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Cash For Grades

Cash For Grades

July 8, 2010 Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 4:03 PM EDT

Several school systems in the nation have been experimenting with ways to improve test scores and overall academic performance. One method is to pay kids (or their families) when those kids get good grades. But, this plan is controversial and some argue that it cannot help but fail over time.
So, the question is: Does a cash reward for good grades work? Some kids think so. Experts even say the idea behind getting money for grades is well founded. Paula Bryman, a Clinical Social Worker, says "If you tell someone, "oh we're going to give you a reward," it's very exciting. And kids do great with what we call behavior modification. If you do something, you get rewarded for it." But, that kind of behavior modification has its limits, says Dr. Sherry Blake, a Psychologist: "I think as a short term… it probably works short term, but not over the long run." She says over time a child will not maintain the amount of effort it takes to get good grades, if all they're doing it for is cash at the end. To create good students long-term, she says a child has to internalize the value of learning, "The joy of understanding something new, the joy of achieving a goal and we want that to come from within. If we're only using external measures such as money or something elaborate then a child doesn't learn the joy of learning. What the child learns, the message that is sent is 'if I do this then I get this.'" Many students agree that when it comes to school, the grade is the reward.

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