When Schools Bribe Kids
I have a story in today’s TIME Magazine about what happens when you pay kids to work hard in school. I got interested in this because, most of the time, schools operate in the dark—through trial and error, hunches and theories, year after year. The practices and assumptions have never been tested in a rigorous way. So I was intrigued to learn about this latest project of Roland Fryer, a Harvard economist who is dedicated to the radical notion of doing education research using the scientific method.
Fryer thought it would be interesting to see if paying kids cash money could help them perform better in school. So he and his team launched a massive, randomized experiment in Chicago, Dallas, DC and NYC to test the idea. They paid out $6.3 million in largely private money to 18,000 kids. They also tracked control groups whom they did not pay. The program generated a massive amount of buzz, but until now, no one knew if it was working.
Fryer agreed to share his results with me for the story. (His full academic paper, released just after the story came out, is here. Warning: PDF.) Almost as fascinating as the findings is his story of launching the experiment itself. You’d think he was trying to pay kids to lie, cheat and steal—not to learn. A wild tale.
But the best part was hanging out in the classrooms, talking to the kids about the experiment from the inside. They totally get it. They know that many of their teachers don’t approve of them being paid for coming to class; they know that their parents are skeptical; they know it won’t help some kids. And they totally dig it. They. Love. It. They want to earn more. The real problem is, as the story explains, they don’t always know how.
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Kayla said on April 22, 2010 at 8:59 am
As I expected this didn’t worked as well as it was planned to.
Allen said on May 14, 2010 at 8:09 am
Your lead and premised seemed great. I too hunger for empirical educational research but what you described of Fryer’s work wasn’t it and seemed like a waste of money. I understand that his samples in particular geographies might have been statistically large enough and controlled enough to draw some conclusions but once he tries to compare these four large urban but very diverse areas at much different grade/age levels with each other he’s doomed to draw generalizable conclusions. Furthermore, I would have liked to seen more questioning into the narrowness of what the standardized multiple choice only tests themselves measures which of course, mirror the Accelerated Reader tests seemingly described in Dallas.
Fox said on July 01, 2010 at 3:55 am
What a great headline, it also made me laugh, haha… school bribe kids. Anyway, it was a good article, especially this part: You’d think he was trying to pay kids to lie, cheat and steal - I mean wonderful! official money
Lawrence said on January 26, 2011 at 1:01 pm
I don’t think it’s sad. I know my parents offered me money for C’s vs B’s vs A’s. I’m not sure if it really helped a great deal or not but I don’t think it’s sad. Everyday you go to work and most people do it so they can get a check or pay their bills. It’s the nature of the world.
Laptop Reviews said on April 18, 2011 at 8:54 am
You’ve picked another great subject Amanda, Unfortunately I didn’t get to read the story.. If only motivational tactics such as this were practised during my school years. Commercial Cleaning London, Wellington Boots
Korina said on April 28, 2011 at 7:39 am
I believe that money is a very great motivator. It’s not really a good idea but it can help to motivate the kids.
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Jason said on May 02, 2011 at 2:57 pm
I don’t thing money is the right thing to use in bribing kids, maybe for grown ups money can be use but not as cold cash, there are many things a money can take form of, like scholarship or educational materials.
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Cliff Cooper said on May 06, 2011 at 2:27 am
I liked your head! I really liked it.It is quite catchy. At the first glance it appeared me to me that what now schools started bribing kids. What is this ? Well’ at last I think kids just need love and proper guidance bribing should not play any role in it . But Yaah…. sometimes u can try it.
wishes said on October 28, 2011 at 11:31 am
hey know that many of their teachers don’t approve of them being paid for coming to class; they know that their parents are skeptical; they know it won’t help some kids. And they totally dig it. They. Love. It. They want to earn more. The real problem is, as the story explains, they don’t always know how. wishes7.com
mike said on April 14, 2012 at 1:55 am
They also tracked control groups whom they did not pay.
mike said on April 14, 2012 at 2:03 am
I too hunger for empirical educational research but what you described of Fryer’s work wasn’t it horoscope du jour gratuit
mike said on April 23, 2012 at 12:56 am
I don’t think it’s sad. Everyday you go to work and most people do it so they can get a check or pay their bills. salary radiology tech