Duke University graduate Angela Jiang teaches in a Chicago public school, where students are paid for good grades. The positive impact was short-lived, writes Jiang in the Duke Chronicle.
The first couple of paychecks, I saw a significant difference in the sense of personal responsibility of my students. Last year, I had to chase students down in the cafeteria to show them their grades and discuss necessary actions to avoid failure, but this year many more students took the initiative to find tutoring themselves. But as time has passed the paychecks have slowly lost meaning. I have even more students failing my class this year than last year. Today, only 47 percent of my sixth period roster and 51 percent of my eighth period roster showed up for class.
What’s the problem? Jiang writes:
Also, the problems facing failing schools are not fundamentally caused by individual students, but instead by the system itself. Motivation cannot be bought with money, but cultivated only with a culture and environment of learning and structure.
I agree. But importantly, until the public system is forced to compete for students and treat parents and students as customers, this problem will continue. How very sad for us all.
