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Should Students Be Paid for Good Grades?
time.com ^ | 01/14/09 | Laura Fitzpatrick

Posted on 01/16/2009 4:42:53 AM PST by TornadoAlley3

Back in the day, a good report card earned you a parental pat on the back, but now it could be money in your pocket. Experiments with cash incentives for students have been catching on in public-school districts across the country, and so has the debate over whether they are a brilliant tool for hard-to-motivate students or bribery that will destroy any chance of fostering a love of learning. Either way, a rigorous new study — one of relatively few on such pay-for-performance programs — found that the programs get results: cash incentives help low-income students stay in school and get better grades.

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: grades; paid; students
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To: Dr. Ursus

Back in 1990 I was dating a black girl who had just finished college and she related to me how every month she received a government check for staying in college. I never inquired whether this was available to white students also.


21 posted on 01/16/2009 5:18:57 AM PST by Larry381 (Join BlueServo and protect your border.(http://www.blueservo.net/))
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To: Jeff Head

Yep. Students will be paid for good grades. Its just deferred.


22 posted on 01/16/2009 5:19:50 AM PST by rusty millet
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To: TornadoAlley3
cash incentives help low-income students stay in school and get better grades.

I like the idea, monetary incentives can be positive but,
the money should be deposited in a trust fund and not towards bling bling and spinner rims.
23 posted on 01/16/2009 5:22:53 AM PST by SouthDixie (We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly.)
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To: TornadoAlley3

Should drivers be paid to not get tickets?

Should people be paid to obey the law?


24 posted on 01/16/2009 5:23:14 AM PST by bobjam
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To: ichabod1
Spin is everything.

Not to me, but then I'm an old-fashioned sort :)

Suppose it was called a scholarship based on maintenance of a certain grade level.

Okay, I've got a sec to engage in some hair-splitting :)

I don't know of any scholarships that come with a lock. IOW, that the recipient knows with 100% certainly that he/she's gonna get one. That lack of certainty is what makes it a reward for achievement and not a bribe.

That said, what the heck is wrong with teaching kids that learning is forerver. That it's the one thing that can never be taken away from them. That developing a love for learning is a gift that will keep on giving to them their entire lives.

And talk about defining deviancy down combined with the soft bigotry of low expectations. Gad, what a morass.

(/rant)

:)

25 posted on 01/16/2009 5:25:23 AM PST by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: TornadoAlley3

On second thought...how about a salary cap for schools?

This could be like the NFL. Schools with high test scores get more money from the taxpayers, but they are limited in how much they can spend paying students. Good students might then seek to be traded for better pay to an underperforming school with more room under its salary cap. In March, the School Board could actually hold a draft of rising 9th graders for entering high school.


26 posted on 01/16/2009 5:29:15 AM PST by bobjam
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To: TornadoAlley3

It would not work because it is not fair. It would punish the naturally born stupid. It isn’t their fault they get bad grades. Pretty soon the libs would be lowering the standards for good grades even more. If that is possible.

Might as well just pay people for submitting to the leftist indoctrination and not worry about grades.


27 posted on 01/16/2009 5:31:26 AM PST by dforest (Is there any good idea out there that Obama doesn't lay claim to anymore?)
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To: TornadoAlley3; All
When I was in elementary school we had a man who worked at the school named Placido. Every report card day he would come to school with bags of quarters and would give each child a quarter for every A they had earned even if they only got an A in conduct or PE. He also gave a quarter for perfect attendance. (Note a quarter was a lot back then, it was in the day of penny candy.)

Placido was like Santa Clause on report card day. Looking over every child's card giving them praises and quarters and soliciting promises to do better next time should a child have a poor report card. We had six subjects, so with perfect attendance and conduct it was possible for every child to earn $2 for a perfect report card.

Placido was not a teacher and I think he believed by giving quarters, he was doing his part to better our education. He was in fact the school janitor. The way he dressed showed that he made little money and he lived alone in a shack (literally) on the wrong side of town. He didn't have much of a formal education and spoke in broken English. Report card day must have cost him a fortune in his eyes, but it was his was of contributing to our education.

That after a half century I can still remember his name, his face and his words of encouragement and praise attests to fact that Placido had an impact on me and my education.

28 posted on 01/16/2009 5:34:31 AM PST by Between the Lines (I am very cognizant of my fallibility, sinfulness, and other limitations.)
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To: TornadoAlley3
Wednesday, my 8 year old son brought a note home from his teacher. She admitted to making a mistake with him on Monday which started by her asking him why he was not keeping up with the day's writing assignment. When he told her he wasn't feeling well, she felt sorry for him and wrote down what was up on the board for him so he would have it for home study. Once she did that, he was feeling much better and was fine the rest of the day. Tuesday and Wednesday, he tried to do the same thing, but she didn't fall for it. Since receiving her note, My boy's homework has been lasting as long as it takes to get everything done that he doesn't get finished at school (10:30 last night). This weekend will be spent on speed writing exercises and math flash cards. I agree that teachers need to be more that just task masters, but parents have to make sure their children are keeping up with the rest of the class by enforcing good homework and study habits as well as keeping a positive line of communication with the teachers on their progress at school.
29 posted on 01/16/2009 5:36:20 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: bobjam

The REAL need for a salary cap would be our present CONGRESS!


