Paying Students to Learn? Good Idea?
At a number of schools in the poorer sections of New York City, students are being paid to do well on citywide exams in reading and math. Seventh-graders earn up to $750 and fourth-graders up to $250. This is all part of the Spark Program--part of Mayor Bloomberg's ant-poverty initiative.
As you might imagine, the idea is generating lots of discussion---and controversy.
The issues range from
-schools that were not included in the pilot program asking to be included
-doubts about whether any gains will be sustained
-questions as to where future funding will be found (since it all currently depends on private money that the billionaire mayor has raised)
-students becoming obsessed with test performance
-what happens to all the grades not included
and on and on.
Still, the program is far more than the usual theoretical discussions about how to improve learning and education. That is a welcome development. It will be interesting to see if it takes hold in a significant way.
