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Should Kids Be Bribed To Do Well In School?

Posted by timothy on from the hey-kid-look-at-this-shiny-future dept.

theodp writes "Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. did something education researchers almost never do: he ran a randomized experiment in hundreds of classrooms in Chicago, Dallas, Washington, and New York to help answer a controversial question: Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School? He used mostly private money to pay 18,000 kids a total of $6.3 million and brought in a team of researchers to help him analyze the effects. He got death threats, but he carried on. His findings? If incentives are designed wisely, it appears, payments can indeed boost kids' performance as much as or more than many other reforms you've heard about before — and for a fraction of the cost."

3 of 706 comments (clear)

  1. Re:a better question by Michael+Kristopeit · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    i know many parents that believe that education isn't something you do because you are being paid. i also know many parents that pay their children to do everything.

    how is letting them both do what they feel is best for their children in any way hating science? how is promoting the freedom of parents in any way hating freedom?

    you are retarded.

  2. Re:a better question by Michael+Kristopeit · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    'as a taxpayer, i don't think it's fair that i'm already paying for your child's education,...'

    You're not; you are paying back the cost of your education. That is being invested in the education of the current students, who will, in turn, pay it back.

    hey, retard... do you know what the word "AND" means? next time you quote me, don't cut off a sentence and change the context.

    as a taxpayer, i don't think it's fair that i'm already paying for your child's education, and now i must also pay to motivate them to receive it.

    i have no problem with paying for the education however you want to justify it. my problem is with paying EXTRA to motivate children to receive it. the free availability should be motivation enough. it was for me.

  3. Re:a better question by terjeber · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Please refrain from commenting on something you haven't read and therefore have no way of understanding.