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http://news.cincinnati.com/article/.../School-pays-kids-come-class?odyssey=nav|head
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/.../School-pays-kids-come-class?odyssey=nav|head
WALNUT HILLS Dohn Community High School senior Arneqka Lester, 16, is especially excited about coming to school this week.
Thats because Friday is payday.
This charter school of 170 students embarks on a new experiment this week its paying students to come to class.
Kids will get Visa gift cards $25 for seniors, $10 for underclassmen for showing up five days a week, being on time, not getting into trouble and being productive, said Principal Ramone Davenport. Productive means that they are working in class, it has nothing to do with grades or test scores.
As an added bonus, every time a student gets paid, an extra $5 will go into a savings account for them, payable upon graduation.
The incentive program is expected to cost about $40,000 this school year, funded through a mix of private donations and federal Workforce Investment Act dollars funneled through the schools partner Easter Seals.
If Lesters reaction is any indication, the program might work.
Im very excited to get the money, said Lester. It makes me want to come to school on time, not that I dont. But some students dont have the money and this will help them. Its a good idea.
The idea of paying students to come to class isnt new. Several schools in the country have adopted incentive programs with varying degrees of success and controversy.
Local programs such as Easter Seals offer student incentives on a case-by-case basis to students who qualify because they are poor or have had truancy problems. Some companies partner with local schools to offer incentives like cell phones or scholarships for good work.
But organizers said this is the first schoolwide, behavior-based incentive program to be launched in the Cincinnati area.
The goal is to reduce the number of dropouts, improve attendance and graduation rates, and keep students off the streets.
The idea was hatched by Superintendent Kenneth Furrier and Davenport, in partnership with Easter Seals director of youth services, Debbie Smith.
Davenport knows there will be critics. But theyre trying it anyway.
Why? Because it just might work, he said.
People will say youre rewarding kids for something they should already be doing anyway, Davenport said. But theyre not doing it. Weve tried everything else.
Dohn focuses on dropouts. For many, it is a last-ditch effort to graduate. Eighty three percent of its kids are low income; almost all are minorities.
The school was in Academic Emergency last year, the worst category on the Ohio Report Card. Its attendance rate was about 84 percent, well below the state minimum of 93 percent. Its graduation rate was only 14 percent last year.
Davenport said Dohn students often need extra motivation because of the pressures of their lives outside of school.
Right now kids arent looking at grades as a reward. It wasnt like when we were growing up, said Davenport. They have to stay home and work or watch their little brother or sister. They dont come to school.
Smith said this incentive might mean the difference between a graduate and a dropout.
What usually happens when youre working with at-risk kids, when they get to that last stretch it gets scary, she said. It looks too hard, too daunting. The greatest pull for them is the streets. They can make more money there.
Dohn student Asia Cornett, 17, of Westwood, thinks the money will make a big difference for her and her classmates.
I thought it was more of a motivation for kids to come to school. More like a job. Some dont have any motivation now, she said.
The schools secondary goal is to differentiate itself from other dropout recovery schools in the area to increase enrollment and better serve students. It started a program this year requiring longer school days and physical fitness and nutrition programs.
The idea of paying kids to for attendance or grades is controversial.
Peter A. Spevak, director of the Center for Applied Motivation, a private consulting firm near Washington, D.C., called the idea short sighted.
If someone wanted (to pay) me to jump in a vat of cake batter, Id do it, but its false motivation of the moment.
He said it also may foster a sense of entitlement.
The premise is you get paid for things youre supposed to do anyway, he said. In society you should do things because its fulfilling to do and the right thing to do. It undermines internal motivation which ultimately has to drive citizens in a good society.
A 2010 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll on public schools found that 3 out of 4 respondents opposed the idea of paying students money to read books, attend school or strive for better grades. Only 1 in 4 parents said they paid their children to do better in school.
While some may cringe at the idea of paying kids to go to school, the idea has worked in some cases across the country.
Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. began a large-scale experiment with incentives at several urban school districts in 2007. The results were mixed but generally found incentives work when kids paid for behaviors like attendance, but not when theyre for good grades.
Its worked for the KIPP schools, a national chain of 109 charter schools, including one in Columbus. The schools saw significant academic gains at its middle schools where its offered (non-cash) behavioral incentives, for more than a decade, according to spokesman Steve Mancini.
Back in Cincinnati, Davenport said attendance and graduation are the main goals. But if kids are in school instead of on the streets, better grades might be a welcome side effect, too.
