To find out, a Harvard economist named Roland Fryer Jr. did something education researchers almost never do: he ran a randomized experiment in hundreds of classrooms in multiple cities. 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. The results, which he shared exclusively with TIME, represent the largest study of financial incentives in the classroom — and one of the more rigorous studies ever on anything in education policy.

How did the experiment work?

The experiment ran in four cities: Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York. Each city had its own unique model of incentives, to see which would work best. Some kids were paid for good test scores, others for not fighting with one another. The results are fascinating and surprising. They remind us that kids, like grownups, are not puppets. They don’t always respond the way we expect.

What happened?

In the city where Fryer expected the most success, the experiment had no effect at all — “as zero as zero gets,” as he puts it. In two other cities, the results were promising but in totally different ways. In the last city, something remarkable happened. Kids who got paid all year under a very elegant scheme performed significantly better on their standardized reading tests at the end of the year. Statistically speaking, it was as if those kids had spent three extra months in school, compared with their peers who did not get paid.

What techniques have you used in the classroom, bribing or otherwise, to incentivize students? As the article suggests, students are always that excited by just “learning.”

I remember once discussing the issue with the dean of our business school. After bringing up my concerns, he asked me if I knew who the number one seller of textbooks on campus was.

I answered, “Amazon?”

He said, “No, the university is.”

While some students prefer to own their textbooks, there are other solutions. Check out Chegg.

Chegg allows you to rent textbooks and return them when you are done with free shipping. If I was going into college now, I would be using this.

History: You Are Here: Fort Belle Fontaine and Bissel House The lesson plan (and video) is appropriate for Grades 4-8. It teaches St. Louis history, map skills, science and historical preservation.

Science: It’s a Frog’s Life Students will learn the life cycle of a frog through information provided on the Internet, literature, and observations of live animals. “This is a fun assignment to do with first graders or primary learners.” says Jen from Duarte, Alabama. Thanks goes to Jen for submitting this lesson plan.

Copyright Lesson Plan This is a step-by-step guide to help students understand copyright laws and what is legal to use for school projects and personal use.

Teaching Copyright: What you need to know Teaching Copyright provides lessons and ideas for opening your classroom up to discussion, letting your students express their ideas and concerns, and then guiding your students toward an understanding of the boundaries of copyright laws.

I thought the following quote about Schooltube summed up well what the website does and why it’s important:

“SchoolTube is a safe and fun way for students to view their work online and share it with their peers and family, both near and far away. As a matter of fact, it’s the one way we were able to share a project with ESL students who just moved to Canada. We uploaded their video and they were able to send the URL back to Pakistan so their relatives were able to watch it! Furthermore, we see it as a great study tool. One grade 6 class studying First Nations uploaded their videos on their research group and then used it as a study tool to learn from each other in a fun and engaging way”.

Katina Papulkas
Instructional Leader – ICT & E-Learning K-12 (South)
Toronto District School Board – Canada