Not every high school student likes school, but would it be easier getting As and Bs if you got paid? This month three high schools in Paris began doing exactly that: paying their students for good grades.
Accounts will be set up for two classes in each school, each containing around $3,000 apiece. If the students maintain good attendance records and reach performance targets agreed upon with their teachers, reward payments will be added to their class account. (via TIME)
Each account can earn a maximum of $15,000. That’s a lot, but the catch is students can’t use their money for a new pair of Jordans or a new wardrobe. The students can use the money to finance a school related project—such as a class trip abroad to improve foreign-language skills, computer equipment for the classroom or driving lessons.
The government implemented this new program in hopes of combating the problems France is having in its schools. The goals are straightforward:
Increase student motivation and class attendance and reduce the number of French teenagers who leave school without earning a diploma or professional training certificate, roughly 120,000 to 150,000 each year.
This program is being tested in vocational schools—particular those schools in immigrant-heavy areas.
Should Oakland, CA consider this program? Last year, according to preliminary data from the State Education Department showed that the dropout rate was rising:
At many Oakland schools, the number of students found to have quit in 2006-07 was two or three times as high as the figures reported in previous years. About 21 percent of East Oakland's Youth Empowerment School dropped out in 2006-07… (via BNET)
Oakland drop rates are high and students need a motivation, but is paying students for learning the right way?
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