Should schools offer students incentives for academic performance?

well i think students should be given money to do well in school so that they can have a better future in there life and earn money also.

Kneejerk opposition is understandable, but not helpful. We need to consider the heterogenity of student experience and preparation. For students who have been exposed to a curiosity-enhancing environment, incentives are not needed. Some students have first-hand knowledge of the internal satisfactions and social benefits available to hardworking students. This understanding and the internal drive to learn develop over time given support from the environment. The first steps on this road are taken when students experience rewards associated with learning. Given life circumstances, material incentives (e.g., grocery gift card) will have greater importance for some children than others. Fine! Let's start there and evaluate, as the Gates Foundation proposes to do. Results are more important than ideology.

Both my husband and I are high school teachers in very low income schools (with up to 70% of the students non-native English speakers). Many of my students have parents who had very little education and don't see much value in it. But when my husband proposed the idea of "paying for grades," I was horrified. Like many of the ivory tower respondents to this issue, I have always believed that the love of learning should be motivation enough. However, as I am preparing to offer a compensatory ed, after-school program for students who have failed the reading section of the state-required test, I am seriously reconsidering my position. How else am I going to get these kids to this class? Talking to their parents will do no good. I know that once I start working with them, I can light a fire under (some of) them, but if I don't offer some kind of incentive for coming to the classes and working hard, I'm going to be sitting in an empty classroom, and these students are going to be in the same (failing) boat as before. So, do I become a Pied Piper and lure them in with McDonald's coupons and promises of pizza? Or do I expect that somehow, the magic fairy of intrisic motivation will alight upon them and they'll eagerly give up their after-school time to absorb the nuggets of wisdom (and test-taking skills) that I will be so kind as to shower upon them?
Sometimes reality bites, but I have a feeling I'm going to end up paying, no matter how distasteful it is.

I NEVER reward my own children with money or "prizes" for good grades. I have been a teacher for twelve years and I am completely against this notion. Our Administration tried various versions of it year after year and it NEVER made students value their education more.......It did not turn any of them in curious students. Kids who value education come to school, even when they are sick and kids who don't value education....simply don't. The reward for studying or performing well is the education itself! It is something the student will possess forever.

Unfortunately, "incentives for learning" serve to trivialize the learning rather than promote it. The default is the right answer rather than the learning. I think the key to motivating students to learn is using authentic pedagogy to engage them in construction of knowledge, within the context of disciplined inquiry, that offers value beyond school. Then assessments should be authentic measures of performance that allow for self-evaluation and improvement. I think the research from the Center of Organization and Restruturing of Schools at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clearly illustrates the importance of authentic pedagogy. I don't think we'd need external incentives if we employed these strategies.

Rather than reward students for grades, if we are going down that road, I would rather reward parents for their contributions to their students academic successes. This could include attendance at PTA meetings, parenting workshops, completing their GED or taking post secondary classes, graduating from college, working with their students on the week-ends, attending classes/seminars with their students, working as a teacher's aide one day a week, participating as a member of a parental group that designs/provides collaborative learning experiences for students that are community based.....I could go a step further and talk about establishing child care services in the libraries this would allow parents with the opportunity to assist and support their older children's academic activities after school and/or in the evenings/weekends. The parents in so many of our large, urban and small/rural areas are needy--financially and academically. They need assistance in assisting and supporting their children academically.

I agree with many earlier comments to a great extent. With a good learning environments the incentive becomes the thrill of discovery and gaining skills. With "standardized" exams we treat students as "widgets" that are mass produced to earn only symbolic "value" as grades. As performance and student enthusiasm develop, they may need appropriate opportunities to recognize that they are of value in society, and that they can find opportunities by their own motivation and effort invested in themselves. The value of "self starters" is impossible to measure in our society, and uniquely valuable to the individual. This lesson learned early becomes the wind in their sails for the rest of their lives. Of course, we need teachers rewarded for their support and skills since the students become a social value with many kinds of values, including economic value.

I think generally we should stay away from incentives for learning. Children should be modeling society at large, you do not get any points for doing what is expected of you. That being said, I believe there might be times and situations that could call for some kind of incentive program. A program that uses them should also teach what happens when the rewards stop.