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Bribing Kids With Cash to Score Better Grades Actually Works

$80-an-hour payments are all it takes to solve nation's education crisis

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t +

Image: Telegraph

To file under "duh." Paying kids for good test scores improves their results - and the more you pay them, the better they do. A new study from Freakonomics author Steven Leavitt and others shows that students score much better when you pay them $80 per test hour - but at $40-an-hour, not so much.

The take-home: bribing schoolkids with cash, rather than undermining America's morals, could have huge social benefits, resulting in a nation of better-educated high school grads.
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61 Comments (view in Forum)

  • dustyoutlaw
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    Right. 80.00 an hour huh? And I'm sure each and every one of you can afford to pay your kids 80.00 to study. I'll study for 20.00 an hour. And study hard.
  • Keyjo
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    Yeah, forget about instilling in your rugrats the need for a good education or the desire to learn. If you listen to a lot of conservatives, they equate higher education, broader thinking and a desire to learn about the world around us with "liberalism!" Many actually discourage their children from college.
    Of course, it's not just the parents: our classrooms are overcrowded and the teachers are overwhelmed and burned out.
    But, since our government and our culture no longer put education at a high priority, what else can we expect.

    Most tests in American schools have less to do with how well a student learns and more with how well he/she can memorize.

    Bribing your children is usurping your parental responsibilities and instilling a sense of entitlement in the children.
  • ir0nw0lfe
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    Thank you for posting perhaps this biggest bunch of complete nonsense I've heard in years. Conservatives discourage their kids from learning or going to college? Congratulations! You've solved the conservative agenda! Now you can nice on to figuring out how tic-tax-toe works! Unbelievable.
  • Stratton
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    This is an interesting mix of accurate observations and unfounded left-wing polemic. I think you'll have trouble finding any actual examples of "conservatives" discouraging their children from college, unless they simply can't afford it.

    Nor are our classrooms "overcrowded". That's a myth that has been repeatedly endlessly by the teacher's unions. Class sizes across the country at every grade level are smaller than they were in our parents' time, and even when we were in school.

    However, your last two statements are 100% correct.
  • DrMoonshine
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    Here's my take on Keyjo's statement. There's some truth to it even if I don't personally agree with it. There are quite a few conservatives who are stern on their children's education all the way up to college. Their argument is that college education is all geared towards the liberal agenda. If you look at our history, where do the pressure of our most radical changes come from? College students. Radical ideas are loudest with the college population, therefore it would lead to all things against conservatives.
  • Keyjo
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    Okay, okay: Note I said "a lot," but I should have said, "some conservatives." On my old forum (in the local Salem, Oregon Statesman Journal, zapped by Gannett), some conservatives actually stated that they didn't want their children attending college because of its "liberal agenda, liberal views," etc...... you get the idea. "Some" conservatives felt their children didn't need their heads filled with "useless" information and ideas learned in college.
    I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone, and obviously I could have written more clearly. Certainly not every conservative is opposed to higher learning.

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  • Goebel
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    I agree with Ironwolfe's post, but I'd like to take my position a bit further into the depths of radicalism.

    Learning based on payments doesn't teach a good lesson. But learning for grades doesn't either. Grades are there to provide incentive for students to do work and learn things that they otherwise wouldn't learn. It seems that the most effective education is self-motivated education. You should learn because you want to learn, not because some outside force compels you to do so.
  • ir0nw0lfe
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    Let me know how that works out with your homeschooled children when you have them. Grades are not an incentive of themselves but the doors that "good" grades open can be an incentive. Especially if that is your only path to raising yourself above your current life status.
  • CanadianIndy
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    I agree with w0lfe. I was home schooled for most of my 'school' years. Though I would point out that it made me hugely more able to think outside the box than my regular schooled friends, it didn't actually make me want grades more. In fact, it got to the point where I was just reading the answers at the back of the book and copying them down due to my point of view.

    Grades in school can at least make things available to you. Sure, personally I believe a degrees and whatnot don't show nearly how smart you are but just show how well you can jump through hoops. But education is preferable over ignorance. And as a former home schooler, I can tell you from experience, my parents could teach me English and math, but that's about it. Science, psychology, trades, and good habits are usually something you must go to school to learn.
  • Goebel
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    @CanadianIndy, allow me to clarify. From my perspective on education, which I suppose it pretty similar to that of John Holt or John Taylor Ghatto, home-schooling has the potential to be better than public school, but that's not always the case. Allow me to explain: some homeschooling parents allow their children to learn according to their own desires, impulses, and interests. Some of these parents even choose not to apply grades. Most of the parents who fall under this category are referred to as participants in "unschooling". There are also homeschooling parents who are far more strict than public school. Part of the reason that homeschooling has gotten a bad rap recently is because of the tendency of some sects of fundamentalist Christianity to disallow their children from interacting with other children in normal circumstances and pretty much indoctrinate their children at home. It's worth noting that the same is true for private school. There are private schools that are more strict, but there are also private schools that go as far as to not use grades and to allow students to take personal control over their educations.

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  • Truthinesss
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    Oh geez, I never understood why kids threw their free education away in school. I knew it was important to study and make good grades to get somewhere and have some knowledge about things. But whatever, I guess if you want to bribe your kids to get them to learn, more power to ya. But you shouldn't have to.
  • Bobolinsky
    !
    LOL. That's one vote for negative reinforcement. A problem with kids today is the absence of negative reinforcement. Rewards are great for good behavior, but that doesn't mean that "no reward" for bad behavior is punishment.
    .
    I'm not saying that we need to legalize child abuse. But if spanking is child abuse, then the only people who are not child abusers are Ideologically driven Liberals from the last 40 years.
    .
    There's a reason why the corn-whisk broom is still better than all the new-fangled designs you find.
  • Ohio
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    I can agree that if a child isnt interested in a subject they wont want to pay attention nor learn anything about it. But what does paying them to learn it anyway say? And would they actually study and learn the material or skim to find the answers to get their payment. To think i went to school and studied to better myself for free. I was ripped off lol.
  • CommonSense
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    Maybe schools should offer something to the top test score getters, but this is mostly a parental responsibility. Tie the allowance to their test scores.
  • Diagnosis
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    Don't you have any "child labour" laws in the U.S.? Getting paid for doing something is called a "wage". Are these children at least compelled to pay taxes for their income?