Financial Incentives is a formal scheme used to promote or encourage specific actions or behaviors with cash rewards, also known as pay for performance. Even though It will make this generation greedy, The reward you get for your hard work is great because It’s a great source of motivation and It is highly liked by students, teachers and parents. These programs are also called advanced placement Incentive Programs which only gives rewards to those taking and passing AP classes.
The Advanced Placement Incentive Program is thought to make kids greedy as said by those who oppose it and in this research There has been have multiple sources that tell me otherwise. As said by Kirabo Jackson “the incentive program produce meaningful increases in participation in the AP program and improvements in other critical education outcomes”(Jackson). In other words Jackson is saying that the APIP program is increased participation, motivation and intelligence of those kids in the program.
The cash isn’t the only thing they work for I this program, this program helps put kids on the right mindset to get put in the real world and have the motivation to try to achieve their goals and be successful. These incentives make students see tests more seriously and want to strive to do their best most often if not all the time. There’s even been ways to not have this program form greedy students. As claimed by William Harms “Researchers used financial rewards to boost performance for older students and non financial rewards, such as trophies, to improve performance among younger students”(Harms).
What I think Harms is trying to say is that you give kids reward like trophies so that’s something they can look upon and appreciate the work they’ve done and this could create hardworking kids at a young age but once they start to become older you change the reward to something that they have more of a use for. From what was found on my research about how students get into the program is that the teachers that are given the authority to provide it tell their students about the program and how they can make easy money.
If they do their best in the class and pass the exit exams. By being told this early in the school year or the end of a school year they can prepare and try to have a good start at the year so they don’t fall behind. As claimed by Kirabo Jackson, “In year three and onward, APIP appears to produce a large boost in AP course enrollment; the number of students in AP courses increases by 21 percent. ”(Jackson). What Jackson was trying to say is that the use of financial incentives in highschool works and kids are actually trying to take and pass AP classes for these rewards.
This program is obviously getting feedback if more students are enrolling so this program is liked by students, teachers and parents. Further said by Kirabo Jackson “There is an immediate increase in the number of 11th and 12th grade students taking at least one AP exam or IB exam, the number of students taking AP or IB examinations increases by 2 percentage points, followed by a 4 percentage point increase in year two and beyond, with a similar boost for boys and girls. With an initial rate of 18 percent of students taking AP or IB exams, this is a relative increase of 11 percent in year one of APIP and 23 percent by year two. (Jackson).
What Jackson is trying to say is that not only are the kids liking the reward for their work but the students are not only enrolling in the class but more are passing the class to and a lot of them to. The Advanced Placement Incentive Program wants to start the incentive program with 9th graders and only give them monetary rewards. Do this so they can learn to appreciate the hard work they do and start to build a good work ethic and will strive to have a good work ethic the rest of their working lives.
The cash rewards will be offered to 11th and 12th graders because of their maturity and they have more of a use for cash than 9th and 10th graders. The teachers even get rewarded for their kids passing and having good grades while enrolled with the APIP program. This encourages the teacher and their students to have good connections which will lead to better behavior problems and better communication skills. As said by Kirabo Jackson “Establishment of APIP results in 30 percent increase in the number of students scoring above 1100 on the SAT and above 24 on the ACT. (Jackson).
Jackson just said that this program does increase our kids intelligence levels. Sometimes cash rewards are not the only reward to be used for cash incentives. There are multiple ideas out there that does not involve money or trophies as a reward. And it does not have to be in an Advanced Placement program to get them. Some ideas for incentives is to offer extra credit for students to help their grades or give them weekly tasks to make them more responsible. There can be food privileges for having good grades or for having a good behavior.
Teachers can also increase motivation and bring the best out of in students by building healthy relationships, having good communication, having trust, appreciating what the students accomplish so they feel supported and want to continue to do well and try. This is all to help keep students involved and hardworking so they don’t return to bad habits and lose their way after high school. Work ethic is a very major characteristic when it comes to wanting positive feedback.
As found by Lisa Guernsey, “If we’re using gimmicks like rewards to try to improve achievement without regard to how they affect kids desire to learn… we kill the goose that laid the golden egg. ”(Guernsey). What Lisa was trying to say is that rewards will only ruin the work ethic of students and it would be doing more harm than good just to see a grade improvement in high school. What little these people know is that the program and getting this kids to stay on the right track is actually the connections the students make with their parents, friends, family and most importantly teachers.
As said by William Harms, “The failure to recognize this connection potentially leads to dramatic under investment. ”(Harms). He further elaborates that if students fail to apply themselves then the administrators will fail to see their full potential unless administrators can get kids to want to work and build the proper work ethic. Why paying kids to do homework can backfire. Paying students to do their math homework can have a positive effect and they could get the A, but it can damage their natural motivation to learn or do other things that are inherently rewarding.
As said by Francine Russo, “It is important to help children see that by doing their part by doing their chore or good deeds, they are making a positive difference in their family and their community” (Russo1). She is trying to say that with the proper connections with the teachers and the right amount of appreciation for their good works the incentive program can still be used without damaging student’s natural ability of motivation. It can only backfire if the Teachers or students are not fully participating in this program or are giving very little effort.
Sometimes cash rewards aren’t the only option to build communication and work ethic. Some teachers both AP and standard classes will sometimes uses simple rewards like food just for coming to class prepared and allowing students to be on their phones for good behavior. As claimed by Lady Lit, “If you extend an offer from students to better their grades, they see that you care and are trying to help” (Lit). What she is trying to say is that another tool for giving these kids better work ethics is to build communication with students so they can feel appreciated and feel like what they’re doing is important.
It is said food is the best high school incentive idea. These are just simple actions that require no preparation just so they can establish communication and work ethic without cash. In all of the research done they all say the same thing about how offering cash bonuses result in good test scores. In South High Community High School in New York City they adopted the incentive program and in the AP Statistics classes and 70% of the class scored high enough to qualify for college credit.
That’s a 20% percent increase in one year. This program has made all stereotypes no matter how cool or different they are participate in the hardest classes (Ruiz). Financial Incentives are made to promote and encourage learning and motivation to do good deeds, develop good behaviors and become a successful individual. The proper work ethic is essential in the work world today and this program can offer this work ethic to students in high school.