30 posted on 01/16/2009 5:38:42 AM PST by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified DeCartes))
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To: PeteB570
“School is the best paying job you will ever have in your entire life. You'll never have another job that will GIVE you the wages, vacation time, and autonomy—FREEDOM—that being a student does.” I have been paid a lot of dollars for my labor over the course of my lifetime, most of which have gone in one hand and out the other. What I "got paid" for going to school stays with me to this day and pays the kind of dividends I can use.

That is the mantra the shoutingandpointings have grown up with. The pay scale for grades is as follows:

Each “A” = $5
Each “B” = $1
Bring home a “C?” Not a problem. You do “average” work. Nothing wrong with being average: “meets minimum expectations.” HOWEVER, I have never received a bonus for average work—”meeting minimum expectations”—and neither will you. "Get" a "C" “C” in any class means you do not get a bonus for the “As” and “Bs” you "earned" in the others.

No weekly “allowance” here, either. That money goes into the college savings fund. Every now and then, I just slide them a few bucks here and there, maybe buy them something I know they want (as opposed to need) because I caught them doing something above and beyond the call of basic human decency and Christian Charity.

31 posted on 01/16/2009 6:03:50 AM PST by shoutingandpointing (Just say, "nn-nn-NO!" to Campbell's soup.)
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To: Jeff Gordon
No. They should not be graded at all.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My 3 homeschoolers never received a grade of any kind until college.

Of course they were in college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all general college courses and Calculus III by the age of 15, and the two younger had B.S. degrees in math by 18.

32 posted on 01/16/2009 6:06:39 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: Dixie Yooper
Tuesday and Wednesday, he tried to do the same thing, but she didn't fall for it. Since receiving her note, My boy's homework has been lasting as long as it takes to get everything done that he doesn't get finished at school (10:30 last night). This weekend will be spent on speed writing exercises and math flash cards.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dixie, you are “afterschooling”. The school is merely sending home the curriculum.

Writing assignments until late in the evening? Flash cards over the weekend? Do you understand? **YOU** and your son are doing 99% of the work at **home**!

So....When responsible parents such as yourself actually **DO** the teaching and your son, **himself**, does the learning, who will take credit for the higher than average standardized scores of the school? The teachers and principal of course!

What you are doing is absolutely no different than what I did with my homeschoolers. I am willing to bet my entire 401K plan that if we compared notes there would be little differences in how we both educated our children in the home.

Personally, I am convinced that **all** academically successful children are homeschooled. If they go to school, as your child does, it is called “afterschooling”. The only thing the school is doing is sending home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow.

33 posted on 01/16/2009 6:16:45 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: Dr. Ursus

That should be left to the parents. But I do:
A’s - $20
B’s - $10
C’s - $0
D’s - -$20
F’s - Draconian measures....


34 posted on 01/16/2009 6:19:39 AM PST by Freeport (The proper application of high explosives will remove all obstacles.)
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To: TornadoAlley3

All this will do is make teachers find ways to give students “A’s” whether deserved or not. They don’t want to deny somebody money, especially in the inner-city schools, they could be threatened if they don’t give out the A. Bad, bad idea IMHO.


35 posted on 01/16/2009 6:22:48 AM PST by dfwgator (1996 2006 2008 - Good Things Come in Threes)
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To: Freeport

We too had a “pay for grades” with our five growing up once they reached Jr. High. No pay for gym, study hall, etc.

A’s=10 bucks, B’s=five bucks, C’s=nothing, D’s=you owe ME five bucks, F’s=you owe me 10.00 bucks.

Kids did not have to participate if they did not want to. All of them chose to though. I NEVER had to get on them to do homework. And I was never paid.

I just dished out 60 and 65 bucks for the last two report cards.


36 posted on 01/16/2009 6:25:25 AM PST by ladyvet (WOLVERINES!!!!!)
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To: bobjam
. Schools with high test scores get more money from the taxpayers, but they are limited in how much they can spend paying students. Good students might then seek to be traded for better pay to an underperforming school with more room under its salary cap
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have the mistaken belief that institutional schools actually **teach** something. They don't. They merely send home a curriculum for the parents to follow.

( See Dixie's post #29 with her supervising writing assignments and going over flash cards.)

It is the parents and the child himself who do 99% of the work in the home. Schools that appear to be successful have tons of “afterschooling” parents.

It is likely that not only is the typical government school model a complete an utter idiocy for the child of a dysfunctional home, its methods also retard the academic progress of kids in normal families as well.

With my own kids, the government school flat out **refused** to believe that my children were 3 and 4 years ahead of the assigned class work. I figured that I might as well officially homeschool. I was homeschooling anyway before and after their institutional school.

37 posted on 01/16/2009 6:30:20 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: dfwgator

All this will do is make teachers find ways to give students “A’s” whether deserved or not.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

BINGO!


38 posted on 01/16/2009 6:31:30 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: TornadoAlley3

Students DO get paid for good grades.

The pay is called a good job.


39 posted on 01/16/2009 6:33:59 AM PST by ZULU ( God, guts and guns made America great. Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.)
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To: Between the Lines
That is a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it.

I'm on the fence with this issue, however. I think that it's the Teacher's job to teach and the Parents' job to reward. It's the Government's job to get the heck out of the way.

In our house, good grades (read achievement) and chores are not rewarded financially. Those things are called responsibilities. Taking initiative to do extra things (ie doing the chores voluntarily for a sick sibling or an extra research paper that is not assigned or mowing the lawn of an elderly neighbor at no charge) is what is rewarded in our home.

Probably why everyone calls me old-fashioned.
40 posted on 01/16/2009 6:48:03 AM PST by stentorian conservative
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