivate. Thought I do pay taxes so I AM paying for other folks kids to go to school.

[PrincessPerky]

"It's a terrible idea, because you're getting people to do things for the wrong reasons," said Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore College psychology professor who has written on the issue. "They'll do well in school, maybe, but they won't take any of it out with them. Instead of trying to cultivate an interest in learning, curiosity . . . you are just turning this into another job."

[PrincessPerky]

I highly encourage anyone serious about the future of education to read this article:

open education

Compulsory schooling indoctrinates people in the faith of arbitrary systems which are, or will soon become, obsolete. Schools teach as if what is now thought true will always be truth. They suppress the natural evolution of concepts and practices. But science, culture, politics, philosophy, and society aren’t static at all.

There’s a widespread feeling these days, both here and abroad, that America has lost its way, that we’ve gone crazy, and that school has something to do with it. Personally, I agree. But what change in schooling could restore our lost national vigor?

Since 1983, the answer from policy circles has been: even more of the same! More hours, more days, more homework, more tests, more college, and a more coercive transfer of officially-approved curricula designed to make classrooms teacher-proof. In this tight prescription, critical thinking, artistic expression, and actual applications of learning have received short shrift. But what if regimented schooling is the disease making us sick and not its cure?

[cptacek]

Darn. I only got 2 Bs from Kindergarten up to college graduation (the rest were As). I got a B in 5th grade math and a B in home ec. I would have RAKED it in!

But, I think it is a terrible idea. How corrupt will those grades be?