{"id":643,"date":"2008-10-18T00:03:07","date_gmt":"2008-10-18T05:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=643"},"modified":"2008-10-18T00:03:07","modified_gmt":"2008-10-18T05:03:07","slug":"study-to-be-paid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2008\/10\/18\/study-to-be-paid\/","title":{"rendered":"Study to be paid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philantrophist Eli Broad<\/a> has an educational program called Spark to improve school children\u2019s test scores:<\/p>\n

Seventh-graders can earn up to $50 a test \u2014 for 10 assessment tests throughout the year. There\u2019s a similar program for fourth-graders. The money goes into a bank account that only the student can access. The better you do, the more money you earn, up to $500 a year for seventh-graders. The idea is to make school tangible for disadvantaged kids \u2014 short-term rewards that are in their long-term best interest…<\/em>
\n[Eight-grader Soledad Moya] said she wasn\u2019t a “studying kind of” person before the awards. Now she and her friends like to look in the dictionary and memorize words and their definitions, and they ask their teachers for more practice tests. Even though she\u2019s not eligible for the awards now that she\u2019s in eighth grade, she\u2019s still studying harder before tests, she said. “Once you get started with something, you keep doing it.”<\/em>
\nThe changes she saw in students like Moya caused Lisa Cullen \u2014 a literacy and social studies teacher at the school \u2014 to go from skeptic to supporter: “I saw how it takes away the uphill battle you have trying to get students to study for tests.” She saw a definite increase in students\u2019 excitement, enthusiasm and effort.<\/em>
\nLink<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow! That is exactly of why I studied to ace that Science in fourth grade, to buy myself a horde of comics.
\nEven though they may say that it’s basically bribing kids to study (isn’t that what scholarhsips are about?), you have to concede that the short-term gains are quite tangible and attractive enough to be taken upon on. In plain economics, it’s the power of incentives!
\nWhat experts underestimate here is the power of building a long-term habit in the school children participating with the program. Not only are study habits going to be built, but the confidence and self-esteem of the students will also be given a boost.<\/p>\n

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